The days are measurably shorter now.
It’s still twenty degrees too warm, but there is a feeling of a world in abeyance, as though it and its wild children are waiting with bated breath for the first real blast of cold to arrive at any moment.
Speaking of arrivals, the first chickadee appeared this morning, heading straight for the feeder left behind months ago. a whole clan of young goldfinches were raiding what remains of the orange cosmos, perhaps readying themselves for a grueling migratory journey, or possibly for settling in here for the duration, as they did last winter.
There are more clouds gathering today — unlikely enough to coalesce into real weather, but they have taken the slightest edge off the heat. We are still denied a hard freeze, leaving the pollen free to flourish, but it also means that we have the fiery foliage with us a while longer, and the small birds and butterflies, too. There are also reports of a new round of solar flares imminent, which raises the possibility of a recurrence of the Northern Lights, newly strengthened and capable of sending their otherworldly glow this far south.
There is also the constant haze, a pall of smoke born of raging West Coast wildfires and prescribed burns too close for comfort. Every dawn breaks across a glittering pewter fog in the atmosphere now; every dusk, silhouetting a plume that rises high and stretches around the horizon. It deprives us of one of the hallmarks fo fall here, the perfect, scalpel-edged clarity of the autumn air, and it’s yet one more reason to hope for a hard freeze soon.
Today’s featured works, a pair of pairs, embody both of these phenomena: not the Lights, but what births them; not the burns nor the fires, but their atmospheric offspring. They are phenomena all the more welcome now that the days grow visibly shorter — a darkening world, newly alight. Both are found in the Earrings Gallery here on the site. We begin with a personal favorite, a pair of bold yet simple oval conchas stamped freehand in a chased scale-like patter of orbital radiance, like the solar flares newly igniting, holding out the promise of an aurora at night. From its description:
Solar Flares Earrings
Solar flares deliver to us the medicine of a mystical light, igniting the aurora borealis and setting our skies alight with color and fire. With these traditional concha earrings. Wings pays tribute to the sun that is their source, to the untamed energy they emit, and to the extraordinary forms of illumination they create. Each drop is saw-cut freehand in a classic oval shape, domed lightly from the reverse using repoussé techniques. The stampwork pattern, also wrought entirely freehand, consists of two concentric ovals: all around the outer edge, a repeating patterns of radiant arcs nested within each other, each earring’s edge representing scores of strikes of the jeweler’s hammer. the inner oval is adorned with peaked sunrise motifs facing inward, like the flames of the sun rising and falling as they flare and dance. At the center of each sits the sun itself, a round, highly domed cabochon of fabulously chatoyant tiger’s eye, rich bronzed browns sunlit from within by lightning bolts of golden fire. Small sterling silver jump rings extend from the reverse at the top of each drop, and sterling silver coil-and-ball-bead French earring wires are threaded through them. Domed, earrings hang 1-1/2″ long, excluding wires, by 1-3/8″ across at the widest point; cabochons are 3/8″ across (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; tiger’s eye
$525 + shipping, handling, and insurance
As noted above, this pair is a personal favorite. It’s an old-style desig, traditional oval conchas stamped over their entire surface in repeating patterns. The radiant arcs, like the scales of some great sun serpent, are chased so tightly and evenly around the edge that their pattern seems to orbit the surface of the silver, imparting a sense of motion to these big, bold dangling drops. The radiant stampwork over the central dome seems to frame each fiery cabochon perfectly, rich warm browns bisected by golden bolts of lightning in perfect chatoyance.
The second pair is an equally classic form and shape, big, bold, perfectly round traditional conchas, but given Wings’s own inimitable twist. Instead of creating two earrings that are mirror images of each other, he chose to keep the general design the same, but vary the details . . . just enough to distinguish them from each other in the same way that the appearance of the dawn is distinct from that of dusk, just enough to catch the eye and force it to do a double-take. It’s also a pair that fits our current days all too well, as the plume from those prescribed burns and wildfires two states away, described above, deliver days bookended by the rising and setting of smoky suns. From its description:
The Rising and Setting of Smoky Suns Earrings
Early summer is the season of the rising and setting of smoky suns, of dustlight orbs at dawn and dusk glowing behind a veil of pollen, cloud, and smoke. With these earrings, Wings pays tribute to the bronze-limned glow of a golden sun, and to an earth awash in its silvery rays in the twilight moments that bookend each day. Each dangling drop is a traditional concha, saw-cut and domed by hand in the classic style. Each is scored and stamped freehand in a radiant pattern that is almost, but not quite, identical: on the left, the wider rays of the dawn emanating from behind the tiger’s eye’s chatoyant glow to end in sweeping arcs of light; on the right, the more tightly gathered rays that dodge and dance with remnant clouds, with wind and dust and smoke, the deeply incised scorework ending in steeper, tighter arcs, as befits the shortened light of dusk. Each is set at the center with a round, highly domed tiger’s eye cabochon, shades of gold and amber bisecting the bronzed earthy shades like lightning. Each hangs from a flat sterling silver jump ring that serves as a bail; sterling silver coil-and-ball-bead earring wires are threaded through them. Earrings hang 1-3/4″ long including bail (excluding wires); conchas are 1.5″ long by 1.5″ wide; cabochons are 5/16″ across (all dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; tiger’s eye
$425 + shipping, handling, and insurance
These, too, seem to impart a sense of orbital motion, but slower, more deliberate, scaled for the experience and perception of mere mortals. The doming is flawless, the scorework positively radiant, The small suns at their centers, more fabulously chatoyant tiger’s eye, is equally radiant, as though the electrical charge of the sun itself is made visible to the naked eye.
It’s a concept, and a set of colors, perfect for this time of year.
At the moment, the clouds seem to be gaining a little ground; they’ve stretched and expanded and reached just enough to veil the sun a bit, if only momentarily. They will not hold rain for us, never mind snow, but we’re grateful for their cooling effects. After all, autumn is a transitional period, one to accustom us gradually to the deepening cold and the lengthening night. But as these works remind us, even such short days are still bright. We have, after all, an active sun: one whose visible presence is lessened now, but one that gives us still the gift of a darkening world, newly alight.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2024; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
