05_Fail hard

It seems like every time I start an art project, I fail miserably at the first attempt. Fresco was no different.

We started by mixing sand and lime:


One scoop of lime:


Two scoops of sand:


The 1 lime to 2 sand mix was too dry and crumbly:


The loose, crumbly plaster would not adhere to the tile:


So we added more lime, to make a 1 to 1 mix. However, I added too much lime water to the plaster mix:

As a result, the fresco tile was too wet to paint on. In fact, it didn't dry enough until the next day:


Gonzalo painted a nice design on the too-wet tile, the next day. It cracked, but not too badly, considering:


Gonzalo pressed the excess wet fresco mix onto a Hardibacker cement board, after lightly spraying it with water. The Hardibacker sucked up the excess water, and he was able to paint the first fresco image quickly, enjoying the brush stroke on stone. The piece cracked, but not that badly:


In the end, we did not fail as hard as we could have.