Crafting Polished Art Objects With Lime Plaster

with Ellen Van den Broecke

Polished lime plaster has a smooth, inviting feel – both soft and durable to the touch. In her Old Town Palma studio, Ellen Van den Broecke invites you to slow down and discover this unique medium, often reserved to the hands of professional architects and interior designers, creating a unique art object in the process.

Ellen begins class by introducing you to hempcrete, a mixture of hemp shivs and lime used for creating the solid base of your design. As a very eco-friendly building material, hempcrete can take days to dry, so Ellen prepares a variety of bases for you to choose from in advance.

Once you’ve selected your piece – whether a bookend, sculpture, or jewelry plate – it’s time to personalize. Picking from Ellen’s variety of natural pigments, you’ll mix your favorite color with lime, creating a paste to carefully smooth over the dampened surface of your sculpture.

As the material bonds naturally with its base, you’ll use a special polishing stone and natural soap to compress the texture and bring out its shine. Through careful layering and rubbing of the lime surface, watch as the ritual transforms your object into a smooth, stone-like finish. Solid and polished, you can take your one-of-a-kind art object home with you the same day – ready to be used and admired. 

If you’ve ever wondered how to create organic sculptures, Ellen’s class is the first step into a limitless artistic world. Whether you want to make ecological art objects, or aspire to make your own lime plaster furniture and wall installations, your creative fascination with hemp and lime starts here.