Goedjn writes:

Maybe I should have called it a scale-pattern.
...
the field ends up looking kind of like this:

www.goedjn.com/sketch/scaly.gif

My apologies for partly hijacking the thread but I have a related
question. If I already have ceilings that have that texture, what is
the simplest way to clean/repaint them? I assume that any attempt to
use a brush or anything like that vigorously would (may?) knock off
the texture ... so any alternatives? Especially if I want to avoid
spraying?

Thanks,

--NS.