Plasterers from New Orleans at the 2025 Smithsonian folk life festival
A plasterer runs a molding on a bench. Finished moldings are in the foreground.
Finished molding on the bench. You may have seen here how we run moldings in place the same way.
Freshly run rosette.
Some of Jeff Poree's amazing rosettes made out of cast plaster.
More rosettes.
Plaster was cast on the bench with rubber molds.
We tried covering the mortar board with plastic like this when making a gauge, but it didn't work out for us. We went back to scrape, scrape, scrape.
Wilfred and Jeff Poree, on the left, from Jeff Poree plastering, participate in a forum at the festival.
American College for the Building Arts in Charleston, South Carolina was there.
Here's what I wrote about the amazing plastering at The American College of Building Arts. A couple of students from ACBA visited my job site. They are welcome back anytime
Every year, the Smithsonian folklife festival displays building trades and craftsmen from all over the world. Here's a couple links to pages I made about plaster at the festival:
Amazing stucco from Mali and Mexico at the folklife festival in 2003.
Shrinking festival
There is plaster and stucco here almost every year. Besides plaster, there are incredibly interesting things to see and do. The music and art is world class. The festival is on the first of July, and ran for one week this year, but usually runs for two weeks. The event is held on the National Mall, between the Capitol and the Washington Monument, and usually occupies the whole space between the Smithsonian Castle and the Museum of Natural History. This year, it only occupied half the space between the Castle and the Natural History museum. Apparently the victim of budget cuts, I am afraid another one of our National treasures is eroding. I go almost every year, even if it is hot outside. I put mortar on the wall for years in the hot sun, so I can handle it.
Here is a link to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival's home page. I hope you can make it next year.