Wire currents

This one is kind of a throwback Thursday, with an update!

One of Larkin's market-free winter goals is to re-evaluate older designs, decide which they still want to carry, and stock up for the next market season.

We called these "wire currents" when Larkin first designed them several years ago-- they remind us of swirly river currents or wisps of smoke. Larkin still likes them, but thought they needed a little updating.

Everywhere the wires touch are now reinforced with solder, and the ends that had been cut wire previously are balled for a slightly more "finished" look. The feel is very much the same, but Larkin is pleased with the updates and feels like the result is a sturdier design. For the sake of completeness, this picture with the spring flowers🌼🌞 is the older version:

It's always fun seeing piles of treasures when Larkin is doing batchwork. :)

Baby's First Locket

At some point I may need to stop calling Larkin-- who turned 19 over the holidays!-- baby 😅

There was a ton of learning involved in making this piece. Larkin still gets nervous drilling holes through stone to attach elements with rivets because there is always a chance the stone they painstakingly chose for a particular project will break during the drilling process. This time, Larkin drilled the holes after the cab was completely polished. They got lucky! Next time, they will drill holes *before* completing stonework on the cabochon.

The hinge and clasp are also new elements for Larkin. The hinge is a hollow tube that the wire on the ivy vine passes through, complete with notches cut into the metal back that the wires fit into when it closes for a complete seal.

Larkin designed the tension spring clasp (I made up that term, anyone know what it’s actually called?!) that closes securely with a very satisfying quiet "snick."

Larkin fabricated the back of the locket by shaping sheet metal into a dome that almost perfectly mirrors the arch of the stone cabochon, then adding a bezel for a bit more depth to accommodate treasures. The seal is secure enough that a piece of paper will easily stay put in the locket, but there is enough space for other more three dimensional trinkets like tiny stones or a small lock of hair. Larkin filled it with faceted garnets and happily carried it around the house shaking it like a tiny, precious baby rattle. 🤣

Which brings us to the stone front! The applegate jade stone was found by our family and is not a true jade, but a serpentine more closely related to bowenite. Larkin cut this door from a particularly gemmy specimen-- when backlit, the whole piece glows a glorious yellow-green. In natural light, the stone is a mottled deep green, almost black color. The black and silvery inclusions are magnetite-- how cool is a translucent green stone that attracts a magnet?!

This piece is entirely made from stone, sterling silver, and silver solder-- no glues to break down and come unstuck over time. Larkin is not ready for this sweet little piece to leave their goblin grasp quite yet-- but they do plan on making another. ;)

Finger Gloves

One of Larkin's favorite recent discoveries is finger gloves! These are mostly designed to protect fingers from the heat that develops from friction as metal is worked. They are thin and Larkin can pull them firmly down over their itsy bitsy child-sized fingers (not gonna lie-- it's hard finding protective equipment in their size!) so they maintain finger dexterity. Added bonus: they will shred before fingertips if those rotary tools end up where they shouldn't. ;)

A Feather In Their Cap

Larkin had a request from a fellow local maker to recreate a feather in silver. The feather is meaningful because it is from their family geese, and they wanted Larkin to capture the shape without the flaws and frays of the model.

Oak Leaf Clothing Pins

Larkin has been playing with oak leaf designs and made a small batch of these which are slightly quicker to make than their previous designs.

Larkin shaped these silver and copper oak leaf clothing pins using leaves from the forest floor around our southern Oregon home as models. Some contain bug bites or are slightly oddly formed— each is unique, just like their organic counterparts!

Both copper and silver leaf backs are finished with a hand-shaped silver pin fastener, so they can be worn on any fabric. These could adorn a favorite hat, shoulder bag, jacket lapel, t-shirt, anything! Larkin also modified their fasteners slightly-- these all have twisted wire pins, making them more rigid than ever.

RoxyAnn Winery Holiday Market

Larkin's first holiday market of the season is this weekend. Open 10-5 each day, RoxyAnn Winery throws a mean holiday party! Lots of local makers will be there, plus food and beverage trucks... plus, of course, wine. This is a wonderful, fun opportunity to support small businesses this season. 🍷🎁🎀⛄️🎅

It Takes A Village

Specialty metal working tools are such a niche market that prices tend to be high for fairly simple tools. This weekend, Emile (Larkin's dad) spent some time on his make-shift front porch workbench making Larkin a couple new specialty tools. Tool steel is shaped, polished, hardened, tempered, then touch-up polished to that mirror gleam Larkin needs for jewelry work.

