Plasterer Lauren Dillon holds a portion of an ornamental plaster ceiling medallion from the restoration of the William Oliver Building, Atlanta’s first art deco skyscraper completed in 1930.
Plaster possesses specific qualities of the earth: it begins wet like mud but cures to be hard as rock. It can be manipulated and sculpted like clay, but it is also very durable like stone. It can be rough and textural like sand but also, and quite unexpectedly, as smooth and polished as glass. Possibilities are endless when hawk and trowel, two essential tools in the plaster application process, are taken in hand by a skilled artisan. Each stroke in application is a gesture of the individual who troweled it. Much like handwriting, these troweled markings can be specific to a craftsman — each plaster wall a unique work of art. Trained plaster craftsmen are hard to come by today, but plaster is a material trending in the design world. Lauren Dillon is on a mission to prove that while learning the plaster application process may appear daunting, it is not impossible.
Lauren believes that the art of plaster is not a dying art, especially as a greater awareness and accountability exists now for the lifecycle of materials and their impact on the planet as part of ethical building and art practice. Providing architects, builders, and designers with access to quality materials, educational resources, and skilled artisans for their new build or preservation needs is the mission of Columbia-based Master of Plaster Finishing Systems, where Lauren serves as executive designer, and with her leadership, it could not look more naturally beautiful.
Plaster has a physical presence that is best experienced in person. When standing in a room with plaster walls, the senses come alive to the essence of plaster: your ears notice a change in acoustics, your nose detects no toxic fumes, and your eyes seem to rest easy on the plaster’s varied surface. To touch a hand-troweled plaster wall is evocative of running your hand over the surface of an ancient stone. Plaster transports you to another time, a time before modern day technology and sleek design, and a time before quick and easy building materials. As Lauren points out, “American interiors are frequently so void of texture — so sterile.” But depth, texture, and variation define plaster.
So, what is plaster? Historically, plaster has been used to coat interior and exterior walls and ceilings and to create decorative elements, including ornamental moldings such as medallions, cornices, niches, rosettes, egg and darts, and friezes. Within the fine art world, it is used to cast sculptures. The plaster was made from a mixture of lime, sand, and water, sometimes with additives like horse or ox hair, both of which provided extra reinforcement. But these historical lime-based plasters are different from the acrylic, clay, or gypsum “plasters” listed on the market today. Lime-based plaster is made from non-hydraulic hydrated lime, also known as slaked lime, and the chemistry can be complex. For simplicity, lime-based plaster is applied wet to initiate a curing process. As the lime is troweled onto a surface at the consistency of pudding, it reacts with carbon dioxide in the air and hardens as a result. Plaster has been used all over the world because of its permanence and great strength; however, its strength also lies within its softness. The softness, or flexibility, of lime-based plaster permits a structure to expand and contract, shift, and wiggle within the ever-changing external environment.
For some, plaster calls to mind the countless churches frescoed with iconography in Europe. Michelangelo painted his great masterpiece in the Sistine Chapel onto wet plaster lying on his back, day after day. All of this masterful draughtsmanship was transferred by piercing holes along the lines of the drawing and powdered with a pigment to reveal an outline on a freshly troweled plaster surface. Artists like Michelangelo, who were found aplenty in Renaissance Europe, practiced the buon fresco technique with quick efficiency and a dexterous hand. They applied the paint, usually hand-ground earthen pigments mixed with water, before the plaster had time to cure. Once the plaster went through the chemical process of absorbing carbon dioxide and the lime began to harden, the pigment in the painted image was permanently cemented onto the surface. It remains there to this day as a testament to plaster’s longevity.
Prior to World War II, buildings and homes were constructed with thick plaster walls using a lath system. The plasterer would trowel the wet plaster onto horizontal wooden slats and the plaster would “hook” or “grab” the back of the slats. This process was time-consuming and often costly. A new building option that was cheap, easy to install, and lightweight was desired. This product is what we now know as drywall or sheetrock. It is made of gypsum, a soft mineral material, covered with a sheet of backing paper. While drywall saved cost and time, it lacked the sustainability and durability of the historical lime-based, hand-applied plasters.
Lime, a natural material, allows moisture in and out, which aids in regulating temperatures and humidity levels. This lets a building breathe, and a building that is allowed to breathe is a healthier building. The breathability of plaster thus improves air quality, making it a healthier environment. For individuals with allergies to molds or bacteria or sensitivities to latex or oil based paints and primers, lime-based plaster is a non-toxic substance with no volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. The high pH of lime also prohibits the growth of mold and bacteria, making it an excellent material for moist bathrooms or basements and also for coastal regions. It is especially ideal in South Carolina because of the humid environment. And just as it prevents trapped moisture, plaster is also an excellent fire retardant and noise buffer, making it optimal for urban dwellings.
Plaster is, quite literally, a coating of beautiful mud for walls. Much like a spa uses earthen, mineral rich clays to detox and enrich the skin, plaster does much of the same for a home. Additionally, architects and designers for new building projects today are especially drawn to plaster’s aesthetic possibilities to give variation and interest to walls that would otherwise be absent of any character. To the naked eye, a cured lime-based plaster wall, with its varied surface, appears to transform as the light shifts throughout the day. Marble dust, mica, or sand are often incorporated into the wet plaster for enhanced texture or shimmer. The option to customize finishes is the reason plaster is creating a burgeoning market today.
