This piece went home with someone at market before I managed to catch up on posting... it's hard to get good help these days! 😅
Larkin cut this cab from a Humboldt jasper stone and went with the autumnal leaf vibe of the stone while wrapping it. The combined textures and colors of the gnarled silver/copper tree of life and the hammered copper oak leaves make for a striking statement piece!
As always, Pippin had to get in on the photo shoot. 😼
This is a piece from about 4 years ago and I love the way Larkin matched the underwater feel of the stone with their silver embellishments! It's interesting how often the finished piece seems to be a mostly mirror image of their sketchy design.
Larkin is an amazing artist in metal and stone. And, historically, those mad skillz Absolutely Do Not translate to paper and pen/pencil. 😅 That said, they *do* have a sketchbook, and that is where most of their designs start!
We thought it might be fun to join in with other artists on "Sketchy Sunday" and share Larkin's sketch with a photo of the finished piece.
This piece is from about 5 years ago, when Larkin was 16. I had learned by then that magic was probably about to happen, but it would still be fun to have a video of my face as Larkin drew this sketch and described the beautiful, firey mermaid they were about to create.
Good thing this kid can stick the landing!
Slugs! Larkin was inspired to make these wee naked snailies after designing their l'il snail studs. Since they are all hand-fabricated, no two are likely to have banally balanced body bends or facsimile flippant foot flexes.
While no two are perfectly identical, great care is taken when pairing them up to ensure that the character of each pair is an excellent match. Seriously, arguments (uh... I mean spirited disagreements) have been had. 😅 Larkin has these in pairs or as a single earring for all us asymmetrically pierced folks!
And, hey-- happy first Tuesday! Larkin is all set up TODAY until 1:30pm at Rogue Valley Growers & Crafters Market in Ashland-- stop by and say hi!
Larkin has been playing with foldform techniques! They designed these unique earrings with a corkscrew-style twirly ear hook that, when worn, makes you appear to have a second piercing with a hoop. The style is a sort of infinity loop so the earrings appear to have no back! 💫
Off the ear, the ear wire looks like it’s tracing the twirly path of a leaf fluttering in the breeze as it falls from its tree. 🍃These earrings are a tiny silver work of art on and off the ear!
To make these, Larkin starts off by cutting a rhombus from sheet silver. They fold it in half and cut out the general shape of the leaf, then whack the (non)living daylights out of it with a hammer until it is appropriately aesthetically submissive. They then painstakingly pry the two halves apart and give it a few more whacks for good measure before accepting its final form. This technique allows the metal to settle into its own, slightly ruffled (literally and, one can assume, figuratively), organic three dimensional form.
As far as I can tell, the only reason these all look as similar as they do is because Larkin has replaced their arm with some kind of freakishly pressure-sensitive organic hydraulic hammer.
They also said something about cutting a notch for for the stem and attaching and polishing it so you can't even fricking tell (my words, not theirs) they started out as two pieces of metal. And there was a lot of verbiage about annealing (heating up the metal so it's malleable) and re-annealing and then annealing some more, various whirring blades/brushes, and pliers whoopdedoo.
Anyhoo, I'm hoping for a video because I'm not feeling like my word picture is doing this creative process justice. 😅 Nice leaves, though, hey? 🍃
What's popping up in your garden lately? Larkin's garden friend (yep, they've been playing with ceramics!) is suitably awwwwed by these charismatic little snail buddies. 🤩🐌
Larkin's itsy bitsy snails are the embodiment of whimsy and charisma! Are all of those tiny eyestalks identical? Nope! Do their sassy little feet curl delightfully in the same direction? Absolutely not! Their uniqueness and distinct personalities are part of their hand-fabricated charm.
Not gonna lie, from a distance these diminutive mollusks appear to be generic stud earrings, but up close they are something pretty special. If you're local, you can look for these cuties later this week at The Drift Collective in Ashland ! 🐌🐌🐌
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?
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!
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!
