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. ;)

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...)

Cat Earrings

After a brief, long-awaited visit with grandparents (including our family's final Xmas celebrations 😅), Larkin is back at work! These sweet little feline companions are individually handmade and each has a unique personality. They are shaped from a single piece of wire, then fused or soldered to assure sturdiness and that they won’t snag. Available in copper (left), oxidized dark and polished, or argentium silver (right) polished and gleaming bright. Ready for adoption now!

What's The Opposite Of Artist's Block?

Me, wearing my Social Media Manager hat: Larkin. Would you please just finish *something* so I can make a post?

Larkin: Hang on, I have an idea...

Artists, amiright? 😅💕

Applegate Jade Doublet

Today's experiment was another doublet (well, technically doublets take multiple days due to the time it takes for the epoxy to cure, but bear with me 😅). Larkin backed a very thin disk of the deep, gemmy applegate jade with quartz. Such thin stone is very brittle on its own, so the quartz helps to stabilize it, and the clear/white allows the green to really shine!

In the first picture you can see how thin the layer of green stone really is where it meets the quartz-- and that's the raw applegate jade in the background! The top view shows the cab perched on a hunk of petrified wood.

Leaf Cabs

Larkin put in a lot of time on the Genie the last couple of days making all these leaves! Most of these are paired to be leaf earrings-- getting the stone and shape to match well definitely adds some time and challenge to the process. There's lots of applegate jade here, some really deep gemmy stone and some that have more inclusions, jasper, serpentine, and that banded red-pink jasper/agate.

Rose Quartz Moon

A new wrap! And, dare I say, worth the wait! ;) Larkin cut this round cabochon from a slab of rose quartz that was cut diagonal to a band of clearer quartz. When domed and polished, the cab contains a distinctive moon shape! The stone's true color is best depicted in this picture, taken in full sun.

Larkin framed this piece almost entirely in silver with a contrasting arch of copper in the frame on the non-wrapped edge. The back is fashioned to suit the front, with a silver crescent moon and a curling vine with copper leaves. I keep thinking this piece evokes a fairy moon from an ancient illuminated manuscript!

Flex Shaft

One of Larkin's new toys (<ahem>, I mean tools) is a flex shaft. For those of you who (like me) are new to all things jewelry making, it's kind of like a wired dremel with a smaller, pen-like body for greater control and dexterity. It's operated with a foot pedal, like a sewing machine, leaving both hands free to manipulate whatever you're working on.

Also like a dremel, it has lots of interchangeable bits for sculpting and polishing metal and stone. Larkin has been wanting to play with setting faceted stones, and here is a first try at flush setting a lab-created garnet in scrap copper.

This tool opens up a ton of new possibilities and I can't wait to see what comes next!

What We Did On Our Winter Vacation

First things first, Larkin turned 17! Woot! And yes, the candle math works out on the birthday popsicle because we lit the popsicle stick on fire when we ran out of candles.

Then we were snowed in for a week as the result of a very uncharacteristically serious snowstorm for our area. Larkin and their younger brother, Finn, made a pretty epic sled run down our driveway and built an ice cave around a large hole so that it is (wait for it...) much bigger on the inside than it is on the outside! Snow here almost always means several days without electricity, so we drank a lot beverages heated on the wood stove and played many rounds of card and board games by solar lantern.

The biggest Idle Talons news came in the form of an *amazing* offer by a neighbor in our local Buy Nothing group! This ginormous, 3-piece, just because it's in 3 pieces doesn't make it any lighter, BEAUTIFUL (have I mentioned heavy?) desk is well on its way to being converted to the jeweler's bench Larkin has been dreaming of!

Moving that sucker upstairs, then reorganizing Larkin's workspace almost entirely into it has been an enormous job, but obviously worth it as Larkin kept being distracted by having so many tools easily to hand and pausing set-up to try out new ideas.

A new wrap is in the works, as well as lots of fun new experiments that will expand Larkin's repertoire considerably. Stay tuned!

