A few days ago, I had an interview with QEST about an apprenticeship grant.

Mastering a craft takes years. And you also have to work out how to make a living from it.

The traditional image of apprenticeship is of someone entering a workshop as a teenager, learning a trade they expect to practise for the rest of their working life. Today, there’s more room to explore different disciplines and change direction. A lifelong career in one field can feel like a considerable expectation to place on someone just starting out.

The commitment a craft demands hasn’t changed much. The world around it has.

I know that desire to explore. I studied engineering and tried several disciplines before eventually finding my way to bookbinding in my mid-thirties.

I had no idea how long I would stay with it.

Putting in the hours isn’t enough. It also requires patience.

Which is interesting, because I’m an impatient person. Very impatient, in fact. Yet somehow, over the years, I’ve learnt to be patient with my work.

Craft gives you little choice. However passionate you are, you spend an extraordinary amount of time getting things wrong. You have to accept that, pay attention, try again and gradually learn to see things you couldn’t see before.

I wonder whether I would have been ready when I was younger.