Roger Bailey contributed: > >There is a technique called "intaglio" for scratching lines in fresh mortar >to expose a dark layer underneath. I have seen beautiful designs, including >sundials, decorating houses in Switzerland using this technique. Can anyone >provide further information? > I regularly use 'intaglio' techniques although in the 'cut into sheet metal' sense rather than plaster but when I read Roger's description the word 'scraffito' popped into my head - I know not from whence. My dictionary didn't help and, much to my surprise, neither did Britannica - although I was amusingly diverted by 'scramjet' (a high-speed ramjet). The 'Oxford Companion to Art' and the 'Oxford Art Encyclopedia' also drew blanks.
Is this just something I dreamed or does the word 'scraffito' exist meaning perhaps 'scratch through one layer of coloured (paint??) to reveal another?? Tony Moss.
