Kitchen Fix ~ Ojai, CA

I lived in Ojai California for a brief stint in 2010. I really lucked out and ended up renting a room at a place that didn't quite have a name but that some of us started referring to as River Bottom Sanctuary. The house had seen a number of artists come and go, many of whom left their mark on the walls. The landlord was very open to this form of a "guest book", and quite marvelled in the animation that the place took on when the walls were getting a makeover. There were a few things that I did while living there, such as helping a room mate repaint some of the deep dark purple on the living room walls, and brighten up the bathroom with some fun yellow and blue paint. I spent the majority of my time in the yard, tending to and creating new garden beds.
The thing that most excited everyone though was when I decided that it was long overdue that the kitchen get an actual back-splash. Being the natural plasterer that I am, I of course opted to plaster the area. I went with a lime plaster because of the high moisture and traffic in a kitchen. The walls also needed to be able to be wiped clean from kitchen goodness. Luckily, I had some lime I had been toting around with me in my truck that had been slaking for many many months.
I whipped up a batch and got to work. Below are the photos I have of this project.

Before lime plaster. This was all there was for years.

Desperately needing something done.

Lime done, pigment next.

The lime went on and set nicely. What an improvement.

I set a tile in above the stove and then did a nice yellow lime wash for some colour. This really helped complete the kitchen!

Avalon Springs Plastering ~ Lake County, CA

Owen Williams plastering up high.

 Erin Condo and Owen Williams had been living out at Avalon Springs before they came to Emerald Earth at the same time that I did to be a part of the building apprenticeship. They had been working away on a number of different projects and tasks; this out-building near the gardens was one of them. The building had be constructed by a number of people, and consists of cob and straw bale walls atop an earthbag foundation.

Erin Condo plastering around the bottles.

Plastering in tight corners.
Luckily Owen had done the first coat,
touch-up was all I had to squeeze in for.

Burnishing for a smooth seal.

Erin and Owen asked if I would like to lead a work-party to get the building plastered. As plastering is one of my favourite parts of the building process, I happily agreed.

They had already done a number of plaster samples directly on the wall, which were still there when we returned to plaster. There were probably ten different tests there, only a few of them would make it to the final round. We scratched at them and knocked on them, looking for the ones with the best durability. Then we took the hose to them. As this is an exterior plaster, we wanted to make sure that we picked a plaster that would hold up well to the weather. We were left with one clear winner, and what a nice mix it was too!

The clay for the plaster came from a local hillside and was one of the nicest colours of natural clay I have ever gotten to work with. It was a beautiful orange colour that was quite light and gentle. I wish I could get some of it now.

It didn't take us long to get a rhythm down and create a nice plastering flow around the building. We plastered the entire exterior, and I then came back and cut out some of the plaster under the windows to plaster with lime later. 

 

The interior of the building had been nearly finished already. There were just a few spots that still needed some plaster. I was called in many months later to tackle these few areas. I found out, upon my arrival, that there were some supplies that were exhausted, and had to come up with a plan to make it look good without the yellow pigments. There was also a bit of prep that had to be done before we could start on the refined finish coat.  I set out to get the prep done the first day, then was joined by Ashley Aymond on the second day to bust out the plastering! This was also when we got the lime done under the windows and a lime wash on the earthbags.

Prep needing to be done around the bottles.

Prep done and a brown plaster applied.

We used a white plaster beside the light yellow wall.

After a long day's work, it was so nice to cross the street and slip into the hot springs that Avalon is named for! I think every building site should have either some hot springs or a hot tub. I know mine will.