Sally Ellwood Lime

Sgraffito

Pargetting

Faux Stone & Marble by Sally Ellwood Lime

Faux stone and marble

Interior lime plaster, stucco and tadelakt

Feature walls created by Sally Ellwood Lime

Feature walls with lime mortars & stuccos

Courtyards and garden rooms

Lime wash

Lath and lime plaster

Exterior rough cast lime render

Art and Craft

Sally Ellwood Lime

I have had the pleasure of working with lime mortars in the conservation, restoration, and design of period and contemporary buildings for the best part of 30 years.

We contribute to the repair, restoration, conservation and decoration of period and contemporary buildings using traditional lime mortars and methods of application.

Mortars are made in our own workshops to suit the requirements of each project, be it pragmatic, decorative or both. Larger projects are supplied by our friends at The Traditional Lime Company, Cheltenham, and we work in close collaboration with architect, builder, designer and homeowner to use lime as effectively and imaginatively as we can.

Air and water are the native elements of lime, and these mortars are as magical as they are practical. As carbon dioxide is reabsorbed from the air, they take on a crystalline and uniquely reflective quality, and can be used to dress a plain wall plainly or fill rooms and courtyards with shifting light, translucent colour, and rich shadow.

The decorative traditions of true fresco, sgraffito, faux marble, pargetting, coloured stucco, and the simple beauty of a lime wash have graced and protected our buildings for thousands of years all over the world. For the contemporary artist and craftsman, they continue to offer a captivating world of light, colour, form, and texture…

Art in the city

Sgraffito

Sgraffito takes its name from the Italian ‘sgraffiare’ meaning to scratch or engrave.

Linear designs or blocks of colour are carved into fresh lime plaster to create bold designs which are easily read from the street.

The technique enjoyed great popularity in cities such as Prague, Vienna, Brussels and Barcelona at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries when modern telescopes revealed the beautiful intricacy of plants and microscopic forms and inspired the sensuous line and exuberant colour of L’Art Nouveau.

Coloured base coats are finished with a lighter top coat which is carefully cut back to reveal the contrasting colours beneath in strong linear and graphic designs, and figures and details may be highlighted the same day ‘a fresco’ to produce richly polychromatic surfaces.

Whether used on the exterior or interior of buildings, sgraffito creates strong line and dynamic imagery and offers the contemporary craftsman a wealth of opportunity.

Here are some of mine.

The beauty of CO2

True Fresco

The technique of Buon or True Fresco has remained unchanged for millennia.

It is so called because pure pigment and water are applied to wet or fresh lime plaster without the addition of a binder such as egg or casein. Colour is fixed purely by the reabsorption of carbon dioxide from the air as the surface begins to make its set over the space of a day. Each section is known as a ‘giornata’ or day for this reason.

Once the artist has prepared, scaled up and even rehearsed his daily section, he must work swiftly and decisively, building colour in the crystalline glazes which give buon fresco its uniquely luminous quality.

This ancient way of painting dates back to the bronze age. The beautifully animated Minoan cycles on the Island of Santorini in Crete are some of its most moving examples, and while it largely fell out of favour with the advent of oil in the 16th century, artists today are beginning to rediscover and appreciate its luminous colour and the mysterious process of carbonation which allows it.

For me it remains a fascinating journey.

Playing with walls

Pargetting

The art of ornamental plastering was once prevalent all over Great Britain, covering whole facades, streets and the panels of timber frame buildings with delightful figures and stories.

It has remained robust in Suffolk and East Anglia over the centuries and is happily spreading again all over the country.

Interior and exterior walls and the individual panels of timber frame houses make fine canvasses for fantastical figures or simple details which cast rich shadows on a sunny day.

It is a great pleasure to ply this very personal craft and create figures which fit with the spirit of a house and its family

Faux lime stone fire place. Gloucestershire.

A fresh approach to faux

Faux stone & marble

Faux stone and marble have enriched interiors for centuries, and allowed painters to create intricate and imaginative schemes which are drawn from the rich colours of stone and marble.

By using the fresco technique and painting on to fresh lime mortars as they cure, the colours are effectively cast in stone and bring the unique clarity and luminosity of this ancient way of painting to period and contemporary buildings alike.

Applied on a large or small scale, their transparent colour and varied texture are as well suited to bright contemporary spaces as to period buildings, where their principle role remains, ever and always, to keep them dry, sound and pleasant to live in.