Spring is officially sproinging on our hillside here in southern Oregon! Snails are sliming, fruit trees are foomping, daffodils are daffodillydallying, shooting stars are meteoring!🐌🥀🌸💫
Anything in the spring time world you'd like to see Larkin immortalize in silver?
Larkin has been playing with enamel! Once again, Uncle Felix circumvented new-toy-investment-malaise by plopping a variety pack of colored enamel powders on Larkin's workbench.
One of their very first efforts resulted in this delightful little blueberry!
The triple-circle earrings move freely so they shimmy alluringly like scales, and if you spin the largest circle the others orbit around it like recalcitrant celestial bodies.
It's hard to believe, but market season is already upon us! We were traveling during what would have been Larkin's first Tuesday at Ashland's Rogue Valley Growers & Crafters Market, but they will be there bright and early tomorrow with some new work (including some enamel pieces) and old favorites.
Hold on to your hats and britches folks, no matter how closely you look at Larkin's latest design you won't find any telltale worms, slugs, or leafy parts! But never fear, they DO have an origin story...
It seems to be a universal human experience: at some point we have all held either end of a hair tie or rubber band and twisted one end a bit. Most of us have been captivated by that shape and then played it like an accordion and watched as the curve undulated. These earrings encapsulate the illusion of that movement in sterling silver!
Lightweight with an alluring dangle (the video is Larkin attempting to demonstrate their waggle!), the enigmatic curves of these earrings are uncomplicated yet elegant.
I have gotten so many compliments while test wearing them, and I'm happy to report that they did not get tangled in my curls as I expected them to! They seem to be a universally-flattering shape and are a gleaming example of what silver does best.
They're here! Yet another Larkin original design that is sure to make people go "ooooooh... wait... what?" 😂
If you have spent very much time hiking in the coastal pacific northwest, chances are you’ve come across a slug dangling from a… mucous thread? Slime rope? These earrings are Larkin's celebration of the lowly decomposers who play a crucial role in the forest ecosystem.
Larkin has somehow managed to hand-fabricate these slugs to strike a surprisingly elegant form with swooping, organic curves from a distance… but when you’re up close? Antennae! Their bodies are lightly textured, just like their natural counterparts (but without the slime) and come in two forms— stretched out straight or sweetly curled.
In other news, we are (very tardily) joining the reels party! Are there things you love to see in reels? Pet peeves? We (reely 🤣) don't know what we're doing, so please throw your preferences our way! Today’s attempt to be hip:
NoOOOoooOOo not the paparazzi! Real time slow-motion banana slug avoids photo shoot. Okay little buddy, we won't force you to model Larkin's fancy new sterling silver slug earrings.
Find them in the shop!
Spolier alert! Here’s the inspiration for Larkin’s glamorous new design! Coming soon 😉
As parents, it can be difficult to help your children understand all of the rules that exist in this crazy world. Several years ago, I explained to Larkin that a rare subset of Life Rule 6732.8B was only a few years from taking effect. Namely: IF a kid is a precocious silversmith, AND their parents still like each other a whole lot, AND said parents celebrate their 25th (silver!!) wedding anniversary, aforementioned kid is required to produce new wedding rings for their parents.
Hey, I don't make the rules. 👀
Last month, the rule took effect! Emile and I (Larkin's parents) aren't necessarily an obvious match. Emile is a bit of a desert rat, born and raised very near our current home in arid southern Oregon, who spent his childhood exploring the local oak/madrone/manzanita savannas. I am more of a... well, bog witch is what comes to mind. 😅 I'm more likely to haunt the cool, damp environments typical of pacific northwest rainforests.
So Emile is represented by a gnarled manzanita branch with a distinctive lone leaf, while Larkin designed a furled, fuzzy fiddlehead frond for me. We disagree on which way they should be worn, but we have both firmly adopted them as daily wear rings... which made getting photos challenging!
