Pargeting is a traditional form of decorative plaster work usually applied to the external walls of buildings and given several coats of limewash. This and the course nature of the material means that it is normally only simple stamped or combed patterns without a great amount of detail, looking a bit like “Artex” but on the outside of the wall. Sometimes though it would be moulded to represent rural characters, heraldic beasts or emblems to mark the building out as having more importance such as a pub or town hall. The lime plaster is worked as it is laid on, left to go “green hard” and may be carved back before it has fully set up. sculpted features might be built up in several layers.
Although normally associated with towns like Saffron Waldron in Essex and Clare in Suffolk, I have started making a few boards that can be hung outside as pieces of relief sculpture art like outside paintings.