{"id":722437,"date":"2026-08-01T08:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T08:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/722437\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T08:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T08:20:11","slug":"the-traditional-skills-that-could-disappear-within-a-generation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/722437\/","title":{"rendered":"The traditional skills that could disappear within a generation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">That demand for endearing imperfection is also helping to sustain one of the country&#8217;s oldest papermaking traditions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Jim Patterson, 79, owner of Two Rivers Paper in Watchet, Somerset, still makes paper using techniques that pre-date the invention of the paper machine in 1806.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Using unbleached cotton and linen rather than wood, the company produces paper by hand for fine artists, watercolour painters and bookbinders.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The difference between anything that&#8217;s made by hand, and that which is made on a machine, is the consistency of it,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We sell imperfection, and that&#8217;s attractive for some. It&#8217;s not &#8216;unreliable&#8217;, it&#8217;s the measure of craftsmanship.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In an age of AI-generated images and machine-manufactured products, it may be those imperfections that keep some of Britain&#8217;s oldest skills alive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That demand for endearing imperfection is also helping to sustain one of the country&#8217;s oldest papermaking traditions. Jim&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-722437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}