The other day, Emile and I were out enjoying a wee tipple at ART BOP BEER CO where they adorn each table with a sweet little succulent planter, perfect for an impromptu photo shoot!
So here you go... this is what happens when a pasty pink bog witch and an olive-toned desert rat produce a sparkling unicorn jewelry gnome. 🧙🐀🌵🔥❤️⚒🦄
It has been a weird few days on the interwebs, friends. Someone stole our pictures of Larkin's isopods, slapped their own name on the photos, and is claiming to sell them. Presumably they are trying to get money without shipping an actual product. It feels pretty awful to have our photos and Larkin's many hours of design and fabrication associated with a scam.
Please, if you see Larkin's isopods being posted by anyone other than Idle Talons or Larkin Hamilton, comment with Larkin's website and report the post! We can't see and report many of them because they are occurring in closed groups. Roly polies were responsible for a large percentage of Larkin's income in the last year and it would be a huge blow to this young artist's burgeoning business to have them tainted by unscrupulous people. 💔
Summertime means wild roses in our neck of the woods here in southern Oregon! 🌞🌸
Larkin's wild rose stud earrings have been a popular design, and they wanted to try their hand at fabricating more detailed, life-size roses. These lovely blossom pendants each feature five heart-shaped petals and twenty five (yes! 25!) stamen. The center is that unique fuzzy/dimpled texture characteristic of their wild counterparts. Can any flower fanciers out there tell us what that part is called? Is it the ovary? Image searches have failed me.
Can I talk about the back yet? I wanna talk about the back. 😅 Each rose also has a wearer’s secret, not visible to the casual observer! The attachment hoop for the necklace cord is no boring jump ring, but is actually a wee inch worm pal. <swoon> 🐛
I'm a big fan of the mixed metal copper/silver combo-- what do you think? Copper or silver petals?
Folks have been requesting that Larkin try their hand at ginkgo leaves for some time, and a recent request from a friend finally sealed the deal! Here is their take on the unique fan shape and ripply notches of the gingko leaf. 🍃
Ginkgo biloba is the oldest living tree species. Known as “living fossils,” the species has survived relatively unchanged for over 200 million years. Fossils in the genus have been dated back to the middle Jurassic— yep, they shared the earth with dinosaurs! 🦖 Some trees live over 1,200 years and have survived some extreme events— perhaps most notably the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
Due to their remarkable tenacity, ginkgo trees have come to represent strength, longevity, and endurance.
Not gonna lie, my college had ginkgoes around the library and *I* associate them with long hours of study and that <ahem> distinctive vomit/dog poop 💩 smell the fruit develops when it drops. 😅
Want to see them in person? The Talent Artisans & Growers market is back and Larkin will be there TONIGHT 5/23 5pm-sunset!
Larkin is at Rogue Comic Con, in the Medford Pear Blossom Park this weekend!
They made this sweet copper cloak pin to complete a friend's cosplay. Extra points if you can identify the character from the pin! 😉
Comic Con is always a good time, rain or shine!
Rogue Comic Con is TWO DAYS for 2025
Saturday, May 17th 10am - 6pm
Sunday, May 18th 9am - 4pm
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 😅]
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.
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.
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! 🌞🌱
Last time Larkin visited their grandparents at the coast, they were inspired to create these Medusozoa beauties! 🪼🪼
The stones have been shaped and matte polished by the forces of the ocean waves.🌊
The earrings are quartz, and the necklace is an unknown (to us) stone that has the distinctive striped look of many rocks on west coast beaches. There's something kinda poetic about the way Larkin combined these rough, natural goodies with their own slick, stylized silverwork.
We always called these whirligigs or helicopter seeds until we learned their official name is samaras. Okay, actually we still often call them whirligigs or helicopter seeds. Technically, they are the winged nut of maple trees... and who doesn't love a wingnut? 🤪🌳🍁
What do you call these whirling, fluttering flora butterfly seeds?
Larkin now makes these as earrings, necklaces, and clothing pins!
