In-person training Β· Serbia
Hands-on Venetian plaster workshops run with Zeljko, a Serbian master craftsman. Small groups or one-to-one, taught on real walls with someone stood next to you correcting your trowel angle as you work.
Why in person
Online training is better than people expect, you can rewatch a technique twenty times, which is exactly what most people need. What it can't do is tell you that you're holding the trowel two degrees too flat, or that you're going back over a section thirty seconds too late.
Who teaches it
Zeljko has spent his working life applying decorative finishes on projects across Europe and the Middle East. He isn't a trainer who learned to plaster; he's a plasterer who happens to teach, and it shows in what he corrects.
The workshops run at his workspace in Serbia, a proper working environment with the walls, materials and tools already there, rather than a hired room with a few sample boards.
What you'll cover
Because groups are small, the content flexes. Tell us what you want out of the week, a finish you can't crack, a job type you keep turning down, and it gets built around that. A typical week looks something like this.
Priming, base coats, and reading a wall before you touch it. Most failed jobs are decided here, not at the finish stage.
Loading the trowel, first and second coats, building depth and movement. Repeated on a full wall until it's consistent.
The polished finish people mean when they say Venetian. Timing, pressure, and the point at which more polishing makes it worse.
Veining, shadowed backgrounds, and the finishing touches, waxing, high sand polishing, gold leaf if you want it.
Microcement, a specific finish you've been asked to quote, or more time on whatever isn't clicking yet.
The practical side
One-to-one includes your stay and transfers, so you land and everything else is handled. Group workshops keep the price down by leaving you to book your own room, we'll tell you where.
Small group
From €1,250 per person
One-to-one
From €3,000 by duration
Not included either way: flights and travel insurance. Nearest airport is Belgrade (BEG). UK and EU passport holders can currently visit Serbia without a visa for short stays, check the current rules for your own nationality before booking. You'll get a joining pack with travel details, what to bring and what to wear once your place is confirmed.
Pricing & dates
There's no single ticket price, because a three-day one-to-one and a week in a group aren't the same thing. Tell us what you're after and we'll quote it properly.
Deposits secure a place and are non-refundable, as we hold that space at every opening until the balance is cleared. Full terms are in our Terms of Use.
Common questions
No, but you'll get more from it if you've done the online course first and practised. The people who gain most arrive with specific problems, a finish that keeps going wrong, a technique they can't get consistent. Arriving with questions beats arriving blank.
Because that's where Zeljko is, and the workspace is already set up for it: proper walls, full material stock, no room hire. It also keeps the cost of the training itself far lower than running the equivalent in the UK, which usually more than covers the flight.
Yes. Tom runs the sessions alongside Zeljko, so there's no language barrier on anything being taught.
Deliberately small, four maximum. The whole point is having someone able to watch what your hands are doing, and that stops working past a certain number.
That's fine, shorter formats are available, and one-to-one sessions can be arranged around what you can get. Tell us what you've got and we'll work out what fits.
You keep the support. Students get access to the private community, direct support while you're on your first installs, and supplier access with trade discounts. The week is the start of it, not the whole thing.
Places are limited
Send us what you're stuck on, how long you can get away for, and roughly when. You'll get a proper answer and a price, not a brochure.
