Curves & Columns

Plaster on surfaces that are not flat

Columns, curved walls and domes finished in polished plaster take on the appearance of solid stone at a fraction of the cost. Even a large column can be made to read as completely seamless, as though it had been cut from a single block.

Why it is a different job

A flat wall lets you work in straight passes. A curve does not. The material has to be laid and burnished around the form without the trowel leaving flats or ridges where it changes direction, and the joins that would normally be tucked into a corner have nowhere to hide. The reward is that light grades across a curve instead of stopping at an edge, which is what makes a polished dome read as stone rather than as a painted ceiling.

What that has meant in practice

The Arches in Port Erin covers most of the range inside one building: the domed ceiling, the curved pool area and the external staircase. Elsewhere it has been the curved entrance walls and matching columns at Ellenbrook House, and free-standing spheres in MicroCement for a garden.