Before officially joining Master of Plaster Finishing Systems, the small-batch, lime-based plaster manufacturer owned and operated by her father, Kirk Dillon, Lauren studied urban design with a focus on historic preservation at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and completed a year in Dublin, Ireland. While abroad, she fell in love with the history and possibilities of plaster and returned to the Midlands ready to join her family in the plaster business.
Kirk, a plaster contractor, originally started Dillon Construction in 1989, which was timely as Hurricane Hugo had just come through Charleston, creating an extensive demand for restoration and rebuilding. In 1990, Kirk decided to open a Charleston office, and business took off. “Opportunities presented themselves — City Hall, Market Hall, the Unitarian Church,” says Lauren about the projects that she was lucky enough to experience as a child through the eyes of her father. “I would go to the projects, climb up on the scaffolding, and look out over the Charleston city skyline and think, ‘My dad has such a cool job.’”
The Dillons’ lime-based plaster products are made under the umbrella of Master of Plaster Finishing Systems and are historically authentic plaster recipes. Kirk had the opportunity in 2010 to purchase original 17th century plaster recipes from a ninth-generation plasterer, Michael Kempster, who lived and worked in Essex, New York. Michael was descended from a well-known architect, stone mason, and plasterer, Christopher Kempster, originally from Oxfordshire, England. Kempster provided plaster material for important structures such as Blenheim Palace, Windsor Castle, Christ Church, the Oxford Colleges, and most significantly, St. Paul’s Cathedral. Michael, whose passing in 2008 marked the end of a long line of important plasterers, watched the plaster trade wane in the United States but continued production of true lime plasters regardless and utilized them in restoration projects across the country.
The Dillon family, honored that Michael was willing to entrust his historical recipes to them, is now deeply cemented in the plaster tradition. The small company has been recognized and applauded many times over for its restoration work by such prestigious organizations as the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Historic Charleston Foundation. Architects, decorators, and designers have taken notice of the quality of its materials, which are all American — from the lime sourced in Mississippi and Ohio to the marble dust that they add to their Venetian plaster sourced in Alabama. “It is the purest and whitest marble and is from the same quarry that was sourced for the Lincoln Memorial,” Lauren explains.
Master of Plaster’s products boast an impressive portfolio and have been incorporated in significant restoration projects such as the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., and the Gibbes Museum in Charleston. Lauren attributes the company’s success to its authentic, high quality materials as well as the customers who specifically seek them out. “These are people who appreciate craft; the artistry, chemistry, and science behind the material; and understand how earthen plaster, hand-applied, changes the experience of a place,” Lauren says. “The success of Master of Plaster is proof that small-scale manufacturing can be very successful.”
She attributes this success to quality control and direct interaction with clients. Lauren values working with customers so that she can educate architects and designers in addition to do-it-yourself amateurs. “Plaster is a straightforward process, but understanding the materials is the main challenge,” she says.
Clients seek her out for her expertise, and she wears many hats within her family’s small business. On any given day, Lauren creates custom colors and mixes sample plasters for clients, explains and gives advice on how to use their materials, prepares plaster presentations for design firms, and develops plans for restoration projects repairing surfaces, from damaged walls to fallen ceiling medallions. A few of her favorite recent projects include developing the colors and wall finishes of The Fat Radish, a farm-to-table restaurant in Savannah, Georgia, and a non-toxic nail spa at The Cigar Factory in Charleston called The Water Room.
Lauren certainly has a vivacious energy about her family’s small manufacturing company, but most stirring is her passion for plaster. She demonstrates through her artwork that plaster is a material with possibility. Lauren forages for wild flora and fauna to impress into plaster. She produces a seasonal series of plaster impressions of magnolia flowers. Magnolias bloom only at specific times of the year in the South, which reflects what she says her artwork is all about — the cycle of life. “The way that nature’s textures relate to place, element, and time fascinates me, and capturing a specific moment in time by accentuating the textures interests me the most. Delicate impressions of wildflowers and plants at different stages of life illustrate Mother Nature at her most beautiful — as an evolving force.”
The aspect Lauren likes best about her artwork is that it truly can be returned to the earth and thus continue the cycle. Local Columbia boutique hotel Hotel Trundle sought out Lauren not for plaster walls but rather for a piece of her artwork featuring impressions of local ferns to grace its new lobby. Unique commissions like these motivate Lauren to continue her plaster crusade.
The design world is trending towards plaster, and it comes at a time when sustainability is at the forefront of discussion in business. Lauren expresses great enthusiasm for plaster as a material that meets all the requirements for a sustainable future. Much like the food renaissance that has flooded the grocery store and restaurant scene with high quality, organic food, so, too, are artists, architects, designers, urban planners, and homeowners asking questions about health and sustainability for our built environment.
Sustainability is not about instant gratification; rather, it is about effort — a little more attention to detail, a little more elbow grease, to create healthier and longer-lasting buildings. The famous architect Antoni Gaudi, a noted favorite of Lauren’s, once stated, “Nothing is art if it does not come from nature.”
Lauren’s work, in all aspects, speaks to this belief most beautifully; she is one of the many artists and designers promoting the great efforts of countless visionaries before her who celebrated nature in all her glory and who fought for her preservation.
