Forging Connections Through Nature and Metalwork
Touchstone Center for Crafts will welcome Florida-based metal artist Leslie Tharp from June 16–20 for Entwined: Botanical Studies with a Focus on Connections, a beginner-friendly blacksmithing workshop that highlights both technical skills and personal expression through natural forms.
Open to all levels, the five-day intensive invites participants to explore artistic joinery techniques and create small daily projects inspired by botanical structures. The focus on experimentation and inclusion reflects Tharp’s broader goals as an educator and practicing artist.
“We’re going to have a lot of fun,” Tharp said. “I really value exploration, and I think this medium lends itself well to experimentation. I would like [participants] to be playful and not be too scared to try something and not get it perfectly right.”
Tharp brings a wide range of experience to the workshop, from public art commissions to community engagement. As the founder of [Fe]ver Metal Art Center in Gainesville, Florida, she has developed a strong teaching practice rooted in accessibility and listening.
“[Fe]ver has helped me develop my skills as both a listener and a communicator,” she said.
A returning instructor, Tharp first came to Touchstone in 2023 as an assistant in the blacksmithing studio. The experience left a lasting impression.
“I had such a wonderful time working in the big beautiful shop and on campus meeting fellow instructors and students,” she said. “I was so excited to be invited back to lead a class.”
Tharp is also an active member of the Society of Inclusive Blacksmiths (SIBs), a group formed to support underrepresented voices in the field. She views that mission as closely tied to her work as both a teacher and artist.
“SIBs was formed to help expand access into this field,” she said. “These positive influences continue to open doors for new voices to enter, thereby strengthening the collective quality of the work being made in modern times.”
In Entwined, students will gain foundational skills in joinery while embracing opportunities to express themselves through organic shapes and sculptural forms. “I hope students leave feeling confident with some fundamental joinery techniques, and ambitious enough to experiment with their own joinery ideas,” Tharp said.
For those who may be hesitant about trying blacksmithing for the first time, Tharp offers simple encouragement: “Do it!”
Entwined: Botanical Studies with a Focus on Connections
JUNE 16-20 | 5-DAYS (MON-FRI)
Instructor: Leslie Tharp
All Levels
Join this hands-on intensive to explore botanical forms as well as joinery through the lens of artistic composition. Topics of focus include approaches to joinery for the purpose of structure and sass alongside developing organic forms within a structure composition. This beginner-friendly workshop will involve completing small project prompts daily in order to gain new skills and test the waters of your imagination. Participants will have free range to explore and customize concepts presented in the studio as they desire.