Green Lagoon Applegate Jade

Larkin cut this cabochon from a piece of applegate jade found by our family in southern Oregon. Some of the stone’s crust is included at the bottom of the cab and we keep seeing a frog-like face: a creature from the green lagoon!

The main frame is sculpted, wrapped and soldered from copper wire, and the back plate is fused and wrapped in argentium silver wire. I can't decide whether the back looks more like kelp or a Tolkien-esque tree! Plus, the stone glows brilliantly when backlit— this is a gorgeous piece from any angle!

This piece and much more will be featured this evening at Larkin's trunk show with Dancing Beads! Tune in at 7 to see what's new :)

Rock & Gem Magazine Article

Today we made a special trip to Crater Rock Museum between bowling practices just to pick up real, paper copies of the December issue of Rock & Gem Magazine. Why, you ask? Because there's a four page article on Larkin's work!!! So much gratitude to Jim Landon who reached out to us about writing an article after finding Larkin's work on-line! (Also thanks to Larkin who gamely let me set up the young Einstein jeweler photo 🤣)

Crooked Mile Gallery Opening

Our family attended the Crooked Mile Gallery opening last night in Phoenix, Oregon. The wine was flowing (Larkin had special permission to attend the 21+ invite-only event as a featured artist), the snacks were tasty, the art was spectacular, and there's something surreal about seeing Larkin's work just casually hanging out with all the big kid art!

If you're local, we highly recommend checking out this fun new artistic addition to our community!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from your friendly neighborhood jewelry gnome!

Möbius Rings

When I was a wee bairn of probably 3-4, my dad brought me a loop of paper and asked me to color one side red and the other side blue. I noticed it was twisted and pointed this out to him before getting down to work, but he said he didn't mind. I started on the blue side and had almost completely colored the whole thing before I realized I had, yet again, fallen victim to a mathematical practical joke.

Larkin made Möbius rings! That's right: rings that, through the awesome powers of mathematics, have only one face and one edge. The one on the left is a thinner comfort band ring, and the one on the right is a slightly thicker, squarer wire where Larkin polished the twist at the edge. These are copper prototypes (the final product will be in silver) and our family is split on which we prefer-- what do you think?

Side note: Larkin's mathematician grandpa is angling for Klein bottle earrings to go with these. ;)

Licensed!

Larkin is licensed to drive! Life as a young entrepreneur just got a little less complicated. 😁

Owl Be Darned

Another trip to the coast to get out of the wildfire smoke! Not a bad office view, eh?

Larkin is working on a design for a repeat customer at the Rogue Valley Growers & Crafters Market who likes to get something special for his daughter every month. He was hoping for an owl next. What do you think, cute caricature on the left or essence-capturing line work on the right?

Mermaid Tail Retrospective

Alternative title: Larkin Doesn't Like Doing The Same Thing Twice

This first photo is Larkin's proof of concept piece, the very first Idle Talons mermaid tail on blue aventurine made in April of 2019 (for those keeping track, this was when Larkin was 14).

Next came a silver tail on seraphinite, a very similar style as the first because Larkin was not yet ready to jump into new designs in spendier silver wire.

Then another blue aventurine piece, this time wrapped in silver with a different tail position.

Next came a copper tail on fossilized coral, again with similar design elements tweaked in new ways.

Finally the brecciated jasper tail Larkin finished yesterday.

Each piece has so many similar elements, yet is totally unique as Larkin made changes to suit the stone and cab shape. This makes me want to collect other styles for a side-by-side comparison! Maybe trees next...

Rose Drops and Books

... and the sort-of-companion earrings to yesterday's pendants are up on the website for the first time, too! It's so fun seeing the different colors jump out in oxidized silver.

On a slightly different note: Larkin has a book-themed bazaar coming up and is looking for ideas! Are decorative sheet metal bookmarks a thing? Are there specific fandoms you think might translate well into Larkin's style? A product we haven't thought of that might particularly suit readers and/or authors? The fun thing about throwing lots of ideas at Larkin is seeing the results for the ones that stick! ;)

No Crossing Your Fingers, Either

Houdini 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.

How A Jeweler Does Fencing

Emile (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!

Pride Event

Larkin 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!

A Banner!

Larkin'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!

Rock Shop Day!

Rock shop day! Larkin was pretty thrilled to be back in the machine shop after a fairly long hiatus. Slabbed up some recent finds with pretty amazing results, rough cut some cabs, and cut some amazonite for a special request for knob pulls. Lots of inspiration for new pretties!

Clearance Items!

One of the opportunities presented by online bazaars is the ability to present some fun pieces that never made it to be final products. There is nothing wrong with these items-- they are practice pieces, discontinued designs, or prototypes of designs Larkin later finalized.

These are Larkin's clearance boards for the upcoming Royaboya Handmade Bazaar. Join the Facebook group any time, sales start this Friday morning!

Copper Shrooms

Larkin got distracted while making eensy weensy mushrooms and turned out a few of these merely eensy mushrooms. Each is sculpted from solid copper and are heavier than you might expect from their diminutive size!

These sweet fungus dangles will be available starting next Friday at the Royaboya Handmade Bazaar!

Fungus Among Us?

I'm just going to leave this right here because apparently Larkin is planning on making something with teeny tiny mushrooms and I'm super down for that.

Mad Scientist!

More new mad scientist toys... just look at that grin!

Larkin has been saving every little wire trimming scrap for the last few years for this very moment. ;)

Yesterday, the crucibles arrived, and after seasoning/glazing were ready for their inaugural copper melting. Here is the unused crucible (it's being saved for silver) with the amazingly colorful patina left in the one used for copper.

These little blobules (I'm pretty sure that's the technical term...) are the results of pouring melted copper into a bucket of water. Some of them turn out like perfect abstract little sculptures, and Larkin is thinking of adding a jump ring to favorites to make fun charms. The others can be re-melted and shaped into sheet metal and wire for more intentional jewelry work.

And here is Larkin in full protective gear-- welcome to the glamorous world of fine jewelry making!

Rolling Mill!

A new toy arrived today! Larkin's latest acquisition is this rolling wire mill. It had to be fully disassembled, cleaned, oiled, reassembled, and tested before we figured out that one of the pieces was the mirror image of what it needed to be for the rollers to sit flush. Soooo... drill press to the rescue! Larkin added holes in the right position and is now happily squishing metal.

We experimented with getting leaf prints on sheet metal (they're there, but fainter than hoped) and made the world's unhappiest clump of lichen in the process. This little powerhouse can also turn round wire into square, triangular, or half-round wire, can make comfort bands for rings, and has several patterned rollers. Can't wait to see where this leads!

Back To Work!

<Whew!> Larkin and the Idle Talon minions needed a bit of a break after last weekend's extremely fun and successful bazaar! Larkin came up with these sweet little heart charms as raffle prizes-- pretty perfect for a certain upcoming holiday! ;) Each heart is constructed from a single wire, with a dot of solder at the join for reinforcement.