Wedding Whimsy

I don't think Larkin has *ever* been this busy filling orders and stocking up for markets! Wowza, what a wonderful whirlwind!

This l'il geode slice came to Larkin from someone who wanted it wrapped to wear in their wedding! They originally were looking for one of Larkin's more elaborate wrapped/fabricated pendants, but Larkin thought the raw edges and druzy sparkle of the stone was better suited to an open, vining frame.

It's fully reversible, but Larkin has a strong preference for which side is *right*! 😅 Can you tell which side they think is the front?

Roly Poly Rings!

They're here! As soon as they laid the first batch of roly polies out on their hand, Larkin knew they had to make rings!

Not gonna lie, I kinda want one to creep across every finger. 😅

Each isopod is entirely hand-fabricated from sterling sheet metal. They are mounted on a hand-made hammered sterling band that Larkin custom makes to order in just the right size. They are sized to sit on top of your finger without adding bulk between fingers. I've slept in one for two nights now and can attest to their comfort! :)

Thanks to Larkin's younger brother, Finn, for always being ready to model jewelry. Aren't his hands purty? 😄❤

Wagner Plaza Market

Local friendies! Larkin will be at this sweet little local market for the first time TOMORROW! And yes, the forecast calls for rain so they and the other vendors will be even more than usually super duper appreciative of your visit. 😉🌦

If you're hoping for roly polies, come early. 😅 Larkin has been turning them out and sending them off as fast as humanly possible over the last couple of weeks-- they will have just a few on their board!

On Strawberries And Pilfered Foliage

Larkin took our cargo bike in to its servicing appointment this morning, and went armed with a sack of metalworking tools as entertainment while they waited. 🚵‍♂️

I received thisphoto with a text: This is my happy place! Yes, my dear wee jewelry goblin, a bucket of strawberries and pilfered foliage. That looks about right. 🤣

Larkin was able to complete this ivy leaf before the bike was ready to go home, but is not sure what to do with it. What do you think-- a hair accessory? Clothing pin?

I would very much like to have seen the looks of passersby while Larkin sat in the park and pounded on metal. 🔨😅

Oak Leaf Hair Or Clothing Pins

The oak leaves are officially unfurling here in our neck of the woods! Larkin models these silver hair/clothing pins after individual leaves from the forest surrounding our southern Oregon home. Each leaf is hand shaped and textured from sheet metal and wire. The wire base is bent and shaped into waves like a bobby pin for greater staying power. Each leaf is unique, just like their wild counterparts!

These solid 0.925 sterling silver hair decorations can be used in a variety of ways to dress up a style! A pin can be used alone for a small amount of hair (it will hold slightly more than a bobby pin and less than most barrettes) or added as decoration to a hair tie. We also like wearing them as decoration in a knit cap, scarf, sweater, or shawl.

I was feeling rather guilty for breaking off a growing tip from an oak branch while trying to get a photo... then Larkin reminded me that between gusts of wind, browsing deer, and rampaging squirrels, I was probably the least of these trees' worries.

Silver Ladle Charm

Larkin is not usually inspired by things made by humans, but the other day they got a wild hair and made this tiny, fully functional ladle charm!

This wee ladle is the perfect adornment for a kitchen witch, or anyone with a penchant for making soup for fairies (not to be confused with fairy soup 😅👀)!

🧚‍♂️🍵 Larkin included tiny details like rivets at the base of the handle and a decorative handle loop to complete the piece. Right now this is a solo charm and Larkin is thinking about making sets for earrings... what should they be paired with? I wanted a stubby little footed cauldron, but they say it would be too big made to the same scale (which is apparently very important). Other kitchen utensils? A whisk? Spatula? Broom? 🧙‍♀️

Vining Rose Components

Larkin has been working on re-stocking components for these vining rose chokers/bracelets. They're a fun one at market because Larkin brings along the tools to shorten or lengthen them to whatever length is desired right there on the spot!

And if you're a fan of find-the-hidden-object type games, you'd enjoy the process of separating out all those individual components from the polishing shot. 😅

More Roly-Polies, Please!

