Ginkgo Leaves

Folks have been requesting that Larkin try their hand at ginkgo leaves for some time, and a recent request from a friend finally sealed the deal! Here is their take on the unique fan shape and ripply notches of the gingko leaf. 🍃

Ginkgo biloba is the oldest living tree species. Known as “living fossils,” the species has survived relatively unchanged for over 200 million years. Fossils in the genus have been dated back to the middle Jurassic— yep, they shared the earth with dinosaurs! 🦖 Some trees live over 1,200 years and have survived some extreme events— perhaps most notably the Hiroshima atomic bomb.

Due to their remarkable tenacity, ginkgo trees have come to represent strength, longevity, and endurance.

Not gonna lie, my college had ginkgoes around the library and *I* associate them with long hours of study and that <ahem> distinctive vomit/dog poop 💩 smell the fruit develops when it drops. 😅

Want to see them in person? The Talent Artisans & Growers market is back and Larkin will be there TONIGHT 5/23 5pm-sunset!

Medford Comic Con

Larkin is at Rogue Comic Con, in the Medford Pear Blossom Park this weekend!

They made this sweet copper cloak pin to complete a friend's cosplay. Extra points if you can identify the character from the pin! 😉

Comic Con is always a good time, rain or shine!

Rogue Comic Con is TWO DAYS for 2025

Saturday, May 17th 10am - 6pm

Sunday, May 18th 9am - 4pm

Finally, Vending By Bicycle!

Guest post by Larkin's dad, Emile!

For tomorrow's Rogue Valley Growers and Crafters Saturday Market, Larkin is finally going to realize a longstanding dream: vending by bike! 🚲🎉 They have been an avid pedal power advocate from the beginning, and in a somewhat nostalgic twist the last piece of the puzzle was finally converting the kid-hauling bike trailer from Larkin and Finn's youth (seen here with the car seat strapped on top) into a cargo trailer that could be pulled by Larkin's cargo bike.

We're always looking for inspiration; do you know of other folks vending by bike, here in the valley or elsewhere?

There's a lot of fun call outs for this one. Larkin got this bike from the lovely folks over at @piccadillycycles almost two years ago, and Piccadilly provides bike valet parking at many RVGCM markets (it's lovely, you should try it out!). I've been wanting to learn to weld for forever, and the family got me a very sweet little TIG machine for solstice that I used to weld up a new towing arm and hitch receiver so we could use the cargo bike to pull it. Larkin and I salvaged the wood used in the new trailer decking from some pallets that the ACE Hardware over in Medford gave us, and @bearcreekbicycle kindly gave me the old inner tube out of their recycling bin that I used for the deck lashings.

And of course, our cat Houdini helped Larkin pack the trailer! 😻

[Jenny's note: the first photo is totally staged, when Larkin rides away tomorrow they will be in full reflective gear and securely helmeted... I just didn't want to get up at the crack of dawn to see them off 😅]

A Market Postponed and A Bloomin' Lilac

Larkin is down with a wicked cold and prudently decided to take a rest day tomorrow rather than attending their usual first Tuesday market-- so if you're a @Rogue Valley Growers & Crafters Market regular, they will be there next week rather than tomorrow!

Meanwhile, Spring is seriously sproinging in our neck of the woods, and our lilacs are putting on quite a show this year! I thought it would be a fun time to throwback to that time three years ago when Larkin was a wee bairn of 17 and made their grandma Mary a sterling lilac sprig.

One Oak Leaf, Slightly Used

While it can be fun to recreate prototypically perfect leaves, it *really* lights Larkin up to duplicate all of nature’s glorious chaos!

Larkin modeled this sterling leaf pendant after an oak leaf that was… well, thoroughly aged. The duplicate includes the nibbled lacework holes of the original, and adds the wee eggs of the inchworm perpetrator.

This snapshot of the indomitable vitality of life is, like all of Larkin's work, entirely hand-fabricated from sterling silver.

Also, lest ye be as crass as Larkin's grandpa... they're EGGS, not poop. Also also, we've been referring to this piece as the "om nom leaf" amongst ourselves.