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EVENT DETAILS HERE!
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.
