Sam Park

2022 QEST Apprentice - Hand-Papermaking
Cumbria

Sam Park (previously Newby) has been training in the endangered craft of hand-papermaking under Tom Frith-Powell at the Paper Foundation since mid-2022, learning and practising skills including beating, sheet formation, couching, drying and paper finishing, workshop maintenance and health and safety.

QEST funding supported Sam for the rest of her apprenticeship training, helping to develop her practical skills, and her theoretical and historical knowledge in the craft of European papermaking.

Following her apprentice, Sam continues to work with the Paper Foundation as part of the team.

It’s a real privilege having the opportunity and support to learn and practice a critically endangered craft; creating handmade papers is a rewarding process with lots to learn and master at each stage of the making. I particularly love the collaborative element of the craft, every sheet continues its journey to another craftsman or creative, where it can be used in a bookbinding, a conservation project, or to create an artwork.