Roly-poly? Pill bug? Sowbug? What did you grow up calling these cute creepy crawly critters? All of us here at the Idle Talons home studio think this silver version is abso-freaking-lutely delightful!

I turned over a ton of logs and rolled quite a few rocks trying to find some of their native brethren for them to pose with, but apparently it's still a little early in the spring here for roly-poly collecting.

Larkin hand-fabricates each isopod entirely from sterling silver sheet metal and wire— and while no two are perfectly identical, each is uniquely perfect!

Larkin designed these critters to come in three modes: flat, half-curled, and balled. Earrings can be mix and matched for however you’d like to pair them-- I'm partial to the half-curled ones that look like they're hugging your ear lobe!

Necklaces feature a flat roly-poly because Larkin couldn't figure out a satisfying way to hang the other modes.

Western Houndstongue

We have had some beautiful early spring weather recently here in southern Oregon! Sometimes, Larkin just can't bear to work in their studio when the great outdoors is beckoning so becomingly. The other day, they took a few tools outside and used a stump as a hammering block to... well... hammer out a couple of leaves.

The texture and veining of the houndstongue really lends itself beautifully to silverwork! What should this leaf become? A hair pin? A clothing pin? A necklace? A full-sized silver plant replica (ha ha, that might be what *I* want to see, but that's a lot of silver 😅)?

Ceramics... A Jeweler's Best Friend!

Usually being self-taught has served Larkin extremely well-- their work doesn't look like that of many other artists and they aren't plagued by pesky but-that-isn't-how-it's-SUPPOSED-to-be-done thoughts when they get the urge to try something new and potentially crazy. 😆

The one exception to this rule that comes to mind is TOOLS. Talking to other metalworkers sometimes helps Larkin discover tools that make their life much easier!

The most recent example of this is ceramic polishing shot. Larkin has been using stainless steel shot to give items their final shine all along, and that has been super helpful-- throw metal in the rock tumbler for an hour or two and come back to perfectly polished gleaming beauties! ✨ But they were doing all the harder work (sanding off burrs and rounding edges after cutting, polishing off oxidation on high spots to add dimensionality, etc.) by hand.

Lady J Arts to the rescue! Larkin was chatting with Jessica at a market, and she shared that ceramic shot will make short work of some of those tedious tasks Larkin had been doing by hand! With a couple of different grits, Larkin has been creating some designs that would have been prohibitively time-consuming before-- and their fingernails are looking a little less... demolished. 😅

Hooray for trade... what's the opposite of secrets? Generously shared bits of experience! ✨🎉

Silver Water Droplet Sculpture

Have you ever watched a small stream of water hit a puddle? It forms a sort of cup-shaped splash in the center of concentric waves. Larkin fabricated this little sculpture to capture that moment in sterling silver!

To make the slow-motion-liquid-flowy-goodness of the water drip and cup-shaped splash, Larkin melted silver in a crucible and carefully poured it into a bucket of water. It took *a lot* of pours (each one setting off all of our fire alarms 😅) before they succeeded in getting the shapes they were hoping for.

They finished off the piece by mounting it on hand fabricated concentric circles of silver, just like the ripples in a pond.

This photo of actual water by Nadezhda Vasilieva shows the effect Larkin was going for. 💧💦

Cat Tails Revisited!

These cat tails are another design Larkin has tweaked slightly-- making the seed heads contrasting copper really makes them pop! I always think Larkin's cat tails conjure up memories of halcyon summer days by the pond-- such a lovely, flowing design.

Larkin spent the last of their post-holiday/pre-market-season break visiting a friend at university in Canada and returned just a couple of days before the opening market of the Rogue Valley Growers & Crafters Market! As in years past, Larkin will be there on the first Tuesday of every month. Remember they have a fabulous new location this year at ScienceWorks in Ashland!

Sprouting Plume Agate

Larkin cut these two cabochons from the same slab of plume agate. The “inside” edges are the raw outside surface of the original stone.

Larkin positioned a three dimensional silver leafing vine creeping between the two stones, mirroring the vining feel with the swooping wires on the frame.

