This is a demonstration by Sean Wheatley of running a plaster cornice in situ.

Sean is regularly called upon to demonstrate at training days such as those run by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB).

These photos were taken at the National Trust's Arlington Court in 2006.

This shows a close-up of the backing plaster and the profile tool used to create the shape of the cornice.

Here Sean applies the first layer of final lime putty/fine casting plaster coat.

He has about 20-30 minutes before the mix is too stiff to be worked.

And 5 seconds to get to the eyewash station if he gets some in his eye. Safety glasses should always be worn when using lime.

The final coat mix has to be applied several times.

It is built up and scraped back a number of times to achieve the final finish.

Here, we can see the finished cornice and the strata.

This is now ready for decoration.