Buon Fresco DVD
Upcountry Maui Flowers and Magenta Orchards

11-29-04 Three days ago I started the DVD movie, making a mold panel and a tile panel. This is the intonaco ratio for the tile panel. 2 medium crushed limestone 2 small crushed limestone 1 marble dust 5 wet lime 3:00 start mix 4:00 Ready to apply the intonaco with only the 3 primaries. It is slower to paint and make the movie and harder to paint with only 3 colors. 6:30. painting. 12:10 The power went out, I covered it with Seran wrap by the light of the computer and went to bed. The next morning I realized the lime was set. It's 75% finished and there is nothing I can do about it. That's buon fresco for you. No.. I'm not going to make a secco fresco out of it.

12-15-04 Today my remote arrived for my camcorder so I'm starting the intonaco on the mold made panel. The intonaco mix is 1:1 with PR122 Magenta added into it. The panel was made with metal lath inside it along with 30 percent white concrete.

I did it backwards, because of the easy covering power in fresco, I should have made the intonaco green and painted magenta over it. This makes it different then the water color technique.

Five hours, start to finish. These are the lime safe colors I carry with me. Titanium White, best white for fresco, lead white turns brown Priderit Yellow, PY157 is a yellow green Naples Yellow, paler then cad yellow Bismuth Yellow, cool Vanadate yellow Indian Yellow syn. Primary Transparent, PY153 warm, Zecchi Cadmium Yellow Light, Primary opaque Cadmium Yellow Medium Light Golden Ocher Italian Yellow Warm Ocher Raw Sienna Red Ocher Hurculainium Red (Ercolano Red) Burnt Sienna Mars Violet Caput Mortum Raw Umber Burnt Umber Irgazine Yellow, PY110 Cadmium Orange Vermilion Genuine Thioindigoid Red, PR88 brightest light red Cadmium Red Light Irgazine Red, PR254 bright light red Quinacridone Magenta, PR122 transparent primary magenta Dioxine Purple PV23 Senopia Ult blue lime safe Cobalt blue light Heliogen blue PB15.6 Cyan PB15.3 cerulean blue Cobalt turquoise Thalo green b/s Veridian PG18 Thalo green y/s PG36 Verdaccio green umber Irgazine green PY129 Chromium oxide Green earth, Venetian white earth Cinabrese Indenthrone blue Mars black Vine black Quin magenta PV212 DS permanent red Senopia Indian Yellow PG10F

This should be the last fresco test I have to do, 01-19-05.
"What is the compared open time between white cement and lime mortar?"

I made two 8.5 inch tiles. One with a white cement rough and one with a lime rough, both with 1:2 small sand. Two weeks later I put on the intonaco, 1:1.
3:22, both roughs were covered with smooth intonaco, 15 minutes later I gave them a final troweling and removed any cream from the top.
3:45, I painted on the division lines on both tiles with a #1 rigger, a very long haired round ferrule with a flat end. Notice the top line of the lime tile, it is lighter because lime mixed with the pigment even though I used a very soft wash brush. It's still worth while though because it gets the location points in early.
Every hour I painted in a section, cadmium red, red oxide, gold ocher, burnt sienna and red oxide again.
6:00, the lime is still soft and the white cement is much harder.
8:00, a little carbonate crust was forming on the lime so from here out I will be wetting the mortar with lime water.
8:30, another wash of lime water and a pressure troweling of all the remaining sections. The white cement mortar is hard, will it still be absorbing pigment? It paints nicely.
9:00, both are absorbing more slowly. I give them another lime water wash.
10:22, I was a little late, because I was watching the Australian tennis tournament. The white cement was singing.
11:00, the last section to be painted. I repressed the sections with the trowel. The white cement was hard. I don't give the white cement mortar much of a chance to hold the pigment, but I won't know for sure for two days, when I wash down the frescos and remove any loose pigment that didn't absorb.

I'll point out the changes after the tiles were washed. On the first line, the white cement stayed the same. On the lime tile, because it was painted while the lime was very wet, the lime moved and mixed with the pigment. The final effect was it dried lighter.
One hour later, 5:00, the cement and lime both worked very well.
Two hours later, the cement didn't hold the pigment where it was the densest. It flaked off the red oxide which is an excellent fresco color.
Three hours later, the white cement failed. The lime was just getting started.
Four hours later, both the red oxide and burnt sienna failed in the cement. The yellow ocher held it's ground on both tiles.
Five hours later, 9:00, the cadmium red and yellow ocher were lighter on the cement. The lime still had no changes.
Six hours later, some red oxide flaked off the cement, the lime is still going strong with no changes.
Seven hours later, 11:00. The white cement continued to deteriorate, all colors were failing. The last color down was cadmium red, which I laid on three times letting the shine disappear before adding the next layer. It worked, but... Be cautious about adding any white cement to the lime intonaco. Use no more then 20 percent if you want to be safe.

The answer to the question is.. One hour for white cement verses seven hours for lime. If the lime is well taken care of, i.e. keeping it moist with lime washes and pressure troweling the unpainted areas as time goes on. With correct moisture and re-pressing the lime I have gone 10 hours.