Squiggly root tendrils hold the stones securely in place on the back of the piece. That sweetly spiraling little vine between the two pieces of stone feels like a testament to nature’s triumph against overwhelming odds! 🌱🍃

There are some air pocks along the plume lines, accentuating the organic feel of the stone. The stone is partially translucent and will pick up a glow of color from what it it worn against. For example (third photo), if you put it on your orange cat it will pick up a distinctive orange tinge. 🤣😻

A lot of technical skill went into this piece! Setting two cabochons securely without touching is a trick-- and they DO NOT BUDGE. I tried. 😅 There are also a bajillion (at least) connection points where wire is soldered to the wrapped frame, and each of those points is an opportunity for disaster to strike, requiring a do-over from the very beginning.

This piece is honking big (follow along for more technical jargon 😅)-- much larger than most of Larkin's work!

Fidget Ring

Larkin's younger brother, Finn, had a fidget ring on his holiday wish list this year and Larkin took that as a challenge!

They started with a thick band then fit a thinner, hammered band loosely around it. They added concavity to the thick band to hold the thinner band securely in place. The thinner band is loose enough that it spins freely. They added a knobble and clasp to the thin band as one more fidgetable element.

As a use-tester, I can vouch for both the comfort and the satisfying fidgety goodness of the finished ring!

Kinetic Silver Drop Spindle

Larkin has been crafting ever since they had the dexterity to pinch two fingers together! It is somehow fitting that they created this silver homage to another beloved craft. 🥰

This is a sweet little kinetic sculpture that all spinners will recognize! Modeled from a drop spindle, Larkin created the pendant to hang naturally at full extension and collapse when gently pressed against a hard surface to produce a two-ply “yarn”! 🧶🐑

Spindle comes on a cord and can be worn as a necklace or hung as a decoration!

Silver Splats

The first of these silver splats was a happy accident when Larkin got some metal too hot and it dripped onto their soldering block. The rest happened quite rapidly when Larkin got excitedly splat-happy and started spilling molten metal for funsies.

When Larkin first showed them to me, I saw lichen, but I think they could make amazing sea foam/spray and who knows what else, too! I'm guessing we'll see a design incorporating silver splats in the not-too-distant future... 🌊🍻🦠🗯

Generational Mushrooms

Another sort-of-throwback... with a (literal) twist! Larkin modified this design so the mushrooms show three different stages of development, and added gills to the largest.

Larkin hand-fabricates these from sterling silver and affixes them to a manually twisted wire frame. They are about the size of a quarter— size may vary slightly because it’s hard to predict exactly how wire twists!

The papillated pretties these were modeled after pop up pretty much everywhere conducive to mushroom growth!

Moss Agate Jellyfish

The hood of this jellyfish is tumble polished from a raw moss agate stone found by our family, and can spin on the sculpture to face any direction. Larkin sculpted the tentacles entirely from sheet metal and round wire.

This piece is beautiful displayed by a window, and comes with bubbly loops on top to make hanging easy. We have found banana hangers make convenient displays!

Moon and Star Stud Earrings

Moon and star stud earrings! ✨🌕 Larkin fabricates each of these individually from sterling silver so no two are perfectly identical.

It is orange jelly fungus season in our neck of the woods and I decided they looked nebular enough to pose with these heavenly bodies. 😉✨🌝

I do not recommend storing the moons amongst a collection of thumbtacks (you know, in case that's where you normally store your studs 👀) because they are almost identical in size.

Build The Tools You Need

You may recall that the addition of silver chain to some designs necessitated that Larkin figure out how to polish said chain-- without it snarling and becoming hopelessly tangled in their tumbler.

They started with a copper cage that allowed them to wrap the chains loose enough to allow the metal shot in the tumbler to work its magic but kept them separated and secure. It worked great-- except the copper did transfer sightly to the silver over time.

So Larkin updated the cage to silver, adding a middle platform to help keep different chains separated and holes in the ends to fasten clasps (they need to polish, too, and picking them out of the metal shot can be time-consuming!).

Larkin loves the process of figuring out exactly what impossibly specialized tools they need... and making them!