SCAGLIOLA

Scagliola is an ancient plasterwork technique to replicate marble and is used in stone conservation. Its use became abundant in the Baroque era in Italy, particularly in Tuscany, where it appeared in decorative inlay panels and as a substitute for ‘pietra dura’, precious stone inlays. I make it with the traditional ingredients; fine-grade plaster, animal size and lime-resistant pigments. It’s finished with linseed oil to enrich the colour and a burnished wax coating. Zero synthetic materials. I like to create weird composites of pattern with the technique – surfaces that hint at natural formations with marble-like stratification but in a combination of colours you probably wouldn’t find in natural stone. Not in these geotemporal worlds anyway.

For Nabil

This piece of scagliola was designed to hang without a frame, directly on the wall in Nabil’s new elegant flat.

Panels in Tambour Cupboard

I made these scagliola panels in situ for a curved cupboard area fitting underneath a mezzanine in our main living room. I designed the sliding slatted doors to hide the fridge on the kitchen side and for music gear to sit into a niche lined …

Gouache Studies

These gouache paintings started as quick preparatory designs for scagliola tiles and panels, although in practice, when made into scagliola pieces, the surface patterns differ wildly from the original sketches. The process of manipulating the pigmented plaster mix is intentionally loose, uncontrolled and open-ended. Tacit …

For Guppi

6″x 4″ scagliola panel in black coated metal frame.

For Gesine and Carlos

This was made to celebrate the wedding of Gesine and Carlos in Pachuca, Mexico – a city in Hidalgo state known for its mining and Cornish influenced ‘pastes’.

For Simone and James

Scagliola panel made for friends in Berlin incorporating a fragment of the Berlin wall. It is framed with an open back so that both sides are visible and can also be hung with the reverse on show.

For Jessica and Jeremy

Made for Jessica and Jeremy with Cotswolds stone embedded. Colour direction taken from the quaint paintwork in their local train station.

Headboard in Walnut Frame

Headboard Panel made of scagliola – the Italian craft of manipulating plaster for mock marble architectural inlays.

Material explorations: Scagliola

Learning to marble with plaster in the studio of scagliolista Fabiola Lunghetti, outside Florence