TO BEGIN, you will need: whiting (ground chalk), rabbit-skin glue granules,
TO BEGIN, you will need: whiting (ground chalk), rabbit-skin glue granules, pigments, a double boiler, heatproof bowls, and a whisk - modules hand or electric. POUR THE WHITING (1) into a large bowl half-filled with water, stopping when the powder 'peaks' above the surface Leave to soak overnight. Copies cost pounds 17.50 (including post and packaging), a saving of pounds rdf 33 c5 2.50. To order, ring credit card orders on 01903 732596 during office hours, or send a cheque made out to Littlehampton Book Services to PO Box 53, Littlehampton, West Sussex, BN17 7HE. The modules key to success is that the surface must be porous - a rather unscientific rdf way of assessing this, says Jocasta, is to wet your finger and press against the wall: if it's porous it will leave xml a dark mark.Pure article pigments are necessary - traditionally people would xml have added local earth or mineral colours, even pigs' blood, but urban peasants rdf 33 c5 have the easier, if modules more expensive modules article xml php option of going to php rdf specialist suppliers.SUPPLIERSH J Chard & Sons, Albert Road, Totterdown Bridge, Bristol, BS2 OXS (01179 777681): lime, available by mail order; Liz and Bruce Induni, 11 Park Road, Swanage, Dorset BH19 2AA (01929 423776): limewash, php distemper and article pigments; Hirst Conser-vation Materials, Laughton, near Sleaford, Lincs NG34 OHE (01529 497517): lime and traditional building materials, mail order available; 33 Masons Mortar, 61-67 Trafalgar Lane, Edinburgh, EH6 4DQ (0131 555 0503): lime and conservation materials, available by mail order; Paint Magic, 79 Shepperton Road, London N1 php 3DF (Head Office: 0171-354 9696 - ring for branches): lime putty, pigments, distemper to colour yourself or ready-tinted; Nutshell Natural Paints, Newtake, Staverton, Devon TQ9 6PE (01803 867770): earth and mineral pigments, mail order only; Jane c5 Schofield, Lewdon Farm, Black Dog, Crediton, Devon EX17 4QQ (01884 861181): conservation materials by mail order.BOOK LISTTrade Secrets by Jocasta Innes (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, pounds 19.99)Traditional Paints modules article xml php and Finishes by Annie Sloan and Kate Gwynn (Collins & Brown)BOOK OFFERTrade Secrets by Jocasta Innes is offered to readers of the Independent on Sunday at a specially reduced price. Lime-based processes come across as seductively 33 natural, appropriate and sound.The best base for limewash is lime render or plaster, the more recently applied the better, but failing that it will take to some modern materials: breeze block is particularly successful and it will xml 33 also bond with bare bricks, but c5 they have to be well wetted first and article you need to build up a number rdf of layers. It actually dries quite quickly but the chemical reaction that occurs on contact with air - carbonation - continues indefinitely, reactivating and c5 strengthening the underlying lime system, whether that be previous limewash coats, lime render or mortar.
The strangeness of this to people accustomed to modern solutions, where redecoration means stripping off the old before you can put on something new, needs no underlining. It makes a wonderful medium for natural pigments which is why, Jocasta explains, Greek houses are so very white and Scandinavian houses that "gorgeous orangey yellow". This is because you can add layer after layer without actually seeming to build up the surface - "It's like painting with milk," enthuses Jocasta, "none of that awful labour you get with paint." Every coat you add improves what is already there, so that white grows more brilliant, colours more intense. However, small pockets of recusants continued to make lime products and had their steadfastness rewarded when conservationists began to realise the damage done to old buildings made of traditional materials like cob, wattle and daub when modern cement was used.
The new wisdom now is, wherever possible, to chip off the cement render and go back to using lime through which the building can "breathe".WORKING WITH LIMEWASHLimewash is a milky fluid made by adding water to lime putty. They apparently used lime mortar as a precursor to cement: "It builds its strength incredibly slowly; some Roman mortars are stronger now than they were then. Basically, it reverts to limestone - but we don't know what they did to get it to harden so dramatically. Think of Hadrian's wall, with lime in such wet and chilly conditions." Lime, she explains, has always been a vernacular craft that was never written down - Christopher Wren was the first to give a formula for lime mortar, using burnt sea shells.The reason this wonderful stuff fell by the wayside was that Portland cement was invented at the end of the last century, and as it was much more reliable than the rather temperamental lime it became the favoured building material. "It's the oldest of paints, a breathing, eco-friendly material." Whereas the "historic" paints go back mostly to Georgian times, lime has much more ancient origins "No one did it as well as the Romans," says Jocasta.