Sword Ring

It's a sword... it's a ring... it's a sword ring!

These hand-shaped sword rings have a ton of detail, from the tip of the blade to the lab-grown garnet set in the pommel. Larkin even textured the metal of the grip to appear as if it is wrapped in traditional leather. Perfect for D&D players, SCA members, LARPers, cosplayers, aspiring knights, and other assorted fans of fantasy! ;)

The sword blade is 4mm wide and the ring's widest point where the blade tip meets the guard is about 1.6 cm. These will be custom made to size and available later this week at the Royaboya Handmade Bazaar!

Casting An Ingot

Sound off, it won’t improve your experience at all. ;)

This video is Larkin casting a cylindrical silver ingot. They keep every little bit of silver trim and scrap wire, then melt it down to use again. Right now, Larkin mostly turns the ingots into sheet metal or larger gauges of shaped bands for things like rings-- both a big investment if you buy them pre-made.

It's pretty darn neat watching the silver turn red then melt!

Cat Shenanigans

Larkin made a little modification to these cat earrings. Apparently they sometimes shifted and hung from their rear end... which, you know, is kind of appropriate for cats, but maybe not in jewelry form. 😅

A small ring soldered to the tips of their ears keeps them in line. If you have a pair that sometimes flips, you can send it back and Larkin will add the ring and return it!

Möbius^2

Larkin shipped off a couple of Möbius rings this week and we couldn't resist checking them out stacked!

Applegate Jade Lily Pad II

Another take on Larkin's epic lily pad pendant! This time, in addition to the lily flower, there's a dragonfly tracing swooping circles. And the back! The leaves are the perfect complement to the cattail.

The stone is a dark, gemmy applegate jade (bowenite) found by our family, and the backlit picture shows how it glows green with light behind it.

If you would like to adorn yourself with this miniature silver sculpture, it will be available later this month at the Royaboya Handmade Bazaar! Preview tickets support a Ukrainian relief fund, and give you first crack at some of these one-of-a-kind treasures!

Petrified Wood Gate

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!

Silver Möbius Ring

Larkin has finalized their Möbius ring design! This solid silver ring takes the form of a Möbius strip— a shape having only one side and one boundary curve; the simplest non-orientable surface. Larkin shaped, fused, and polished this wearable mathematical figure so it is literally seamless. ;) The argentium silver band is a “comfort band” style, slightly rounded for a more comfortable fit.

These Möbius rings are 4mm wide and can be made to fit virtually any digit! Modeled here by Emile, Larkin's dad. :)

Bowling Pin Earrings

Here's a fun design that represents the rare confluence of Larkin's two favorite pastimes: jewelry making and bowling!

One of the bowling alley moms has been super supportive of us (as homeschoolers) trying to navigate the sometimes complicated world of high school bowling. Larkin designed these as a thank you for her as she helped us understand which hoops we needed to jump through and, even more importantly, where those hoops are located. 😅

These pins are argentium silver with copper bands around the necks.

Milestones, Website News, More!

Milestones, throwback... Wednesday, website news, a give-away... bear with me y'all!

Larkin is closing in on a milestone number of website orders and thought it would be fun to celebrate the occasion with a give-away! Warning: Larkin is a weird kid so their milestone number is not one of the obvious ones! 🤣 Larkin made this septarian piece at 13, back before they were old enough to cut their own cabs at the rock shop. This is not an original design and if Larkin was going to do it over they would use thicker gauge wire. That said, it's a pretty piece and a fun little chunk of Idle Talons history!

And here's the give-away: when that milestone website order is placed (could be this week, could take a couple of months) this pendant is going to be tucked into that package! So if there's something you've been eyeing it might be time to place an order-- who knows what could arrive at your door! ;)

Speaking of the website, we've made some changes! Larkin removed some older designs (including almost all the beadwork) to focus on the direction and feel of their current work. But don't fret! (🎵You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone!🎶) If something disappeared that you suddenly can't live without, shoot us a message and I bet Larkin will be willing to hook you up.

New Cabs!

Larkin's latest cabs! And yes, that round one is what we have officially dubbed "bowling alley" jasper. Looks kind of planetary to me... or maybe it's destined to be a bowling ball?

Water Lily Earrings

Remember the tiny, perfect lily flower on the recent water lily wrap? Now they're the stars of their own earrings! Larkin begins crafting these fabulous lilies by hand-cutting five layers of sheet metal silver into four petals. The five layers are staggered, petals shaped, and fused together, then finally a copper ball is set into the center. The 20 gauge hand-shaped ear wire is fused to the back. The copper center is untreated and will develop a natural patina over time.

Each step of torchwork is another opportunity for a layer of petals to rebel and slump-- on the first lily, Larkin worked the flower in halves and caused three different halves to slump before achieving the final lily. This pair was a little more cooperative (and, of course, Larkin had a bit more experience) and there were no start-all-over-catastrophic-failures.

These have been wear-tested and are quite robust, but some care should be taken when wearing them— loose knit garments may catch and snag on the petals.

Each bloom is about 1.3 cm in diameter and the total length of the earrings from the top of the ear wire to the bottom of the lily is about 2.3 cm.

