TrueFresco Work Schedule

Process of TrueFresco mural decoration consists of two parts. The most time-consuming part is the time of preparation. Before beginning the work on the wall it is necessary to find the most adequate solution (see above), and then to make detailed sketches. This training is necessary, because the time for the work on the work on the wall is strictly limited (to some hours), and it is better to study the subject before, and to be ready for a work without mistakes on the wall.

Preparing the wall for work. Usually we try to take off the old plaster, or, if it is really resistant, as an armored cement plaster, we drill small holes, so the new plaster may hold well on the wall. After that all that we spray the wall with water and put the first layer of lime-based plaster on all the surface, planned for fresco.

On this first layer of plaster we make approximate drawings of what is going to be represented. When all the preparation work is done, we put second layer of the plaster, polish it and write the mural decoration.

With all the preparative sketches and training the drawing process gets much easier and leaves more space for the inspiration.

The realization of murals on a wall de-facto can never be a time-consuming process, because the real "TrueFresco" or "Buonfresco image can be executed during some hours, while the wet plaster keeps water and absorbs colours.

First comes a general drawing, then we cover large spaces with local colours, and then elaborate all the details. The white parts are to be done at the very end of the work, because the lime, used as white pigment, always gets absorbed easily, even if applied on almost dry plaster surface.

When the mural is finished, in first days it keeps very vivid colours, but when it dries, some colours bleach. That creates a specific difficulty of TrueFresco technique, but if planned well it gives an extraordinary result.

TrueFresco. What is going on in lime-based plaster?

TrueFresco principle lays in chemical process of carbonization of well-slaked lime, - essential part of the TrueFresco base ground. Practically, TrueFresco (or Affresco in italian) works are always executed on freshly applied lime-based plaster. While, after being applied on the wall, plaster gets dry, liquid lime gradually transforms into a colloid-crystallic substance.

Step by step lime creates microcrystalline, building a resistant structured construction throughout all the plaster layer, sticking into the wall, where applied, and "growing out", through the pigments, applied on the wet plaster. These lime crystals hold plaster very well on the wall and at the same time leave empty spaces between crystals, so the air can pass through and the wall can "breath".

Colloid part of lime is active too, it integrates all the plaster substances with the wall and absorbs thin layer of pigments. While getting dry all the integrated substances get covered with a transparent protective layer.

Medieval iconographers-muralists usually painted up to 6, and even 9 sq. m compositions at once.

So, the work is possible only while all the plaster and it's surface are wet. When the plaster gets dry, lime can not "act" anymore, - it can not absorb colours. Therefore, the time for active fresco work is limited by the drying process. The longest time we could keep the wall wet, by now was about 40 hours.

But from the other hand this time-limit is, probably, the greatest quality of this technology. I would compare it with preaching in church. So, if the person, who preaches, prepares the sermon and speaks about essential things, he may speak shortly and clearly. If, instead, the sermon becomes a long "talk" about holy things, it can be endless at all, but it can never be concrete or give an active impulse of Evangelization.

Resistance

Generally speaking, after some years of practice, I would affirm again and again, that the TrueFresco technology is truly the best technology for monumental church decoration because of it's resistance. In fact, we have some our frescoes, painted more then ten years ago in outside niches over church entrances, and these paintings are open for snows and rains, but they did not get damaged or changed at all in these years.

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