Cool stucco fireplace

Myself, I am an alternative builder and  I also do all kinds of finish work, including cement stucco, clay plasters and am starting to use gypsum and lime a bit.  Not much success with  bag lime in dry New Mexico, though, so far.

My question is about furring lath.  I like to use diamond lathe but the
local variety is not self-furring.  They do sell furring nails with
cardboard discs for "stucco-lath"  (chicken wire, basically)  but that
cannot be used with diamond lath.

I am always looking for an elegant solution to keeping the lathe furred out 1/4" or so.  Any suggestions?

Steve Lewis
Silver City, New Mexico

P.S. Attached is a pic of my fireplace, plastered with a clay-lime finish
over a 2-coat clay base.  The brown parts are cement-based.

Thanks for the kind words and the picture of the way cool fireplace. 
There are numerous ways to fur out your lath. 
1. You can drag a bundle of lath out to the sidewalk and beat it 
with a hammer. We have done this a lot. It isn't as neat as the 
factory but it works. 

2. A method I saw on an old house was to drive large nails 
in the wall about 12" or so apart and bend them over. 
Then you can nail your lath over the nails, driving the nail 
right next to the bent over nail. This seemed to work real good 
and fast.