One more piece, just finished and added to the Idle Talons album at the Royaboya Handmade Bazaar! There's even a video of Larkin doing the finish work over there. :) Larkin wrapped the purchased moonstone scroll in bright argentium silver scrollwork.
New Tree Of Life
venues, product, process, musingsCommentThis is the finished piece Houdini the cat was helping with the other day! The background cab of this piece is cut from a stone we found while we were still learning what applegate jade looks like in the wild. We suspect this stone is a mixture of applegate jade, serpentine, and magnetite-- the raw stone is pictured here.
The mini moon cab is cut from local quartz and tangled in the branches of a tree of life. The frame and tree have been oxidized and polished.
This piece is currently exclusively available at the Royaboya Handmade Bazaar, and will be on the Idle Talons website Monday if it survives. ;)
Hair Sticks!
product, venuesCommentThese are each one of a kind and will be available starting tomorrow morning at the Royaboya Handmade Bazaar!
No Crossing Your Fingers, Either
fun, musings, process, venues, productCommentHoudini is helping Larkin wrap up (get it? 😅) a couple more pieces before the bazaar opens on Friday. These photos also illustrate why you should ALL solemnly double-dog swear, cross your hearts, no takesbacksies NOT to ever ever play the "find the white cat hair" game in *every* *single* *one* of Larkin's product photos. It's a terrible game, trust me.
Market Season!
product, venues, processComment<Phew> Larkin is busy re-stocking for tomorrow's first Tuesday with the Rogue Valley Growers & Crafters Market at the Ashland Armory from 8:30-1:30. Stop by the Idle Talons booth if you're in town! AND the next Royaboya Handmade Bazaar starts this Friday! Larkin is working hard on new wraps and hair sticks perfect for keeping cool this summer. It's an amazing line-up of vendors with everything from handmade eco-friendly laundry products to skin care, clothing, and fine art. Best of all, you know you're supporting small mom- and youth-owned businesses. This is a virtual market on Facebook, so join the group to get in on the fun, prizes, and amazing handmade products.
Scarf Wraps
product, process, musingsCommentA neighbor found these stones on their property and polished them in a rock tumbler. They wanted a simple wrap suited to their natural 3D pebble shapes so Larkin wove them into what we've been affectionately calling a "scarf" wrap. These are a beautiful, quicker way to tie in stones that haven't been cabbed!
How A Jeweler Does Fencing
musings, funCommentEmile (Larkin's dad) and Larkin were sealing up some escape routes in our chicken area and Emile was hemming and hawing over the lack of necessary hardware to make it easy to clip up bird netting. A few twists of Larkin's pliers later and those hens aren't going anywhere!
Inspiration Strikes
musings, process, product, venuesCommentSometimes inspiration comes from some pretty odd places! The lid on a storage box in the Idle Talons bedroom/workshop has a pretty little scroll on its edge and Larkin translated it into wire.
We are thinking it would make a pretty gorgeous circlet/headband! I've been (somewhat selfishly) trying to talk Larkin into expanding into hair decorations, and look! A hair stick with those same delightful curls!
Scorched copper is so pretty, but isn't practical for most jewelry since it turns people green. Another point in favor of copper hair decorations! ;) Larkin is hoping to debut a collection of these lovelies next month in the Royaboya Handmade Bazaar-- we hope to virtually see you there!
It’s Elemental, My Dear Wire Bender
musings, productCommentIt's a little ironic that, in the middle of this extreme heat wave, Larkin discovered it was time re-stock Avatar: The Last Airbender fire pendants! These have been super popular over the years and we can't recommend the show enough-- it's one of the few shows every single person in our family loves. These elemental symbols sure translate beautifully into wire!
Pride Event
fun, product, venuesCommentLarkin is braving the heat (and breaking in the new banner!) at a Pride event today-- stop by to say hi if you're in the area!
Vining Leaf Earrings
musings, process, productCommentRemember the back of that applegate jade pendant that featured a sweet little leafing vine? Larkin translated that design into earrings! These are made up in copper, bright silver, and oxidized silver. Thanks to cousin Theresa for the design inspiration!
