We have collaborated recently on this ornate ceiling commission with our former associates at Bosence Building Conservation now based in East Sussex.
We were asked to produce the plaster components for their design based on details found in and around the clients Winchester home.
Working from drawings we produced clay models for seven individual leaf details from which silicone rubber moulds were made and finished elements cast. Other sections were templated and bench run in our workshop.
The finished ceiling was then installed by us both.
For more information about Bosence Building Conservation visit:
http://www.bosence.co.uk/
We were asked to create a strapwork scheme for the main entrance hall of this Georgian Manor house based around a central ceiling rose. The rose was to be placed off center to hang a chandelier over the stairwell rather than the middle of the room.
We designed and installed this simple geometric strapwork creating a beautiful focal point to the hall.
A recent commision has been this large ornate cornice for a private client.
Modelling the enrichments from scratch, a full length model is created from which a flexible silicone mould can be taken.
At the Natural Plaster Company we design, manufacture and install bespoke fibrous plaster cornice and architectural mouldings. From plain run victorian coving for your hallway, to an ellaborate hand modelled plaster corbel our fibrous plasterers, modellers and sculptors can produce the highest quality fibrous plasterwork.
All our Fibrous Plaster is handmade in our workshop in the traditional way and our growing library of original moulds include many local profiles from some of Cornwalls most stately homes.
This Victorian townhouse in Falmouth has been undergoing a fairly extensive refurb with the reinstatement of some period plaster cornice and decorative architectural details, including this eliptical arch and corbels all handmade in our workshop.
A small but enjoyable little repair to this beautiful cornice in Falmouth. A piece of the top bead had become detached and a repeat section of the enrichment had to be taken down before it fell and was damaged.
A new length of beading was run and replaced and the section of enrichment was cleaned and stuck back up, revealing amazing detail once more than a hundred years of paint and lime wash had been removed.
This ceiling is part of the 17th century colonnade porch at Godolphin house in Cornwall. A section of the lath and plaster collapsed last summer after a plumbing leak in the bathroom above.
After an extended period of drying out we were asked to re-plaster the missing section in traditional haired lime putty plaster.
Client: National Trust
Main Contractor: Cornish Heritage Builders
While working on the exterior decoration at St Michaels Mount we were also asked to take on this really nice little repair inside in the castles famous Chevy Chase Room. One of the oldest parts of the castle, the room dates back to the 1100s and is an amazing tapestry of historical craftmanship over the centuries.
Boardering the room is a 16th century plaster frieze depicting a medieval hunting scene from which the room takes its name. As part of an ongoing conservation and restoration program the south sea facing wall has been stripped of its modern paints and later cement render which has been causing the frieze to deteriorate and replaced in lime plaster, and a 1950s fibrous cornice section we have replaced with traditional in-situ run lime plaster. Counter lathing the oak wall plate to provide a key, coats of haired lime putty plaster are built up and run off using a wooden running mould which has the original profile cut out from zinc plate. The final smooth top coat is of pure lime putty and plaster of paris. These methods and materials have been used for centuries in the production of ornate plasterwork.
Main contractor: Cornish Heritage Builders.
Architect: MRDA Architects
We have achieved some great success over the years with heritage restorations and renovations and here we have showcased just a few. Should you have a project in mind and would like to discuss it with us, please get in touch for an informal chat about the requirements.
We have been very privaliged recently to start work on Cornwalls iconic St Michaels Mount. We have been brought in as specialist sub contractors to conserve and partially restore the Roman cement decorative features to the façade of the blue drawing room. In order to prevent further deterioration we are repairing and putting back some of the decorative elements that have been lost living in such an exposed environment.
Using Vicat Prompt, a traditional natural cement made to the same recipe as the 19th century roman cement stucco, it has involved the free hand modelling of the ornate gothic details and some in-situ run and cast sections. With the help of Phil Brown of The Cornish Lime Company we are then applying a sacrificial shelter coat of pre blended Prompt, fine aggregate and natural earth pigments, colour matched to the original details. This will act as a protective layer to take the brunt of the weathering.
We will update as this project continues.
Architect: MRDA architects
Main Contractor : Cornish Heritage Builders
An area of this heavily ornate ceiling at St Johns Methodist church in St Austell had suffered water damage from a previously leaking roof. Although now re-roofed and watertight the damage had already been done and a section collapsed on to the gallery below. The leak had caused some of the wooden laths to rot away and disintegrated the plaster keys that attach the ceiling resulting in the fall.
