As promised, here is Larkin's latest! If you were at the gem show on Saturday, you may have seen Larkin working on the wrap that is the base of this intricate frame.
Larkin cut this magical doorway from a piece of petrified wood found by our family near our home in southern Oregon-- it's amazing how much it still looks like... well, wood! Larkin hand-cut each of the ivy leaves from copper sheet and used a chisel to give them veins and dimensionality. Each leaf is attached to the larger vine with a tiny little stem, then also soldered to the frame for stability. Sometimes when fusing or soldering copper to silver, the silver liquifies and coats part of the copper. Larkin considered polishing the silver off the leaves, but decided they liked the two-tone effect.
Which brings us to that incredible little clump of mushrooms! Each fully 3-D mushroom is hand-shaped with solid copper caps. They are super solid and soldered to each other and the frame. The way they creep out from behind the frame looks so much like the way mushrooms behave in the wild! Both leaves and mushrooms are untreated copper, so they can be kept polished bright or left to develop a natural patina over time.
And how about that back?! A neat window and decoration that looks straight out of Tolkien!
