Bendicks QEST Scholarship 2023

Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) is the charitable arm of the Royal Warrant Holders Association and was established in 1990 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Association and the 90th birthday of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

QEST supports excellence in British craftsmanship through scholarship and apprenticeship funding. The charity strives to make a difference to the lives and careers of talented makers working across the UK.

Bendicks is proud to have been working with QEST for over 10 years, by establishing the Bendicks scholarship. This helps support talented craftspeople and ensure that essential craft skills are retained and nurtured for the future.

For 2023, the Bendicks scholarship will be supporting Louisa Boyd. Louisa is a printmaker who creates paintings, prints, artist’s books and paper sculptures. Her pieces honour traditional techniques such as hand marbling and acid etching yet innovate in the application of these skills. She uses abstract mark making and an explorative and inventive approach to realise new pieces which often have three-dimensional qualities. She has work in international collections, was shortlisted for the John Ruskin Prize (2017) and has had work selected four times for the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition.

Louisa’s 2023 QEST Scholarship will support training in etching, with master craftsperson Alistair Tucker, to gain skills for creating more immersive and ambitious prints. She anticipates gaining a greater understanding of working successfully at scale and creating larger prints, which will also aid in developing her paper sculptures.

For more information on Louisa Boyd, click here.

For more information on QEST click here.