I've been fixing cracks and doing skim coats on countless walls with Plaster of Paris, Joint Compound, a 6" scraper, and a trowel since I was a child (apprentice to my one armed, irate, Italian grandfather- God rest his soul). My trip to Italy last year has sparked my interest in the art and history of plaster, but has also taken me to a world of confusion. Slaked lime, sanded lime, marble dust, pigments... they don't sell that stuff at my Home Depot. All I want to know is what is the order of coats for a skim coat of colored plaster over a wall and where do I buy this stuff (the lumber yards sell lime products but I don't think its slaked or sanded lime).
Love this site by the way... keep plastering everyone!

HollisTG
Tell me about it.
I have been begging for help on this site to locate a lime supplier. I did not get many answers:(
Forget about Home Depot. They have nothing you are looking for.
Regular plaster is not lime plaster. It could not possibly be used for frescoes since it sets in a few minutes in the bucket, and that is what plaster de Paris does.
You have to find slaked lime unless you want to slake it yourself.
Slaked lime comes in powder or in putty.
In both cases you have to make sure it has a high content of calcium and it is not hydraulic.
Powder lime is fine specially for limewashes. If you want to produce a high quality stucco or fresco you may want to go with putty lime which is usually more expensive than powdered lime.
Putty lime looks like whipped cottage cheese and is very pleasant to work with.
In both cases you will have to add body to your lime plaster. It will be powedered bricks or rough sand or fine sand or marble powder depending on the thickness you want to achieve.

Buying lime from a chemical supplier and slake it yourself could be a very good choice if you learn first how to handle lime, but the big chemical suppliers are pretty hard to reach and probably do not sell in small amounts.
I am far from having found everything I want at that point.
The only sources I have are three ( spread out) suppliers who sell putty lime ( one of them is imported from Italy) at a fairly high price.
Let me know if you want more info.
Myriam

>The only sources I have are
>three ( spread out) suppliers
>who sell putty lime (
>one of them is imported
>from Italy) at a fairly
>high price.
>Let me know if you want
>more info.
>Myriam

Hello Myriam,

Who are your suppliers? I;ve tried finding just one but no luck. I was told about one in San Franciso but could not locate.

Can you help.

thanks.

ken

>I have been begging for help
>on this site to locate
>a lime supplier. I did
>not get many answers:(

I do not know how I missed this post!

Hi Everybody, this lime problem - is a problem! I do not know anyone in US who sells it at a lesser price than $100 per 10kg. I import my from Italy in large butches, each project at the time. I order more and use the leftovers later in the studio. However I cannot order small quantities - shipping is too expensive. For each workshop I order a shipment and students can get it from me at a very fare price later - it is a part of the workshop benefits.

I can not retail lime - possible shipping and handling charges will be too big and also I do not have the time to do it myself or market to hire salesman. Then again someone has to process the order, pack it and ship it.

Workshop students are treated as a studio members and my studio does "shipping and packing". Also i order based on the number of
students.

This did not help much did it?

I guess what I wanted to say is - I can only get lime "wholesale"
for a group of people so my studio can pack it and ship it in one (figuratively speaking) day on prepaid orders.

It must be a minimum of 400 - 500 kg order to make it work - if we had 10 people ordering 40 kg each. It would be a minimum of $220-250 per person + shipping cost from my studio in LA. It takes 1-2 weeks to get the shipment in.
Workshop students are getting lime for less than that or do not have to wait for 3 weeks.

(sinopia.com/kremer pigments - same ammount will be $400 + shipping. I also do not like their lime - bought some to test)

So if you have ten people that are ready to prepay the order...

Ilia Anossov
http://www.truefresco.com/workshop

Good News!

Now you can order Fresco Lime Putty on-line

http://www.truefresco.com/frescoshoppe