Gettin' plastered. Then and now.

Many years ago (well in the early 90's) when I did my 3D design degree course I learnt to make plaster moulds for ceramics. We mixed the plaster by hand, and poured it over the object we were making a mould from. I hated the dry dust under my nails, it made me shudder, but I loved the heat and creamy texture of casting plaster just before it 'went off'. Multi and bonding thistle plaster is nowhere near as nice, it gets on your hands, face and hair and leeches out any moisture you had like a blood sucking vampire!

I also learnt how to get pretty plastered at university, everything they say about art college is true...it's bloody wonderful, hedonistic and even if it may not always give you a career path (well not for some years in my case), it gives you life skills. The sort you may not want to pass on to your kids, but skills all the same!! I met some of the most fabulous people over that time, some I'm still in contact with, some the best friends for one night only. We learnt, drank and partied in pubs and fields together, sometimes to the sound of punk rock, sometimes to Spiral Tribe, always pretty much all night!

Anyway...back to getting plastered in 2015 onwards...as you'll have gathered, the walls in my house are an ongoing task. They could potentially cost me thousands to repair, unless that is, I learn how to Do It Myself.

Now, sometimes I'm very like my Mum, other times I'm very like my Dad. My practical side I definitely inherited from Dad. I grew up in an old Forest house, that Dad has been renovating for the last 40 years. He has taught himself many practical skills which luckily he is now passing on to me in my house. I was nervous about messing things up, but Dad said that with my artistic skills he was sure I could do it. It also helps that I couldn't really make the house much worse! Besides, he gave me little opportunity to chicken out. When we started plastering the bathroom, he gave me a bucket of plaster and a trowel then told me the trick with plastering is to get it on and work quickly.... Ahhhhrrrgh!!!! So that was it, I copied what he did and it was actually ok.

I practised on the walls in the shed after that and it's kind of improved from there really. I'm not sure I would go as far as to say that this type of getting plastered is quite so enjoyable, but it's cheaper than a night out, and the results make me stupidly happy even if they are a touch rough 'n' ready. I'm quite proud of what I've learnt, and that I will just get on and try things. It means that in the last 15 months since the boys and I moved in, we have been able to crack on with getting rid of the unhealthy and quite frankly, hideous damp, depressing and decaying walls, without having to spend a fortune on plasterers, painters and decorators...Once upon a time I'd have spent the money I saved by plastering walls myself, on getting plastered myself. How times have changed.....although I did write this with a glass of decent red listening to this: Spiral Tribe Breach the Peace