Zoinks, y'all. Larkin's latest sculpture is a doozy.
Larkin modeled this oak seedling from real sprouts and leaves from the forest floor every step of the way! Leaves reflect the asymmetries, insect nibbles, and general chaos of nature.
Larkin centered the base around a copper acorn that has lost its cap and is sprouting a slender silver seedling. The acorn is surrounded and supported by hand-shaped copper leaves, still sporting the bright colors and dull finish of the final torch-work.
Larkin snapped a quick photo showing most of the leaves with their real-life models, before they were soldered together to form the base.
The seedling itself is brightly polished sterling silver, rising sturdy but tremulous on a slim stem. When the surface it rests on is bumped, the leaves shiver fetchingly as if captured in a brisk breeze. You have to look pretty closely to catch all the details Larkin incorporated into the sprout, from future growing tips to the way the leaves organically split from the stem.
If you have never closely examined an oak seedling, you may not realize that their first three leaves have a very different shape than their mature leaves. Seeing the contrast in this piece of the mature copper leaves beneath with the shiny new silver growth above is extremely striking… some would even say transcendent. (okay, "some" is Larkin's grandpa 🤣)
What a beauty!