Rock Shop Fun

Larkin and Emile finally made it back in to the shop at Crater Rock Museum to cut some new finds into slabs! I kinda dig the (mustard) yellow jasper with the bright teal and red streaks, but Larkin isn't sure there's a market for "'70s bowling alley chic." 😅

There is, however, already a suspiciously planet-shaped outline on the red jasper with black markings...

Market Season

So... February always feels like a short month, but when the first Tuesday in March is March 1-- well, let's just say market season took us a bit by surprise this year! 😅 Local folks: Larkin will be back at the Rogue Valley Growers & Crafters Market first Tuesdays at the Ashland Armory... starting tomorrow! New hours this season: 9am-1:30pm. Larkin would love to see you there!

The last few days have been a blur of re-stocking, finding findings, making space on the board for new designs, stamping bags with the Idle Talons logo and lots of other preparations.

I also included a photo of one of Larkin's recent "wind-down" projects, pictured next to that sweet tiny silver lily before it was affixed to a wrap. Meet "Crumb," a baby amigurumi octopus crocheted with a single strand separated from 6-ply embroidery floss. This craft is recommended only for the young of eyes. ;)

Applegate Jade Lily Pad

Holy cow, people! Larkin's work is getting more sculptural all the time-- check out this perfect three-dimensional lily flower! And those cat tails! This round applegate jade cabochon is semi-translucent and full of deep, rich greens. Larkin framed it in a silver lily pad that has been wrapped, sculpted, fused, and accented with copper.

This piece is definitely more delicate than any other piece Larkin has made to date! Larkin is usually very careful to make sure their finished products are robust enough to stand up to daily wear, but this lily had to be made. ;) While the lily's petals are not dangerously sharp, the lily flower is very 3-dimensional and could easily snag on a loose-knit garment.

New Leaf Earrings!

New leaf earrings are up! Larkin makes matching pairs by rough cutting the cabochons while two slabs are adhered together. Then the pairs are separated for the final doming and polishing.

These beauties are surprisingly light— even the large leaves weigh slightly less than a U.S. quarter! Each leaf hangs from a handmade ear wire. This collectionincludes "applegate jade" (bowenite), banded jasper, and serpentine. Two pairs of applegate jade are very dark to the naked eye, and glow a deep gemmy green when back-lit-- the second photo shows a pair with sunshine shining through it!

Superrock Sunday

While the rest of the world was apparently watching some football game (or maybe it was a concert?), we spent a blissfully secluded Sunday out in the Applegate. I spotted: a rare glimpse of a teen rock gnome in their natural element, a very happy dryad cyclops, a similarly satisfied adult rockhound, and a GORGEOUS sunset. I also included a picture of the road. Why, you ask? That big rock in the middle? It's applegate jade! We left it, because... well, it was road! But it's interesting to see how innocuous and easy to overlook it is in its natural state. Larkin is pretty excited to slab up some of our new finds!

Copper Ring Prototype

Larkin has been wanting to play with rings for a long time and has finally collected (most) of the tools to make it possible! This is a copper-banded prototype with silver vines, leaves, and stone setting. The faceted stone is a lab created garnet. The whole thing is oxidized dark, then Larkin hand-polished the silver back to bright. It's interesting-- to the naked eye the ring looks uniformly sleek and shiny, but in these full sun close-ups the color is uneven and it looks a bit like it was bested in a brawl.

Larkin loves the look of the dark copper, but so many people react to the metal it doesn't seem practical to offer copper rings. If there are any jewelers here with tips on how to treat oxidized copper so it won't react with with skin, we'd love to hear them-- we know some people recommend clear nail polish or waxes, but it's important to Larkin not to use anything that will discolor or degrade over time.

Someone's In The Details...

Sometimes this kid just can't leave well enough alone... 😅

Larkin couldn't stop thinking about a decorative bail to match this recent applegate jade piece, so finally sat down with the torch to make one. It's a pinch-style bail, but Larkin fused the tip to ensure the join was super secure. This involved removing the stone, doing the torchwork, pickling the piece to remove any scorch marks, re-polishing, and tying the stone back in again. But now it's perfect. ;)

Air Supply

Larkin had an order for an "air" pendant and realized it was time to re-stock. Avatar: The Last Airbender has been a huge hit with our whole family, and we heartily recommend it to anyone who loves cartoons! The show inspired three years of Halloween costumes for Larkin: Katara (Larkin is 9, guest appearance by their 7-year-old brother Finn as a Minecraft pig), Toph (age 10, probably still Larkin's favorite character), and Zuko (age 14).

Larkin translated the Avatar elements beautifully into wire!

Springtime Applegate Jade

Larkin just finished another piece from that hunk of applegate jade I just can't seem to stop waxing poetic about! 😅 This is not the highest gem-quality specimen, but our whole family loves the patterned swirls of lighter and darker green. Some areas of this stone are opaque, and some glow translucent green when back-lit.

Larkin spent a *ton* of time with the torch, sculpting and fusing elements of the frame so the final wrap would complement the feel of the stone. This piece has beautifully dainty details while feeling solid and sturdy in the hand. The stone in the middle photo is the one from which Larkin cut the cab. Thank goodness we still have about half-a-loaf-of-bread worth of the raw stone still uncut! (I'm pretty sure that's the accepted lapidary measurement scale...)