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.

Daffodil Earrings

Larkin designed these unique daffodil earrings so that they occupy the nebulous space half-way between stud earrings and hook earrings! They are designed with the stem as the hook, capturing the distinctive shape of a blooming daffodil.

Larkin was inspired by the daffodils blooming around our house to create these lovelies, but by the time the prototypes were finished our blooms were dry and done. Our local Buy Nothing Group came to the rescue! Thanks to bizarre microclimates, we found neighbors with fresher blossoms who were willing to let a photography goblin crouch in their yard for a few minutes. 😅📸

The stem, petals and pistil are hand-fabricated from sterling silver, while Larkin captured the corona in contrasting copper.

These daffodils are like wearing your own piece of spring! If you zoom in on the pictures with ears, you may notice our subject <cough> Larkin <cough> is also wearing a piece of spring... in the form of garden grime! Happy sink-your-toes-into-the-dirt-season y'all! 🌞🌱