Lots of plasterers ask me on The Plasterers Forum about Venetian plaster and whether there is a big enough market for it in the UK and my response has always been yes!!!
The next question is where is the best place to learn the art and skill of Venetian plaster and my response is always the same, and that is to go and see Andy at GoldTrowel in Essex.
I have been dropping in and seeing Andy for over 11 years now and I have watched him and his students grow and seeing past students still dropping in to see him is always a good sign that they run a great Venetian plaster training school.
However, Andy is not just somebody who teaches Venetian plaster, but he also owns Venetian Interiors London which means that he is also using and applying Venetian plasters in the real world and is out there getting work.
I was asked if I wanted to go up to London and see one of his projects him and his team had been working on for the last ten months. I jumped at the chance to get out and about, and so last Friday I was in a hi-vis vest and a hard hat walking around a huge flashy building site in Greenwich looking at bathrooms that had been Tadelakt and these bathrooms were high spec’d bathrooms, and they looked fantastic.
I was shown around by Andy and his son Jake, and I was really quite impressed with the attention to detail that you would expect in these types of projects. I also started to realise that Andy uses a lot of past students from his courses. I questioned this, and he explained that if he sees a student that he thinks has what it takes he will encourage them and help them get work.
This made me think, a lot of training course providers would never dream of taking on passed students to do their work for them but Andy does, and he invests time and potentially risks his reputation in students he thinks has what it takes.
Imagine that you have arrived at GoldTrowel to do a course on Venetian Plastering and you are excited and keen, and after the first few days of the course you are excited to get out into the wide world and earn a living. After week two you are still excited, and you are refining your style and skill, and you are excelling and producing some first class work.
A few months down the line and you have been doing a few jobs here and there, and Andy calls you up to see if you would be interested in a project. I have never heard of a training school that does this, and it would be a massive kick start to any career in Venetian plastering.
If you are interested in learning Venetian plastering, then you need to go and see Andy at Gold Trowel, and I promise you will not be disappointed with the training and you never know where this will lead.