Rachel was awarded a work placement, some funding and a set of gouges from the workshop of the late Dietrich Kessler.  She writes of her award:
“I have now done my one day work placement at Stephen Thomson's workshop and I am glad to say that it was very useful for me; it is a really good introduction to bow rehairing.  Now I understand the process quite clearly and I can practice it on my own.  We went through all the steps of rehairing a bow and the clarity of Stephen's explanations made it simple and within my reach.
So I really want to thank you and the Trust for that experience that you made possible for me as well as for the wonderful set of gouges you gave me.  I really needed to extend my small collection of scroll gouges and these are doing the job very well.  To know that they belonged to Dietrich Kessler makes them even more important for me as they seem to have a history.  I will try to make the most of it! I have already made a few scrolls with them, and pictures of the most recent one are below.
I was also given some money which I used  to purchase the excellent book "Musical Instruments in the Ashmolean Museum, The Complete Collection" edited by John Milnes. I found it really satisfying to have at home these very good reproductions and comments as I have been several times to the museum to see the real instruments.  Thanks to that book I can feel even more familiar with them now.
Once again, thank you for the work you are doing with the RAB Trust creating a link between the studying and the professional world.’