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Downtime home and Gardening-National News Fine finish
| Fine finish |
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| Monday, 10 December 2007 | |
Lindsay Woodster discovers the glories of tadelakt  One of the most dramatic expressions of the multifaceted qualities of lime must be Tadelakt. This is the traditional coating, interior and exterior, of Moroccan palaces, in particular of hammams: the ‘Turkish’ baths. It is labour-intensive décor: a fine plaster of lime and powdered marble which is smoothed to a close-knit finish, polished with a river pebble, and made waterproof with a liquid soft soap of olive oil. The final surface is naturally a bone-white sheen. 
 Adding earth pigments to the mix can lead to brilliant colours which gleam in desert ochres, blues and reds. Lime breathes. This is why it is so suitable for creating healthy environments in the home, as it is impermeable to water but permeable to air. Its natural flexibility helps it to resist cracking, and its strong alkalinity makes it antibacterial as well as fungicidal. The extra value of tadelakt apart from its beauty is the possibility of its seamlessness. No more grout lines between tiles to gather mildew and resist cleaning. When finished tadelakt feels like cool silk. Moulded basins, baths and showers can be completely coated in it, and the hand-worked surface can be marbled or smooth, rustic or simply uniform. It is said that you cannot be skilled in this art without training in Morocco, and it is true that there are courses held there, and a growing number of people with good credentials offering their work here in France. But a keen amateur can have the experience of creating small areas to good effect. And having a go is a reminder of the great skill of artisans which is being lost in mass production of the less ecological skins of modern buildings. If you’ve no artisan near you, and you don’t dare follow the recipes yourself, the Ecole d’Avignon is renowned for its courses in building restoration. It will be teaching an Italian/Catalan style of tadelakt from 11 – 13 December and from 18 – 20 March 2008.  In Virginie and Thierry Thisse’s new strawbale house, the owners encouraged enthusiasts to try out unusual effects. Here their bathroom walls gleam with the marbling of tadelakt on walls which had the uneven surface of the bales. http://ploug.eu.org/doc/fiche_technique_tadelakt.pdf http://moroccan-plasterer.blogspot.com/ http://www.ecole-avignon.com/stages/stage23.php |
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