Amazonite Lagoon
musings, process, productCommentLarkin cut this teardrop cabochon to get a feel for working with amazonite before making the drawer pulls. This stone looks so much like clear Caribbean waters!
Wrapped in argentium silver and accented with smooth mother of pearl and faceted amazonite beads, this piece is sure to conjure memories of the halcyon days of summer even on the darkest winter night!
Amazonite Drawer Pulls
musings, process, productCommentLarkin had a special request for amazonite drawer pulls and they turned out beautifully! Amazonite is a difficult stone to work with and Larkin's poor perfectionist soul struggled a bit with the small chips at the edges. These will be winging their way to their new home tomorrow!
Fired Rocks
A neighbor posted in our local Buy Nothing group looking for someone who might be able to clean up their grandfather's tumbled rock collection after it burned in last year's Almeda fire. I'm kicking myself for not getting a before picture-- they were all coated in a thin, grey, smokey, cemented-on film. They had tried scrubbing and soaking to no avail and were hoping to find someone with a tumbler to see if that grimy coating could be coaxed off.
We put one load all the way through the tumbling process, but the structure of the stones had been compromised in the high heat of the fire so many broke, and getting anything to polish when they kept generating their own ragged edges was nearly impossible!
We ended up running them in small batches overnight, in a tumbler barrel with plastic medium and borax. That minimized the breakage and actually got the coating off! I'm sure the stones lost some color being burned, but they look (and feel) SO much better than they did. It feels like we helped restore a little piece of family treasure. 💕
Desert Landscape
musings, process, productCommentLarkin's latest commission was a wrap around this gorgeous 3-piece cab made by the customer's grandfather. The cab is backed by some green-ish opaque stone, and the front features a picture jasper landscape topped by a blue agate sky.
The piece had been worn as a bolo tie for many years, and Larkin transformed it into a pendant. Larkin wanted to frame the piece without obscuring the cab, and used thicker than usual wire because it's a much larger piece than most Idle Talons work. A gorgeous portal into a desert land!
A Banner!
fun, venuesCommentLarkin's next in-person market booth is going to look so professional! This will make its debut at a Pride event in Grants Pass on the 25th, then appear at the first Tuesday RVGCM at the Ashland armory. Woot!
Applegate Jade Triangle
process, product, musingsCommentThis is one of Larkin's double-sided applegate jade cabochons, domed and polished on both sides with a hole drilled sideways through the tip leaving both faces unbroken. Larkin squared the copper framing wire in the metal roller then twisted it in various directions to fashion a simple frame that really glints in the light!
The frame and stone are not actually attached, so they each dangle and sway independently. Tiny soldered loops hold the frame on the cord and the whole piece is reversible. This piece was a bit too small to hide the flashlight, but it's still fun to see how it glows when backlit! The last picture features the stone from which the cab was cut.
Vining Applegate Jade
musings, process, productCommentThis piece makes me wonder if I finally need to claim my own piece of Larkin's work! If you like petite pieces with intricate detail this just might be the one for you. Larkin cut the cab from applegate jade found by our family, then shaped, wrapped, squooshed, and fused silver wire to form the frame.
The second picture shows how it glows when backlit (!!), and the third shows the sweet little vine Larkin put on the back (as well as the stone the cab was cut from in the background)-- another piece that makes it hard to decide which is the "right" side! Bonus: this translucent green stone also attracts a magnet!
process, product, musingsComment
This piece was made for a neighbor who found the stone on their property after it burned last summer in the Almeda Fire. They have invited Larkin back to do some very close to home rockhounding as they have found a ton of jasper, agate, quartz, and even some stones that look a lot like applegate jade (but what the heck is it doing there?!)! Witnessing our neighbors' journey while the whole community recovers from wildfire has been truly humbling.
This was a small Quartz With Cool Green And Orange Coloring (I'm sure that's the technical term) stone to begin with, so Larkin embraced its asymmetry in both the cab and the wrap style. Larkin sees a forest releasing clouds of springtime pollen. :)
Workshop Update
musings, processCommentWe know news from the Idle Talons workshop has been sparse lately, but not due to inactivity! Larkin has been super busy working on commissions, playing with new tools, and prepping for markets. There are some fun new things in the works, we promise!
