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Where Artistry Begins
Short answer. Your portfolio starts with the sample boards you make on your course, because they are real finishes laid by your own hand. Add practice boards in the colours clients ask for, then photographs of your own walls and first jobs, labelled with the finish and colour. Only ever show work you did yourself, and keep a physical set of boards to put in a client's hands.
Every Zavoré Academy student takes their finished boards home. Those boards are the first pieces of your portfolio. Label the back of each one with the finish, the grain, the colour and the protection used, so you can answer questions about it months later.
Clients often learn more from holding a board than from any photograph. A small, tidy set in a bag or box is worth carrying to every survey.
Think about the jobs you would like to win and make boards to match. If people near you ask for warm neutrals, make several versions. If you want to do darker, bolder work, show it. Our guide to Venetian plaster textures and finishes can help you plan a range that covers the main looks.
Keep each board to the same size and the same edge finish so the set looks considered rather than random.
Write a sentence or two with each photograph. The finish, the colour, the room and anything that made the job unusual. Clients often search for a particular room or look, and short, plain captions help them find the work that matches what they want.
Never present someone else's photographs, or stock images, as your own. If you show a picture for inspiration, say that is what it is. Clients who later find out a portfolio was borrowed rarely come back, and word travels quickly in this trade.
Your own home is often the first full wall in a portfolio, followed by a friend's room and then small paid jobs. Every Academy student receives help to find, price and win a first paid decorative job, which gives you the first client photograph. After each job, add the strongest photographs and a note of what you learned.
For more on the early stages of the trade, read starting a career in decorative plastering.
To ask about a course or how to get started, call 07592 929191 or email sales@zavore.co.uk. Dates and fees are on the training page.
Yes. They are finishes you laid yourself, and they go home with you at the end of the course.
Only if you say clearly that they are for inspiration. Presenting them as your own work misleads clients.
Enough to show each finish you are confident with, in a few of the colours clients ask for most. Quality matters more than quantity.
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