On our recent article, “Mud Glue to the Rescue”, we received some questions regarding clarification on a few terms and descriptions. Here is a rewritten description of that project that is more detailed and clear.

The client settled on a burnished Porcelina mixing two colors. After doing a sample wall to test the look before doing the whole house, the client voiced preference for one area where there was more texture, sort of resembling Loma–though she also wanted some very smooth, burnished areas. When we tried to leave texture in a Porcelina finish, it “dusted” because it wasn’t compressed enough. So then we thought, how about if we make a 50/50 mix of Loma and Porcelina? Perhaps we could have a little more texture and compress less and not get “dusting”. Then it occurred to me to add half a unit of Mud Glue, which would further cut down on the possibility of dusting after a light compression. Also, the other great thing about that particular composition (50/50 with one-half a unit of Mud Glue) is that you can compress it at “leatherhard”, which is much easier than letting the clay dry all the way and then compressing/burnishing it. So, what we ended up for a process is this:

1. Basecoat of Loma/Mud Glue as usual
2. Finish composition: 50% Loma, 50% Porcelina with one half unit of Mud Glue (Mud Glue by our measure is 3c, so one-half unit is 1.5c) and the pigment which was Nantucket Sand.
3. We applied the finish coat and pulled back across areas that were setting up as we went along, to create the structural look that we wanted. Then we tried to burnish at “leatherhard” (leatherhard is when the clay is no longer sticky to the touch, but still appears wet). This was easier and faster than letting the clay dry completely before burnishing, but we also did that, due to logistical considerations. In general, it takes much less water and also less effort to compress a finish coat that has Mud Glue added.