Working with Bone – an overlooked Gift w/ Josh Barnwell
August 15 @ 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
About the Workshop: Working with Bone – an overlooked Gift
Since time immemorial, bone has filled a material niche for humanity. Harder and sharper than wood, less brittle than stone, this often over-looked gift from our four-legged kin brings both beauty and function and has been used by all of our ancestors to shape our world.
With expert guidance from beloved Firefly Gathering instructor Josh Barnwell, participants will pick a project suited to your interests and needs: an awl or needle, a crochet hook, hair pin or even a whistle! In this hands-on workshop, you will transform these material gifts into beautiful functional crafts that invite the natural world into your daily life. Through cleaning, shaping, polishing, and finishing bone by hand, we’ll explore both the practical skills of the craft and the deeper understanding that comes from working directly with animal bodies.
Participants will learn:
- Proper sourcing, handling and storage of bone
- Basic deer anatomy and how it relates to human anatomy
- How to select the right bone for different projects
- Understanding and experience of which tools to use while working with bone and how to safely use them
- Best practices for cleaning, shaping, polishing, and finishing bone
- The basics of scrimshaw and other decorative techniques
- Examples of additional bone projects to inspire future exploration
This class is open to all skill levels, from absolute beginners to experienced makers curious to explore a new material. By crafting with bone, participants are invited into a deeper relationship with the more-than-human world—one that can quietly shift how we understand kinship, care, and our human place within the larger living web of life.
This class will be held outdoors on Saturday, August 15, 2026, from 10 am – 2 pm in Asheville, NC.
Moderate hand strength is recommended. Some familiarity with basic hand tools is helpful but not required. Participants must be at least 12 years old; minors must attend with an accompanying adult.
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 through his website bewelloutdoors.com
Equitable Pricing Model $50 – $100
* Please click here to learn about your pricing options before you register for your first Perennial Workshop. The pricing options are the same for all events, so you only need to do it once!
In order to make our workshops more accessible, we offer two price options for each class, with an additional Equity Discount for qualifying individuals. Please consider these options and select your price at checkout.
- Sponsor Price $100: For those who have enough to share, thank you for being a Sponsor. This is an opportunity to contribute towards the cost of the class for someone else.
- Standard Price $75: The Standard reflects one person’s share of what it costs to produce the class and cover basic expenses.
- Equity Discount $50: We offer an additional Equity Discount for those from the following communities who support reparations and/or an equitable redistribution of wealth and would not have access to this workshop without this discount:
- Indigenous or Native American, Black, Latino/a/x
- Other peoples of the global majority, or racialized communities
- Ethnicities underrepresented in the Southeastern earthskills community
Thank you for helping transform the world into a culture of abundance, resilience, and opportunity for all.
Which Price Option is Right for You?*
*Please check your pricing options before you register for your first Perennial Workshop. The pricing options are the same for all events, so you only need to do it once!
Class Price includes all Materials for the Class
Registration closes at 8am on August 15th
