A veritable cookbook of natural plaster recipes and techniques for beautiful, durable finishes

Natural plasters made of clay, lime, and other materials mixed with sand are beautiful building finishes. Fun to work with, low-impact, and allowing infinite creativity, they are high performance and provide proven, centuries-long durability.

Yet until now there's been no resource that has pulled together the best North American plaster recipes and how-to into one place. Essential Natural Plasters covers it all:

• Sourcing and selecting materials, including site-soils


• Clay, lime, and gypsum plasters as well as fibers and amendments


• Interior and exterior use and specialty plasters such as tadelakt for bathrooms


• Preparing substrates, from straw bales and cob to lath and Sheetrock


• How to set up a safe, efficient worksite


• Mixing, testing, tinting, repairing, and applying plasters


• Coveted recipes from leading plasterers in Ontario, Vermont, New Mexico, France, and New Zealand.

Richly illustrated and deeply researched, Essential Natural Plasters is the must-have resource for owner-builders and professionals alike.