Dear Roy,
there are many schools around the States, as far as I know. Some are serious, some are not. A number of them imports products from Italy of different qualities, again some good some others not.
I am in Italy and cooperate since quite a few years with Safra because here it is well known that it is the best. Just to give a clue about how much this is true, pls consider that we have more than 70 Italian paint manufacturers buying their decorative finishes from us, making Safra the biggest supplier of decorative and mineral finishes to the italian paint industry.
It came only natural to us, once that Safra and Doyle met, to join enthusiasm and strenghts to share italian decoration products and know-how in the US.
My only message to you is that (1) with SOIP you are in very good hands and that (2) tomorrow on the market you will have no headakes with delivering what the customer asks in the expected time with the expected effort.
The amount and degree of decorations you will be able to propose will depend only from your enthusiasm.
Good luck with whichever choice you'll make
Luca

We did have a school in Denver for about 6 months but he went back to being an applicator. Next year we will open a training and distribution center on the west coast. Until then Atlanta is our only one.
As far as the demand... If the demand was not high every paint store would not be coming up with there own paint version. The touch, the look and durabilty faux cannot compare. There was a time here in the USA only the extreme rich would have the Venetian Plasters in their home. 1 applicators is even doing quite a few Yachts in Veneziano. Every Interior Designer and faux finisher will tell you this is the finish for the future. We have not even begun to peak.
Doyle