Another day, another round of suffocating smoke haze. It has given us some spectacular sunsets and moonrises, true, but I’d trade it in a heartbeat for the purity and clarity of our usual high-elevation October air.
I’d trade it, too, for the return of the October light.
Which is not to say that we don’t have it now, but it’s muted this year: the difference between the stark brilliance of an open fire and one shaded by screen and grate. Our small world here glows gold, but it’s a dirty, tarnished sort, veiled by particulate matter that does lend a certain shimmer, but deprives us of the stark lines of light and shadow normally produced by the sharp angle now linking earth to sun.
It doesn’t help, of course, that the outer world is such a tremendous mess: drought, wildfire, hurricane and sea rise, a deadly pandemic that could have been mostly contained had we any actual leadership, or even barest governance. But the evils of colonialism have come home to roost in myriad ways now, and they are just as indiscriminate in choosing who feels their effects.
In a time when the light grows short, these are dark days indeed.
And yet they are also bright. The illumination is there — oh, masked now by a mix of incidental effects and deliberate evil, but the light remains constant. All that changes is our ability, or at least our willingness to do the hard work involved, to perceive it clearly. Humanity is not particularly fond of complexity, but these are complex times, and they need an equally nuanced approach now, one that is willing to do the hard work of seeing the whole of our world and simultaneously understanding the tightly woven web of interrelationships and effects, and also the hard work of mending and healing them all.
In our way, our world is at once divided and whole: We recognize the discrete identities of the elements and the seasons, the work they require and the gifts they bring, but we know that they are all essential to the health and harmony of earth and sky, of underworld and cosmos alike. We know that Father Sun is the same sun that warms and illuminates our world year-round, and yet in each season he assumes different qualities and embodies different needs.
Today’s featured work is this many-sided spirit made manifest, the braided suns of all four seasons bound together in a powerful arc of the light. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Braided Suns Cuff Bracelet
We live in a world of braided suns, a sacred hoop of the seasons strung around orbs of golden light. Wings honors the sun in all its angles and phases with this cuff, heavy nine-gauge sterling silver annealed to a velvety finish, hand-stamped in arcing conjoined sunrise patterns set opposite each other to form braids of light. Round tiger’s eye cabochons, brilliantly chatoyant and infused with rich color gradients from deep bronzed brown to bright yellow gold, are set into saw-toothed bezels equidistant along the band’s length, a sun for each season in varying shades of dark and light. The edges of the band are hand-filed silky-smooth, and the inner band is adorned with arced sunrises chased along either edge, then linked across the band’s expanse by diagonal shafts of light erupting at the center in flowering radiance, the flowing lines all hand-struck to be meticulously equidistant and at identical angles. The band is 6.5″ long by 3/8″ across; the cabochons are 9/16″ across (dimensions approximate). Views of sides and inner band shown below.
Sterling silver; tiger’s eye
$1,475 + shipping, handling, and insurance
I love the radiant beauty of tiger’s eye, although I don’t tend to wear it, particularly; for the sun, my personal tastes usually tend to run more to amber. But in this instance, the stones merely accentuate where the real beauty and power of this cuff lie: in the freehand stampwork that adorns the heavy, solid silver.
The heavier the gauge of silver, the more difficult it is to leave a lasting impression on its surface. Harder still the process of repeating stampwork, stamp and hammer both wielded entirely freehand and with deep, clear, unerring consistency, but with this work, Wings has managed it on both outer and inner surfaces.
The whole cuff is a marvel of talent, skill, experience, and dedication to the work — a model, in fact, for the approach we need to take to mending our world’s broken hoop now. The motifs chosen show us the way: a braiding together of the light, for our world and in our spirits.
We have accustomed ourselves too long to the brokenness of the dark. As winter approaches, it’s time to begin weaving the strands of the light.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2020; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
