The Plaster Journey

It started with the strawbale house. My curiosity about natural building led me to a cob building workshop in Italy in 2016, then to a strawbale building workshop in Twisp, Washington in 2017, which then led to more workshops in Italy and Latvia and apprenticing in the Methow Valley over the past nine years.

I remember the first time I saw a clay plaster sample while I was shopping for sustainable building materials for my first house I bought that was built in 1895. I was instantly enamored with not just the beauty of the plaster but the feeling it evoked in me. I remember going back and forth for over an hour, between the sustainable/recycled paint section and the clay plaster section, so torn between what I wanted to do (clay plaster) and what was realistic for me to do (recycled paint). While I had the best of intentions and ignorance of preserving the heritage of the construction and finishes, I quickly became so overwhelmed with the volume of work overall that I decided on the practical choices given my budget, learning curve, time, and scope of what I had just embarked on (restoration of a 1,600sf Victorian house). It is both ironic and a bit embarrassing to admit that in the years living in a house full of lath and plaster and the perfect training ground, I did repairs with conventional drywall(!). It wasn’t until after I had closed that ten-year chapter of selling that beautiful memory-filled home to start a new, unknown one, that my curiosity and excitement about plaster was reignited via a strawbale home building workshop. I am forever grateful for three distinctive mentors and friends that have so graciously shared their time, skill expertise, and knowledge about this amazing trade with me and who have deepened my love of it.

Rico Meleski, a New Mexican transplant in the Methow Valley with over 50 years plaster experience. With Rico’s patience and humor, I not only learned quickly how to keep mud on the hawk and trowel and the wall itself, but how to do beautiful bull noses. It was a steep learning curve for me, being quickly thrown into interior gypsum plaster work (faster setting time than other plaster) and the strategy of scaffolding set up and plaster breaks, and the very physical and aerobic workout of stucco. Without Rico’s generosity and again, patience— I learned the foundations of the plaster trade.

‍”Ibrahim” Abderrahim Aboussourhra, a Moroccan transplant in southern Tuscany with over 20 years and counting building and plastering work. Ibra