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
fun, processCommentLarkin 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.
Jellyfish Swarm
musings, process, productCommentMore stone-belled jellyfish! All of these pretties have hand cut cabochon bells except for the ones featuring Oregon sunstone which have tumbled stones-- we weren't sure how we would like the look, but it turns out they're pretty perfectly diaphanous just like their wild counterparts.
I'll be playing catch up with posts in the next couple of weeks-- Larkin has been hard at work, but for various reasons (holidays, illness, surprise kitten rehabilitation) I haven't been keeping their page up to date. Sometimes it's not ideal when your Master Of (social media) Marketing (MOM) is also your all-too-human mom. ;)
On Shopping Small
musings, process, product, venuesCommentLarkin's next market is this weekend at the Talent Elementary School! Talent Artisans & Growers curates a super sweet market with lots of amazing artists.
Having a kid embarking on this wild world of artisan craftsmanship has really brought home how important it is to support small businesses. Larkin is 18 now. These next few years will determine whether Larkin has a career or a hobby in lapidary and metalworking-- I know their creativity has positively exploded with the unfettered time and passion they've poured into their work in the last few years.
Supporting artisan businesses is supporting individual dreams, bringing a little more beauty into our world, and investing in local economy.
No more hard sell. 😉 We won't be jumping on all the seasonal buzzword sale days-- Larkin is too busy creating! Thank you for being here. Know that your comments, shares, and purchases never fail to light up Larkin's face. Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating this week!
Oak Leaf Clothing Pins
fun, musings, process, productCommentLarkin 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
fun, product, venuesCommentLarkin'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
fun, musings, processCommentSpecialty 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
musings, fun, process, productCommentI 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
fun, musings, venuesCommentOne 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
fun, musings, process, product, venuesCommentA 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
fun, process, productCommentIt’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. ;)
Lily Pads-- Three Ways!
process, productCommentLarkin has designed these shiny, mirror-like, difficult to photograph (😅) lily pads in three styles!
The hair pin is slightly smaller than a bobby pin and meant to be added to a hair tie or style, more for decoration than function. Very versatile, it can also be worn with any knit, crocheted, or loose-woven garment as a clothing pin!
The clothing pin has a hand-shaped pin and hook closure on the back and can be used with any fine garment.
The necklace comes on sterling chain with a hand-made clasp.
Equipment Maintenance
fun, musings, processCommentRight 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
fun, musingsCommentSeasonally 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
fun, musings, process, productCommentZoinks, 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
fun, musings, processCommentLarkin 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
fun, musings, productCommentLarkin 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
fun, venuesCommentLarkin 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!
Happy October!
musings, process, product, venuesCommentAs holiday markets approach, Larkin is wanting to re-stock so as many of their designs as possible are available. It had been a long time since we went through the Idle Talons website and compared it to Larkin's current stock!
So... we made a list. A very long list. And Larkin has been hard at work. You never know what you'll find on Larkin's workbench. Most of the items pictured here are bits and pieces of (or completed) items off the list. But I also spy some silver lichen-- who knew?!
And tomorrow is already first Tuesday! Come see Larkin and pick up some fresh veggies at the Rogue Valley Growers & Crafters Market, tomorrow at the Ashland Armory from 8:30 am - 1:30 pm!
Dragonfly Swarm
fun, productCommentLarkin 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!