This way Larkin can request exactly the size/shape of tool they want-- these are two repousse tools (used to "chase"/shove metal into shape). And yes, Larkin could totally make these on their own... these are little gifts from Emile allowing them to spend more time on the parts of creation they love.

Silver Cat Tail Hair Clip

I know I shouldn't keep saying this, but... I have a new favorite hair clip!😅 I've waxed poetic before about how functional, comfortable, and lovely this style of clip is, but Larkin's designs just keep getting better. 💞

Larkin fabricated this two-piece clip from solid sterling, using just a bit of copper to really make the cattail heads pop. Both pieces are slightly bent so the clasp lays flat against the head and is comfortable even when leaning back against a head-rest.

They are designed to be placed with the concave faces together, then the stick is twisted 180 degrees to tighten the clasp and fasten the decoration securely in the hair. The frame is hammered, work-hardening the silver so the fit will remain snug over time. The pin has been rolled through a mill to achieve the same result.

This size is pretty versatile, and suitable for most hair textures and types (even if you have the kind of straight, silky hair that this style of clip usually slips out of!). If your hair is especially thin you may want to use this in conjunction with an additional hair tie. If your hair is super thick it may tie back only part of your hair.

Larkin says this design is repeatable, and I'm hoping one makes an appearance under our solstice tree this year. ;)

Barter Is Best

One of Larkin's favorite things about market is the other vendors! Josie from TerraSol Organics has gotten our whole family hooked on her pea sprouts! They dress up a sandwich like nobody's business and are an amazing addition to salads.

At the end of just about every market, Josie shows up like a beneficent sprout angel and bestows her treasure upon Larkin.

Unfortunately, Josie doesn't wear much jewelry, which is traditionally how Larkin gives thanks. But! She's a crocheter! And she had a problem with her pinky curling too tightly and hurting while she crocheted. So Larkin made her a silver finger splint that keeps her pinky at a comfortable angle while she works. She has been using it ever since, thus securing our inside connection to beautiful, crunchy sproutlings.

Chakra Crystal Vine

A regular brought Larkin this "chakra crystal" (7 different stones glued together and polished into the shape of a crystal) that had originally come with a glue-on bail. The bail had fallen off and they requested Larkin come up with a cage design that would hold it more securely.

Not one for simple cages, Larkin wrapped it in a silver leafing vine that holds the stone firmly in place and topped it with a secure bail. Et Voila!

In other news, tomorrow is Larkin's last Rogue Valley Growers & Crafters Market of the season! They will have many new items there that we haven't had a chance to photograph and list yet, so come on by for first pick of some of this season's pretties!

Pumpkin Toss-Back Thursday

It’s kinda like a throwback. ;) A reminder of a little more seasonal fun from years past! Larkin designed this sweet little pumpkin charm in the fall of 2020, when we were all trying to figure out what Halloween would look like mid-pandemic. These perfectly plump pumpkins feature textured stems and curly vine tendrils.

Larkin would be happy to recreate this design-- in copper or silver-- if anyone just has to have one. ;)

Equipment Maintenance

Right before Larkin's last market (because of course), our rock tumbler's power cord failed in a pretty spectacular circuit-blowing way. Larkin uses it as a polishing tumbler for finished products, so had a whole slew of things they were hoping to polish before market.

Our local Buy Nothing Group came to the rescue! Larkin was able to borrow a tumbler from a neighbor for a few days to complete the necessary polishing-- I can't recommend joining/starting a local Buy Nothing Group enough! It's a wonderful way to help real people in real time.

Once crunch time had past, and the borrowed tumbler was returned, Larkin set about repairing our tumbler. It turns out a lot of their jewelry skills translate pretty well to electronics! With a few pointers from their electronically-minded dad, Larkin was able to splice a new cord onto the old one and the tumbler is chugging along like a champ again.

Larkin did have to switch mind-sets a little. They were a bit horrified at how much solder they were supposed to use to make a solid connection-- a little different from their usual dainty jewelry work. ;)

Throwback Thursday

Seasonally appropriate throwback Thursday! This piece from the summer of 2020 (which puts Larkin at 15) is still probably the largest pendant Larkin has made. They were going for copper dragon wings on the sodalite cab, but we agreed the overall impression of this piece was more like a bat. 🦇🧙‍♀️🎃

Oak Seedling Sculpture

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!

