Artisan of the Month
Lisa Butts
A Girl and a Gallon of Glaze
Owasso, Oklahoma

Lisa Butts’ career in faux finishing began 12 years ago while teaching faux finishing classes at Home Depot.  A customer who had been taking the class approached her and asked if she would do the work on their house for them because they thought it was too complicated to do by themselves.  Lisa accepted the offer, and the rest is history.  After working by herself for 2 years, Lisa met Tom Watts, a builder, and has been working with him for the past 10 years. 

Lisa’s work is a fifty-fifty mix of renovation work and new construction, and she prides herself on the fact that her main source of business is through word of mouth.  Lisa loves working with troweled finishes and reminisces that she completed her first troweled finish in her own home using a pancake turner 20 years ago.  She jokes “I was an innovator without even knowing it.  This was long before most artisans did troweling, and most people didn’t even know what it was yet.” 

Some of Lisa’s favorite mediums to work in are lime-based products.  She says of them “they give you results that you can’t get with a simple glaze.  They create a finish as timeless as granite or travertine.”  As an example, she talks about using Marmarino’s Tintarino and how she was able to achieve a look identical to natural travertine.  She enjoys completing finishes that draw you in and make you want to touch them.  In addition to using lime-based products, Lisa also enjoys working with metallic plasters, marbling, leathering, faux cast in stone fireplaces, columns, walls, cabinets, and more.