dear gary....
it's been a while since i've been here with a question, but here i am again, after running into some big problems with a large fresco attempt. i was trying to create a panel after your guidelines using the hi-rib metal lath you told me about. i had a few problems i was hoping you would have some insight about.

firstly, i am sure i didn't add enough cement to the mixture and therefore it wasn't as hard as it should have been, and was falling through the mesh in a crumbly sort of way. also it becomes really costly to fill all of that mesh with the mortar made of lime doesn't it!??
so i am wondering on that, is it possible to just use cement on that first coat as a kind of solid and cheap backbone to the piece, then do a second scratchcoat in the traditional way over the top of that? and would adding some sort of fiber (like hemp?) be something you would recomend in that first coat in order that it wouldn't bleed through the mesh quite so much? i realize it needs to key up to some extent, but i think what happened with me was too much keying!

secondly i had a problem with the browncoat. i am not sure if i let the wet mixture sit for too long (one week) before applying....i did thouroughly wet the scratchcoat before applying it. but what happened was when i tried to move it, everything started to crumble off. the base was flexible because i didn't add enough cement, and besides that the browncoat didn't adhere well to the scratchcoat in fact as it crumbled away i noticed there was a fine layer of sand in between the two coats, as if the lime had risen to the surface and left the sand below....what oh what did i do wrong???!!!!

any ideas? did i explain this clearly enough?
thank you so much for any input you could give me on any of this. i am ready to try again, but i really need to have a better idea on the mixtures i should use and the technique with the hy-rib before doing it again....

thanks and sincere regards
karla