Plaster Relief

At the weekend Di Overton of the fabulous Designers Block blog called me. 

 "Can you show me how to stencil with plaster?", she said.

I had not used plaster for years, but as we have just bought a new cutter to make heavy duty stencils for plastering, I thought it was a good time to experiment. 

Once our aprons were on, we applied a slight spray of repositiong adhesive to the back of our stencils, pressed them into place and started to wipe a plaster mixture over our stencils. 

We used a stiff spatula.  Years ago I would have used a cake icing knife, both tools are satisfactory.

After smoothing on the mixture then roughing up the surface we carefully lifted the stencils to reveal a crisp edged motif with rough textured relief.  The designs that we used were JA74 and JA82, both in the small size and both from the Japanese stencils collection at The Stencil Library.

 

The mixture was given to me several years ago and is a product called Versiplast I bought it from faux by Kathy in America.

I had heard good reports of the product and was not disappointed.  On her first attempt, Di got exactly the look that she wanted in less than five minutes. 

Bouyed up by the success, we then mixed up some grey exterior Polyfiller and pasted it through NC6 Blossom.  Not such a good result, although I may have been at fault in the mixing of it.  Di is going to use ready mixed white Polyfiller for her stencilling.  For those in the US, I would recommend the Versiplast.  Di has ordered LTL leaves from our Larger than Life collection of stencils.  I will not tell you what she is going to do with it.  I'll wait until the photo's arrive and then I'll show you.  It should be wonderful and I am excited to see the finished result.  Does anyone have tips to share on stencilling with plaster?  I know some of my readers are expert with this medium, so please leave a comment. 

Comments

[Carol]

Oooh, I love these designs, Helen! I will need to look at your Japanese collection for an upcoming project. You gals look like you had a lot of fun experimenting. I have a jar of Versiplast that I have yet to experiment with, so now will have to try. I am no expert, but have one small suggestion: use a larger, plastic spatula. One that is almost as wide as that stencil motif would leave less trowel marks, and speed up a job if you are doing several reps. Looking forward to seeing what Di does!

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Hi Helen!

I would like to get your permission to use your photos and technique guide on my blog and share it with my artist friends! This is too cool!

Of course I will link back to you as well.

Please let me know!

[Cat]

Helen: Just a tip. regular old joint compound works fine if it is not going to get banged up to much (which it usually does not) and it is easy to sand down any edges, ridges if you want to. Then seal or paint or whatever. You can also tint it easily with acrylic paints or universal tints or pigments or crushed up pastels etc. I use a plain plastic painter scraper you can buy cheap in the paint/hardware store. Thanks

[stencil helen]

Thank you for your tips so far, more are welcome. I shall pass them to Di too.

[stencil helen]

Enzie, Yes you may use the photos from this entry. Thank you for linking us.

[noel cillins]

hi,was totally inspired by your website. was wonderins do you export to ireland an do you have a catologue.cannot wait to get started.thanks,my address is 23 rush hall,shannon rd.mountrath,co.laois, ireland

[stencil helen]

Hi Noel,Glad you liked our website. We do export to Ireland but we do not have a paper catalogue. We do have a CD rom which you can purchase via the website which includes our current range of stencils arranged in easy to access categories with a fully automated ordering system. It also gives an illustrated tutorial showing basic stencilling techniques and lots of hints and photographic examples. If you do not wish to purchase this you can order directly from our website

[Aldo Cisneros]

Hello Helen, I saw this symbols doing a reseach for some tattoo desings, I found these way to cool. Are they your desing? Do they have a meaning? Thanks in advance for your help!

[stencil helen]

Hi Aldo, These are our interpretations of Japanese crest designs. We have put bridges into the shape so that it will hold together as a stencil. I suggest that you research crest designs and shields from Japan, you may find a lot of inspiration for tattoo art.