American Clay Walls

As you may know, it's been an utter pig sty in our house due to the recent renovations. A major milestone was accomplished just a couple of days ago. After many months of discussion, we finally hired someone, Jamie Cole (jamiecoleis@gmail.com), the owner of earthinteriors, to apply American Clay to our walls.
The price was prohibitive, but we absolutely love the swirling, sparkling, rock-like effect . "American Clay" is a natural non-VOC emitting clay that we learned about from Calie, our interior designer. It has more of a Southwest feel than regular Italian plaster.

I would recommend our artisan, Jamie Cole (jamiecoleis@gmail.com) again. He charged about half as much as other artisans (about $4.50/sq. ft.), which is still very expensive. This charge includes materials, but does not include color matching. Honestly, I can see why this process is so expensive. Jamie said he nearly got carpal tunnel syndrome when he first started out. The mixing of the American Clay, and the troweling looked like it required more muscle power than I have, and I'm no slacker in the strength department. Also, the rocklike burnishing looked like it required quite a lot of experience and skill. However, if I had to do it again, and if we weren't buried in other house projects, I think I might give the troweling a try.

Below is a picture of the colorant being added to the American Clay "Luma" mix.
The picture below does not do our wall justice as the wall is still drying, explaining the dark black spots on the wall. But note the sparkles and the rock like burnishing.