Acknowledgments.
A passion for stucco. Nov. 20th 2005
I would like to take the opportunity of thanking several people without whom I would never have discovered a new, deeper side within myself.
First, Mr Jean-Jacques Allain, Master plasterer and Compagnon du Devoir who agreed to take me on as a pupil. He unlocked a world of clay and plaster, showing me the age-old techniques of working with plaster in the traditional way. And on one very bright autumn afternoon he rather impulsively threw open the door to the magic of stucco. Our master-apprentice relationship was a very brittle one and lasted only for four months.
By then I was totally hooked and left to find my own way, without the master's secrets. I had learnt how to work the way plasterers do, but knew nothing of the components of stucco marble. The secret is very well guarded among stucco masters in France and abroad.
My passion for the medium was so strong that I doggedly plodded on, failing again and again to produce decent quality stucco.For months on end, I searched and searched for written material and finally found some ancient sources handed down in transcripts from Tuscan master plasterers. of the 16th and 17th centuries.
My mother helped me along with the translations, a difficult task as a lot of the words were colloquial or in the local vernacular. I am very grateful for her help and support, her insight into my work made the more fruitful as she is herself an artist and retired art teacher.
Heartfelt thanks to John Falle for exhibiting my work in Jersey, my other home, this being my first show in the United Kingdom.
Most of all I want to thank Ed Jacks whom I met on the Internet on a fresco forum in the course of one of my desperate searches on the Web.
Ed has been an incredible support, he has shared his know-how and his passion for scagliola in an extremely generous way. It would have been impossible to produce the good quality of stucco I have been able to sculpt for the past year. I am deeply indebted to Ed for his patience, his quick response to my pleas for advice although he is suffering from a very painful illness.
Thank you, Ed.
Finally thank you to my men at home who have put up with all the mess plaster spreads about a house. They have gone without proper meals, and uncomplainingly put up with a disorganized home for two years, thus giving me the total freedom to embrace a passionate relationship with stucco and sculpture.
Thank you all for your patience and support.
Babette
