Instructors

Haley Arbour

“My work is inspired by elements found in architecture and industrial forms. I delight in repetitive patterns and bold lines, finding comfort in their predictability. Familiar shapes from tools and systems influence my perception of symmetry and serve as the cornerstone for my compositions. Using traditional forging methods to create each piece, I reflect on the relationship between industrial shapes and organic movement, observing how they coexist in the world around us.”

Haley Arbour is a Canadian smith hailing from southern Alberta. Graduating “with an emphasis in blacksmithing” from Kootenay School of Arts in 2021, exposure to the craft sparked her international journeyman-ship across the globe. She has worked as a blacksmith at Paladin Art in Zurich, Switzerland; Center for Metal Arts in Johnstown, Pennsylvania; Mountain Forge in California; Cloverdale Forge in Winnipeg, Manitoba; and Manuka Forge in Calgary, Alberta. She has received scholarships for the Winter Residency and the Forging Focus at the Center for Metal Arts, and has been recognized by the Canada Council for the Arts. In her own work, she exercises tool making as a foundation for exploring sculptural forms. Her passion derives from the need for inclusivity within the craft, teaching workshops to beginners looking to expand their skills.

“As an instructor, I believe that a clear path to learning is one where students are given a space in which to be vulnerable and are encouraged to be comfortable with their vulnerability. The learning environment I value and work to provide for students is one where inclusivity and emotional safety exist together. During my workshops, my goal is to share my love and knowledge of the craft, helping students to feel empowered by teaching them how to forge and inviting them to openly share their thoughts and feelings, while encouraging self-confidence and trust. Through forging education, students will be given the space to be able to embrace and celebrate each other's differences, as well as accept themselves and their peers for who they are.”

Tamara draws from a love for Art Nouveau and classic architectural ironwork, forming creations that are nature-inspired, full of flowing and shapely characteristics. With a humble studio in her home, she wields her creativity into a wide variety of artistic pieces. Tamara's intention is to bring the beautiful to the functional, and the extraordinary to the everyday, through her craft. Beckoning back a time of craftsmanship and quality that stood the test of time. She believes in the value of handcrafting, made with love, care, and attention to detail. Maybe it's from her love of dancing and music, but she believes everyone has a rhythm to forging, a meditation in sculpting, and if given the space to find it, believes we can all achieve a flow through these mediums.

Tamara Morgan grew up in rural Saanich on Vancouver Island. Her childhood was spent focusing on dance and theatre performance. However, she was always inspired and awestruck by the blacksmiths at the annual Saanich fair, dreaming up a passion for metalworking. While living in Victoria, Tamara heard of an art college in Nelson, B.C. that had a program for blacksmiths, KSA. On a whim, she applied for the program and decided she was moving. In Aug, 2003, at 24 years old, Tamara sold everything she had, packed up and relocated. During this program, she discovered blacksmithing came naturally, and she found her love for sculpture. In the spring of 2006, she graduated from a 3-year program for Metal Arts at Kootenay Studio Arts, at Selkirk College.

Tamara has been creating hand-cast, bronze sculpture and custom forged work for homes and businesses since. Remaining near Nelson, she has found a home in the mountains, raising a family and continuing her journey as an independent artist. Blacksmithing, casting, sculpture, and mixed media are now the spread of her career. Her work exists in local homes, and her sculpting skills can be seen on collaborative sculptures in Central Park, as well as memorial work locally.

The love of her crafts and a desire to share the passion are the focus of her drive for teaching. To encourage exploration, learn history, and find our own visual language within the skills are what she aims to inspire in her students. 

Lashen Orendorff

Drawn to the unusual and surprising forms that emerge through the forging process, Lashen’s work embraces a balance between technical precision and spontaneity. Organic, surreal, and haunting, his sculptures investigate themes of transformation, memory, labour, and the emotional weight carried by material itself. Beneath the hammer’s blow, steel becomes more than a structural medium but a vessel for gesture, atmosphere, and presence.

Based in British Columbia’s Slocan Valley, Lashen Orendorff is an award-winning blacksmith, sculptor, old punk and interdisciplinary craftsperson whose practice bridges fine art, traditional craft, and functional design. He is a founding member of Nearside Arts Society and a graduate of the Sculptural Metals program at the Kootenay School of the Arts. His sculptural work has been featured in the Castlegar Sculpturewalk as well as in exhibitions and gallery showings throughout the Kootenays and across British Columbia. He maintains a studio practice producing commissioned sculpture, custom furniture, architectural metalwork, and hand-forged tools.

Central to Lashen’s practice is an ongoing curiosity of how material can communicate beyond function alone. Whether creating sculpture, furniture, or toolmaking, he approaches craft as a conversation between maker and material, one that rewards patience, attention, and response. This same philosophy informs his teaching, where he encourages students to engage with process, develop technical fluency, and remain open to creative discovery within the work. His instruction invites students to see forged steel not simply as a stubborn industrial material, but as something capable of expressing sensitivity, utility, and enduring beauty.