Purrfect Earrings

Hi everyone! We took a bit of a social media break over the holidays, but will have a longer update soon about some exciting new additions to the Idle Talons studio. We hope this finds you happy and healthy in the new year!

Meanwhile, Larkin recently had a request for some wire cats and these silver line art lovelies turned out pretty charming!

Bowling For... Hummingbirds?

Larkin's top favorite bowling alley employee is an amazing guy. He takes donated equipment from more experienced bowlers and passes them on to kids-- it is *amazing* to see kids improve when they have their own custom-fit bowling balls and shoes! He knows *everyone's* names, loves the game, and wants everyone to succeed. He's not a jewelry guy, but Larkin found out his wife has a soft spot for hummingbirds and designed this sweet little pendant especially for her. Cheers to Ken!

Humboldt Chert Shell

Here's a new piece hot off Larkin's workbench! Larkin cut this beautiful blue-green cab from a chert stone our family found on the northern California coast. Larkin wanted the wrap to have an aquatic shell kind of feel, very appropriate for a stone formed by oceanic processes! Larkin shaped the frame with a combination of wrapping and soldering argentium silver. Larkin oxidized the wrap, then polished the exposed wire back to shining to give it a bit more depth and dimension.

Vining Rose Doublet

Hot off the workbench! This piece is currently exclusively available over at the Royaboya Handmade Bazaar! There's also a poll going in that group and Larkin might win a prize if you respond that we're the ones who sent you there! (Shameless, huh?)

This cabochon is a doublet that Larkin formed from a face of rose quartz backed by obsidian, resulting in a really unique grey-lavender tone. Wrapped in argentium silver roses and vines, the back is simple to showcase the translucence of the stones. The bail is designed so the cord will thread through the looping vines.

And, yes! That second picture is backlit-- the stones look So. Cool!

Green Lagoon Applegate Jade

Larkin cut this cabochon from a piece of applegate jade found by our family in southern Oregon. Some of the stone’s crust is included at the bottom of the cab and we keep seeing a frog-like face: a creature from the green lagoon!

The main frame is sculpted, wrapped and soldered from copper wire, and the back plate is fused and wrapped in argentium silver wire. I can't decide whether the back looks more like kelp or a Tolkien-esque tree! Plus, the stone glows brilliantly when backlit— this is a gorgeous piece from any angle!

This piece and much more will be featured this evening at Larkin's trunk show with Dancing Beads! Tune in at 7 to see what's new :)

Agate Bouquet

This agate cabochon was a gift from a neighbor whose father did lapidary work in the 1960s. Its face is much flatter than most of Larkin's cabs and encapsulates a perfect still-life bouquet. Larkin thought that an oxidized copper frame without distracting embellishments would best highlight the beauty of the stone.

New Leaves!

Amidst all the recent exciting publicity, Larkin has been hard at work! Larkin rough cuts each of these stone leaves into its unique shape, then grinds and polishes the domed cabs to shiny perfection. A small hand-filed score at the tip of each leaf ensures the surrounding wires stay in place. Larkin then individually sculpts the stems and veins from copper wire and solder, pickles the result to cleanse it of any torch scorches, secures it to the intended leaf, dips the piece in liver of sulphur to oxidize it dark, and polishes to gleaming.

Each leaf is unique in more ways than one-- I've never seen another jeweler make anything like these! I think a fan said it best when they proclaimed these lovelies as "a pendant any hobbit would be proud to receive from Galadriel."

Rock & Gem Magazine Article

Today we made a special trip to Crater Rock Museum between bowling practices just to pick up real, paper copies of the December issue of Rock & Gem Magazine. Why, you ask? Because there's a four page article on Larkin's work!!! So much gratitude to Jim Landon who reached out to us about writing an article after finding Larkin's work on-line! (Also thanks to Larkin who gamely let me set up the young Einstein jeweler photo 🤣)

Rose Stud Earrings

Larkin is stocking up on these silver rose stud earrings. These are all shaped entirely freehand and no two are exactly alike, but all are perfectly lovely! This gleaming handful of shiny pretties will be featured at the Dancing Beads trunk show on the 30th!