August 5, 2008

TRANSITIONING through walls of LAZURE


I have always appreciated the idea of-and attempted various applications of- creating living and working spaces with the purpose of bringing about a sense of belonging, safety, and nourishment for the eyes and the soul. Looking back at my past living environments(and there were many back in the college days!) there were 2 or 3 places that felt "right". There was an ease of flow, an inviting feeling within, they were the gathering places of many friends and special times. I LOVED offering a haven for the special people in my life. Then there were the places that, despite the colors I used, the placement of objects, etc., the vibe and course of energy in that space was just ...stagnant.

The basic premises behind the art and science of balancing the energies of any given space to promote health and well being had always come naturally to me. Before I had ever delved into Feng shui or Vastu, I was manipulating my environment with texture, light, color and object placement to create my home as sanctuary. The only area that I never explored was painting the walls! Not for lack of interest, but because I always lived in rentals!

Last year, through my experiences with Waldorf education and the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, I learned about the Lazure painting that one often sees in a Waldorf environment. Lazure is the technique of painting several layers of color using thin transparent paint to create a sense of color in the space, rather than flat on the wall. The effect is gorgeous, harmonious, nurturing. I've been dying to paint the girls' rooms as well as my massage space with this technique. A couple weeks ago I received an email from Miss P. (Lo's kindy teacher)looking for volunteers and jumped at the chance to help Lazure the walls of her classroom at the Waldorf school!

The day before the Lazuring, her walls were painted a bright white in satin finish and allowed to dry. On the morning of the Lazuring, a lot of time was spent mixing the Stockmar watercolors with water and glaze to get the right consistency and tone. Once we had our colors of the rainbow, the actual painting only took the 5 of us about an hour and a half! Miss P. had also poured a different essential oil in each of the color jars so the room smelled heavenly!

Here are some before and after shots. The camera did not do the painting justice. The room looks AMAZING! What wonderful surroundings for a child to spend time in!








This explains Lazure quite well:


"....An unusual, more spiritually oriented painting technique, separate from sponging, ragging and typical glazing is the Lazure technique. Color is a vital consideration in 'tuning' a room for its intended use...the white surface behind lazure color reflects light back through the layers of glaze making the colors appear to be 'in the space' rather than simply on the wall ... The combined colors in the lazure method weave an enlivening variety for the human eye and Spirit. Never intruding, always inviting, the colors interplay with the subtle nuances of Nature, creating a depth not normally present on most interior walls."

~ From Home Design from the Inside Outby Robin Lennon


Some professional work by Charles Andrade~



16 comments:

Sharon said...

Beautiful! I can't believe that the actual glazing only took a couple of hours! How cool.

Anet said...

It's so soothing and believe me as a preschool teacher I would love a classroom with walls as beautiful as those! Nice job! I'm going to check into Lazure a bit more!

Lisa Anne said...

It IS always so beautiful to see. I worked in a Waldorf Kindergarten for 5 years and I feel lazured walls make such a warm, inviting environment.

Have a great trip our East, all of those are great ideas for the trip, we played the folded creature game on our trip to France, but were mostly entertained by the in-flight movie channels!

Anonymous said...

That second to last photo is Stegmann Hall at Rudolf Steiner College...my old stomping grounds (or should I say, old eurythmy grounds?) :) It is a beautiful space, thanks in part to the lazuring.

Some day I'll be brave enough to try it myself.

dawn klinge said...

Those walls are amazing and you make it sound so doable. I'm seriously thinking about trying this.
Have a great time in NYC!

denise said...

I LOVE THAT! I love glazes and lazure and have wanted to try that for ages. What did you use to top coat that after painting?

Looks great.

RunninL8 said...

Hiya folks! I'm here in NJ at my mom's ancient computer....

The Lazure was SO doable!!! Glaze + water+stockmar color. I forgot to mention that you need these special brushes. They're square and thick like those big old scrub brushes. I'll try to find out where one can find them online. I hear they are hard to come by. So, you just dip it in the tray of paint and brush on the wall in a figure 8 pattern. You really need another person or 2-one to brush any dripping and 1 with a dry brush to go over it. once it dries, you can paint more layers over it to deepen the effect. We only painted 1 layer and did not use a top coat. I believe there was a reason for that but it escapes me now.
I'll try to get more in depth info and when I paint my massage space perhaps i'll post a tutorial!

Off to the pool with us! 75 and sunny today!Yahooooo!

Anonymous said...

loved this post. we visited a waldorf school a couple of years ago in kyoto that we were interested in for our oldest son and i fell in love with the entire place, but in particular the color of the walls. i remember feeling so peaceful yet alive and invigorated the entire time we were there.
what a great opportunity for you to learn first hand how to do lazuring.

Maymomvt said...

I love how your eyes just sink into the color of a lazured wall. Good for you for trying it!!

Lizz said...

Nice!

I love lazure.

M-S said...

what kind of glaze did you use and what are the proportions of paint to water to glaze? Thanks.

Michelle said...

Totally wondering the same thing as the previous poster about what kind of glaze.

Anonymous said...

I'd also like to know what kind of glaze you used!

RunninL8 said...

I'll have to go back and check with Ms. P on the glaze thing. I know it wasn't anything fancy-just a basic glaze bought at Home Despot. As far as the ratio-I think she just played it by "eye" till it looked right! I'll double check for you, though.

Anonymous said...

Sorry for more questions, but what kind of brushes did you use? I'd love to get authentic Lazure brushes but don't know about dropping $50 each!

Did they look like the ones on this page?
http://www.daniellekerr-wilson.com/Howto.htm

Teaching Handwork said...

awesome! I love it!