Red October Mine Fire Opal

Larkin and Emile (their dad) took a field trip a few hours east of our home this weekend to dig at a public mine for Oregon fire opal! They stopped on the road for some pretty epic eclipse viewing, too.

Fire opal is gorgeous stuff-- they got one really nice, big hunk-- the matrix is actually quite thin so there's a lot of workable stone in this piece.

Larkin will cab up some of the small stuff, too, and we'll probably tumble the rest.

Importantly, they learned a lot about the area and what the stone looks like in the wild! Apparently serious miners show up with a jackhammer to expose a seam, then extract chunks with picks and chisels. Not having a jackhammer has never felt like a scarcity in our lives up until this point, but here we are. 😅

Using ethically sourced stone is very important to Larkin, and you can't do too much better than finding it yourself!

Little Brown Mushroom Trio Pendant

Larkin hand-fabricated each of these sweet little mushrooms from sterling silver and affixed them to a manually twisted wire frame.

These papillated pretties pop up pretty much everywhere conducive to mushroom growth! (Papillated = fancy science talk for looking like they have a nipple on their heads 🤣)

Larkin couldn't decide if a cord or chain suited this design better, so is making it dealer's choice.

Harvest Festival

Larkin is super excited to take part in the Talent Harvest Festival for the first time! Our small town has been through a lot in recent years and still manages to throw a pretty amazing celebration!

Sign up for the fun run, eat delicious fresh food, listen to live music, shop from local vendors, and participate in a slew of fun activities! The Idle Talons booth will be set up right on Main Street at Old Town Park, next to the skate park and across from City Hall.

Hope to see you there!

Dragonfly Swarm

Larkin has been swarmed by dragonflies! It was time to re-stock these hair/clothing pins. They're so much fun on cold weather hats and scarves... and we're ready for some cold weather!

Cascading Ivy Necklace

Larkin has been wanting to offer some more petite charms on silver chain, and this offering took some serious research and time! Last time Larkin placed a silver order, they ordered several lengths of chain in various gauges. They wanted something dainty enough not to overwhelm a small charm, but sturdy enough they would be confident it wouldn't break easily with regular wear.

Then Larkin needed to design a clasp that was not onerously difficult to make, and equally easy to fasten and unfasten without coming undone during wear. Then came the wear testing, for which Larkin recruited family and friends-- any necklace that withstands several days of construction work and overnights on a restless sleeper has been pretty thoroughly vetted!

Sounds good, right? Almost! Larkin wanted these pieces hung on the chain *before* adding the clasps so the charm can't slide off the end of the necklace. So the finished piece needs to be polished chain and all, a recipe for tangled disaster in the tumbling jewelry polisher... especially if you're wanting to polish a batch of 5-10 at a time! Using a spool that had come with wire on it, Larkin rigged up a set-up for loosely spooling finished necklaces that would fit in the tumbling polisher and keep the chain from tangling hopelessly.

Which leads us (finally!) here! The base of these petite gleaming pendants is a rectangle Larkin cut from sheet metal, hammered to appear like a brick or stone base for the vining ivy. Larkin hand cut, veined and shaped each ivy leaf from silver and affixed the vine and leaves to the base. They add the chain and clasp, give the whole thing a final polish, and ta-dah!

Quartz Jellyfish

Larkin biggered their jellyfish design into a decorative hanging!

Larkin shaped and polished the quartz hood of this jellyfish from a raw stone found on our family’s hillside in southern Oregon-- the stone can spin on the sculpture to face any direction. Larkin shaped tentacles from sheet metal and round wire, similar to their jewelry pieces, then rolled and twisted some round wire to add texture in this larger format.

This piece shines beautifully displayed in a window and comes with bubbly loops on top to make hanging easy. Banana hangers actually make wonderful displays for this kind of hanging sculpture (candle lanterns and amigurumi octopus pal entirely optional 😁)!

Question: if you purchased this sort of decoration, would you expect it to come with some sort of string and/or hook hanger, or just with the loops that make it easy to hang however you wish? Larkin's parents <ahem> have opposite feelings about expectations here... help a kid out! ;)