TRAINING

A rough outline of our training approach is that once a month we block a week out of the schedule for training schemes. We have 3 levels of training for both the Polished Plaster Route and the Decorative Finishes Route.

Next training dates available are now in February, as we are too booked up in January to do the training.

FEBRUARY WEEK BEGINNING 18TH, MARCH WEEK BEGINNING THE 18TH

Training Form for Polished Plaster
Training Form for Decorative Finish Products

Level 1

Polished Plaster Training, is for someone who has never done polished plaster application before or regular plastering and so will need to build their tool skills up. Depending on how many finishes you want to cover in the training week we would recommend 1-2 days of training. This does not seem a lot but if you have never tried polished plaster before 1-2 days will be as much as we think people can cope with to start with. It is more strenuous than you may think and if your arms are aching, you will not achieve a good finish. We prefer our customers to go from 0-achievable during their training programme, so we would start with just 1-2 finishes on the first day on small manable areas and repeat them. If you wanted to come for a 2nd level 1 day that’s absolutely fine. We would then attempt 2 different finishes. Potentially this would mean you could cover the 4 main finishes at a starting level in the first weeks training. What we then advise is that our clients go away and practice these finishes independently to return for the Level 2 trainings. At the end of the training day you will be provided with a small training pack of sample materials used during the day, and boards for you to go away and practice on.

Level 2

Polished Plaster training, is for someone who has completed all finishes at level 1 and wants to move onto larger areas with these finishes. The Level 2 training areas will be set up with large wall areas. You will have a refresher at the start and then encouraged to independently apply the finish, during this day you will be guided through managing larger areas and how to approach them etc. Level 2 can be done over 2 days in the one week or split if it is more convenient to our client to do so.

Level 3

Polished Plaster training, is for someone who has completed all finishes at level 2 and wants to move onto larger more complex areas independently. At the start of the training we would give you refresher, on how to approach a project. We would also be giving out a multiple choice style question sheet. The idea of this is to confirm before starting the client is comfortable with the product they are applying as well as H & S awareness they need for that product. We would then expect the client to complete an area totally independently which will be assessed at the end. This is not a test but an opportunity for us to feedback and discuss any areas of difficulty and talk about how to overcome and troubleshoot. The idea of this level is for the client to leave us confident in their approach to a commercial project. They will understand the products uses, and limitations, and the processes that are required in order to achieve a good level of finish. We will talk about how to professionally approach any up and coming projects. How to ensure both the client and the applicator are satisfied with the end result. We feel that this includes every element of the project from start to finish.

Bellissimo Walls Decorative Training
TRAINING

We have many years of application and training experience, we expect to build a relationship with our clients before and after training, so our advice is always practical and transferable. We do not expect every client to start with the same skill set and treat each client individually. Before starting any level of our training, we will ask you to complete a questionnaire, to give us an outline of your background experience, so we can pitch the training to suit. We will also ask what particular finishes you like etc. Our training is in small groups never more that 4 at one time and sometimes you may be the only person training.

You will leave each level feeling you have learnt and achieved as much as possible during your time with us, and will be keen to come back and improve on your skills further. By breaking up the training is gives you the opportunity to reflect on your learning have a practice away from the training area and to see what you are able to achieve independently and each level.

We have a number of different polished Plaster products which can then be used to produce a number of different finishes.
(Hope that makes sense)

For example if you were training on your first day you would look at Stucco which is a high shine polished plaster finish like a mirror almost. You would learn how to achieve this effect on small -large areas dependent on what level you were starting at.

TRAINING

With Stucco you can also achieve more broken polished finishes which you would learn probably later on in level 2.

We have then Marmorino which is again a marble grain product that comes in different forms and different grains sizes etc. With these products there are a number of finishes that can be achieved from honed stone, blockwork, travertine, pitted, dragged etc. You will again learn how to use these products and achieve these effects on small-large areas dependent on what level you were starting at.

Decorative finishes are achieved using different materials to the lime plasters listed above, and can be applied with brushes, trowels, and specialist tools. These are quite different to the polished plaster and we would normally do these effects on separate days, if you already have a decorators skill level you could achieve quite a lot in one day and cover most of these finishes at level 1 and possibly compact them into 1 day at level 2.

If you are able to come and visit our workshop and show area it may be helpful to you to see what we offer, in terms of different products.

We offer a Decorative Finishes Sample Pack to our Clients who book onto our training at a reduced price of £40 + VAT. This will contain brochures with real product samples and swatches to look at before and after training. The Brochures can be used when showing clients potential finishes you can offer in the future as well as some of our individual swatch samples to start you off.

At the end of the Level 1/ Level 2 training days the Clients will also go away with their sample materials pack. Included in the training cost is a materials starter pack, this will allow you to try out and go over what they have learnt during your course time.

Hope this helps, please let me know if I can help any further.