We had an especially mild fall this year. We didn’t get a hard frost until at least late October, or even early November. It was bone dry for weeks on end and the daytime temps were delightfully mild. Normally, when late fall lands this place turns into a cool, muddy swamp — not usually the most inspiring conditions for outdoor work, you know? Instead, the building season was graciously extended by a few precious weeks.
I decided to take advantage of this dry, mild window to make some progress on the pavilion plaster work. This felt like a big treat at the end of a busy year. I’ve been doing so much carpentry work the last two years that this recent opportunity to throw up some lath and plaster walls brought me some real joy.
Lath and Plaster Walls Coming Along
I’ve been particularly excited about working on these small lath and plaster walls. The panels have been a pavilion design feature from the beginning, and although they’re small and above head height, I can already feel the effect of having them in the space. They significantly alter the feeling of being in the space. The frame feels less “naked”, for one.
The lath and plaster wall construction is very simple. Using some random 2x4s, I ripped down tiny studs and then milled lath to fasten over either side of the stud frame. Very simple, very quick. From there, I did my first clay plaster base coat. Plastering over lath is super satisfying. Predictably, I was so intent on making progress that I barely got any photos. But you can see the framing and first coat of plaster in these pics. If I were smarter and more patient, I would have only done the plaster on one side of the wall. The drying has been a little weird this late in the season.
Shikkui Strikes Back
In other news, sometime this fall the Japanese TV production company got a hold of me. They told me about a plan to create a follow-up segment to the 2018 (!!) episode I was originally featured in. To very very quickly recap, in 2018 I was invited to Japan to learn more about shikkui, a particular type of lime plaster. I spent a week there learning shikkui from Hasado-san and I got to experience Sugita-san forging a jigane trowel from scratch in his blacksmith shop. Pretty darn awesome, to say the least.
Anyway. The planned segment is brief, but the timing is kind of uncanny because I’ve been prepping to do these plaster panels for months (a year? two?). So I did a quick shikkui finish on one of the panels for the new TV segment. The weather had already turned cold by then, but I managed to get two warm days in a row to do it without worry of freezing.
So. That’s the end of fall, and it’s definitively winter now. The “kura” roof is done. There’s material to mill for next year’s Japanese carpentry classes. Stone walls to finish (still…). The workshop desperately needs organizing. Like always, an endless list sits in front of me but I’m grateful to mix up the work and make whatever progress I can over the coming couple of months.
Alas, winter is shockingly, almost always disappointingly brief.
p.s. Did you know we’ll be teaching shikkui and other traditional Japanese plaster recipes in our Japanese Plastering Workshop next year? Now you do! This is not to be missed.