Did I get your attention with that photo? 😅 Check out how this moss agate glows when it's back-lit! This bodacious beauty was part of the botryoidal booty Larkin and their dad, Emile, brought home with them after digging in the Maury Mountain agate beds in central Oregon.
🎵🎶"I'd like to be, under the sea..."🎶🎵 🐙
Larkin cut this unusually chonky cabochon leaving those lumpy botryoidal bubbles raw to highlight their likeness to the roiling ocean deep. And, of course, they set the stone accordingly. Hand-fabricated sterling tentacles, complete with suckers, hold the stone in place and twirl around the frame to become the bail. The back is finished and braced with kelp blades.
I’m adding this message we sent out on social media here since it explains our recent inactivity here, too.
We know we've been absent the last few months. We live in the U.S. 'Nuff said? Probably, but I'll say a little more. We know the corporations and people who control social media are not being the change we want to see in the world and we have been feeling a little, well, boycotty and generally unsure about our continued presence here. But the truth is that we miss y'all! And Idle Talons (along with so many other small businesses) are not set up to survive without a social media presence.
We're glad to be here with you, and will continue to work for positive change. ✊
Larkin is re-stocking today at The Drift Collective Ashland, including their prototype pair of these samara (the winged nut of the maple) earrings! 🍁
It has been so interesting seeing what Larkin's biggest hits have been in a brick and mortar location-- it's definitely a little different than online and at their in-person markets! Of course, the roly polies still kind of dominate everywhere they go-- more of them are being delivered to the Drift Co today as well. Team isopod for the win! 🎉
Otherwise, it has been hard keeping the copper and silver vining leaf earrings in stock and all of Larkin's mismatched earring designs have been doing very well.
If you're local and haven't checked out Drift Co, you absolutely should! They have so many amazing products, all handmade by local artists-- and believe me, the local artists could really use your support right now! 💕
As promised, here are pictures of Larkin's latest piece... once I coaxed the cat off of it. 😅 This piece features a cabochon that Larkin cut from a gifted slab of jasper found in Biggs, Oregon. Biggs jasper is known for its landscape appearance, and Larkin designed this piece to make the most of that!
Larkin framed one side of the front with a tree shaped from copper wire that they then flooded with silver solder, resulting in a striking color and texture combination. The natural gnarls of the tree are balanced on the other side of the frame by a strong, smooth curve of solid silver. The tree’s roots hold the stone in place at the bottom of the piece, extending partially on to the back side.
"Tree of life" pieces are notoriously difficult to finish cleanly in a traditionally wire wrapped piece because there are SO many ends of wire that need to be tied off. Larkin's combination of wrapping and more traditional silver smithing means that they were able to neatly solder those bundled ends to the frame, rather than tying them off individually. This leaves the back wide open as another space to fill!
And fill it they did-- this piece is truly reversible, with a back that is as stunning as the front! Larkin fashioned a trio of copper toadstools, basking in the glow of a crescent moon while tapered wisps of evening breeze pass overhead. (I wouldn't necessarily have guessed that tapering wire is a tricky, time-consuming process, but apparently it is!)
Hey, friends! We're back! We're easing our way back into social media after a long break with this short photo essay illustrating the daily trials and tribulations of Larkin's product photographer. 😅
Holidays are always busy around our house-- Larkin and their brother both have birthdays in late December, as well as all of the usual holiday hoopla. Larkin is 20! I know... what?!! So I guess now we have to find and edit all the digital places we've referred to Larkin as a "teen jeweler" in the last seven (!!) years.
This is also the first holiday season that Larkin was so busy filling orders and keeping inventory in stock at @thedriftcoashland that they didn't have time to do very much new, creative work. They are back to it, and really enjoying the play time. 😊
This year will bring some fun, big new changes for Larkin! We'll be posting new updates, including more flattering (less Catzilla 😹) photos of their latest piece soon... thanks so much for joining us on this wild ride!