Rawhide Lanterns w/ Josh Barnwell - Asheville, NC

Craft a rawhide candle lantern by hand and explore this ancient material’s luminous magic in a hands-on workshop. As the leaves fall and the diminishing days lead to long November nights, we turn toward one of the oldest human instincts: to tend a small fire and lean in towards the light. Before glass was common, before hardware stores and headlamps, people depended on candles, shaping the materials around them into vessels to protect the light. Rawhide has been meeting this need across continents and cultures since time immemorial. When held to a flame, its translucent surface softens and amplifies candlelight like nothing else, glowing beautifully and coming to life with the flame. In this hands-on workshop, we’ll join beloved Firefly Gathering friend & instructor, Josh Barnwell, in crafting our own individual rawhide candle lantern rooted in European designs dating back to the Iron Age. During this workshop, you will: • Learn how rawhide is made and why it behaves so differently from leather • Explore its unique properties as a natural material • Select and assess hides for your project • Create and pattern your own lantern design • Clean and prepare the lantern body • Practice basic rawhide stitching • Assemble your own working candle lantern This class is open to all skill levels, whether you’re brand new to handcraft or already comfortable with natural materials, you’ll find something here: a new medium, a new technique, a new way of being with the light. Each participant will take home your finished rawhide candle lantern, as well as the knowledge and skill to continue experimenting, adapting and following your inspiration wherever it leads. This class will be held indoors on Saturday, November 14th, 2026, from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm in Asheville, NC. All Firefly Gathering workshops are hosted in the greater Asheville area, sometimes at private venues. For that reason, the actual venue address will be included in your Welcome email, approximately one week before the workshop. Class Price includes all Materials for the Class This class is suitable for all levels of experience! Moderate hand strength is helpful. The minimum age is 12 and participants under 16 must attend with an accompanying adult. Stay in touch with our Facebook event: Rawhide Lanterns w/ Josh Barnwell About the Instructor: Josh Barnwell Josh Barnwell has been a lifelong student of traditional and endangered skills, starting with learning the plants and wildlife from the woods around his home and growing from there. With over 20 years of experience under his belt, he leads classes with enthusiasm and the philosophy that by learning these skills to directly meet our needs from the natural world and attaining a connection to and appreciation of that world, we connect and align ourselves to what it truly is to be a human living on this planet. Josh teaches for various gatherings, camps, and nature programs around the southeast and beyond. When he is not leading a workshop or teaching for a gathering he is participating in the highly seasonal, cyclical crafts that make up the wheel of his year. ✨ “My favorite part of teaching is seeing the joy and enthusiasm of my students as they connect with the natural world in a tangible way. My goal is to share skills that people can carry into their daily lives, deepening their relationship with nature.” You can find out more about Josh on his website bewelloutdoors.com.