As is the nature of lath and plaster repairs the most important thing for us to do first was to consolidate the ceiling around the fallen section before we began reinstating anything.
Working in the attic space the back of the ceiling was cleaned and consolidated using a Paraloid acrylic resin, and then cast with Plaster of Paris and hessian attaching the ceiling and laths to the joists. Any rotten joist were strengthened by planting new timber alongside the existing. Once secure we were then able to repair the missing section with new sawn oak laths and haired lime putty plaster. It was decided we replace the missing mouldings in lighter fibrous cast sections to reduce the weight instead of the heavy in-situ run mouldings.
This job was completed under the supervision of Scott &Co in Truro
This period town house in Truro had a decorative frieze and ornate keystones cast in Roman cement that has suffered badly from frost damage. A good example of the damage the wrong paint will do over time to traditional renders and mortars. The synthetic paint had not allowed the render and masonry behind to breath, trapping in moisture which has periodically frozen and expanded during the winter months and caused the render as well as the ornate details to fail and deteriorate over time.
We were asked to re-cast the ornate frieze and keystones and reinstate once the façade had been re-rendered in hydraulic lime.
We were able to salvage a repeat section of the frieze as well as some elements of the keystones for mould taking before the render was removed. Once cleaned and repaired we were able to take an exact mould of the originals and re-cast them using a French natural cement called Vicat Prompt.
An ongoing project at the moment is the restoration of the Georgian manor house Killaganoon. This grade II listed house was built around 1750 but extensively remodelled following a fire in 1873. It is currently undergoing another thorough updating and renovation with many of the later Victorian alterations being reverted back to the original layout.
We have been brought in to do all the internal traditional plastering from lath and plaster repairs and lime putty base and top coats to the repair and reinstating of the original ornate cornice work and ceiling roses.
Where the original cornice is missing we are matching with new fibrous cast sections made in our workshop to the existing profiles.
Roman Cement Repairs
A nice local job for us has been the stucco repairs to the facade of Falmouth’s polytechnic building.
A historically important landmark on the towns main high street, the Poly was built in 1835 by the Fox family for the exhibition of the arts and sciences.
The facade is stucco rendered with Roman Cement a natural hydraulic binder used extensively in Georgian external architecture. Originaly just a re-decoration job, the main contractor had been asked to remove the existing layers of synthetic paint and re-apply a permeable one in order to allow the substrates to breath. As is often the case the damage caused by water ingress and frost was much more extensive than first thought and we were brought in to repair large areas of the flat render as well as some of the ornate details around the windows and columns. We used Vicat Prompt a traditional natural or “Roman” cement which has a rapid setting time so can be used for flat work , in-situ moulding and casting.
This local cottage had been previously cement rendered which had begun to fail in places over time leading to some areas of penetrating damp internally. With a Tyrolean finish and squared off beaded windows and corners the cottage had also lost a lot of its original charm.
We were asked to remove the existing cement and re render with hydraulic lime to provide both a permeable layer to aid moisture evaporation, and aesthetically a finish more in keeping with a cottage of this age and character.
A few structural repairs to the masonry were necessary once the building fabric was exposed so helical stainless ties were installed to the gable corner to provide stitch reinforcement.
This large town house in Truro was being converted back to a family residence from a former retirement home.
Stud partitioning and suspended ceilings were removed exposing a large section of damaged and missing cornice in one of the principle reception rooms.
We were asked to reinstate new sections of the missing ornate cornice and match it in to the existing.This cornice had a nice leaf and flower repeat enrichment which we were able to remove intact for cleaning and mould taking in the workshop. The other sections were run out on the bench and fixed back in place once the damaged ceiling had been repaired.
Tadelakt is a traditional Moroccan technique dating back some 2000 years. Translated as “kneaded plaster” the process involves compressing and burnishing hydraulic lime plaster with a stone while applying an olive soap to the surface. The reaction of the fat and lime has a hardening effect within the plaster creating an impermeable surface. With the addition of natural earth pigments the results are decorative functional surfaces that are seamless and waterproof with endless applications for bathrooms, showers and wetrooms.
These are a few of our recent Tadelakt projects in both Cornwall and London.