Crafty Plasterer

Light show update

Ted and I did attend this year's show and came back with some very good contacts and some great ideas for new designs, can't say too much at the moment but watch this space and all will be revealed!!

Also seemed to be a lot of talk in the trade regarding China, some good and some bad. Any comments?

The glamorous side to plastering..

Today I have been asking questions about the more exciting past jobs Aagaard Hanley has done and I have to say that I am quite surprised! It has become clear to me that the firm is far from uplighters and cornicing and more bespoke crafts in glamorous locations!

Aagaard Hanley has previously worked :

In the Ritz in London where they made ornamental plaster shelving which now holds the Cartier jewellery cabinets in the foyer.

On a very famous rock star's swimming pool where they made plaster columns and which has later been used on various television programmes.

On cruise ships such as the Oriana in West Germany.

...to name but a few!

Have you seen the light..?

Dave and Ted are looking forward to visiting the lighting show in Birmingham on Sunday where there will be some of Aagaard Hanley's products displayed. We will update you on this next week!

Plaster's past

I didn't know I was going to be an expert in plastering, but seeing as Aagaard Hanley is an award winning manufacturer of fibrous plaster and supplier of polished plaster and lighting products; I thought I'd better learn...

Yet, what is fibrous plaster and where does it come from?

Plaster is a relatively harmless dry powder made from gypsum rock. The mineral gypsum is commonly found. In Britain, the most frequently found type is alabaster. Gypsum is white or pale grey in colour and occurs in sedimentary beds or veins, these range in thickness from a few inches to 30 feet. Gypsum rock is fairly soft and it can be scratched with a fingernail. There are many uses for this, for example in plastic and also in food, such as baking powder. However, its uses as a building material and as a craft material are the most well known.

Gypsum plaster is not by any means a modern invention, there is evidence of it being used by the Egyptians in some of the pyramids. In Britain there are indications that shipments of plaster of Paris were being imported in Henry VIII's reign.

By studying the history of plaster and it's development over the years, it allows specialists at Aagaard Hanley to ensure that repairs on old bulidings, such as ceiling roses and cornices, turn out to the best possible standard.

Revenge of the builder

Builders have a reputation of not starting a job when they should, making a mess and charging over the odds. But is this fair? According to an article in the Sunday Times Homes supplement Builders Bite Back, builders tell a different story. Is it actually clients and homeowners who are not keeping their end of the bargain? Many job delays are actually beyond builders' control, such as bad weather, clients ordering custom made materials or being slow with decisions. Often builders are not good at communicating the way they work and this leads to misconceptions. It could well be the client who is the cause.

The ten simple rules to help you get your job done on time and stay on good terms with your builders are:

1. Give them space (clear up before they arrive)
2. Don't use their tools (especially filling the skip up) as this will cause delays
3. Make decisions quickly
4. Don't put them in the middle of differences of opinion of husband and wife
5. Don't change your mind
6. Don't ask for little extras
7. Don't hold back full payment at the end of the job only unfinished work
8. Don't be greedy and try to get 'summat for nowt'
9. Show some respect (shouldn't this be number one?)
10. Communicate what you want and show appreciation when the jobs right

It all boils down to common sense and courtesy at the end of the day!

New blog

Hi, my name's Karen Marshall from Bruce Marshall Associates public relations consultancy. We're helping Aagaard Hanley to set up its new blog Crafty Plasterer. The blog will be about all aspects of interior design, lighting, plastering, building and restoration. In fact anything that's remotely connected with what Aagaard Hanley does, which is create beautiful and functional objects out of plaster. This covers a broad range of activity from manufacturing a wide range of plaster lighting to helping to restore the plaster work in historic buildings and creating new plasterwork interiors in modern buildings.