I awakened this morning to a bisected sky: pale orange to the east; iron gray in the west. The day’s forecast snow seemed likely, given the clouds cover, but it has nonexistent — not so much as a solitary flake has fallen from the sky. It’s far too warm for water the crystallize, although the weather experts insist that the rain will arrive in due course, meaning a couple of hours from now, far later than what they were still predicting last night.
Much as we love snow, I confess that its absence today does not bother us overmuch. We are ready for warmer winds and a greening of the earth, and while we have the latter, the presence of the former has been inconsistent, at best.
Still, if we are blessed today with the gift of the rain, we will welcome it wholeheartedly. We have never taken the water for granted, from the sky or from the earth, but last year’s intensified and deadly drought has reminded us in ways little else could not only of our need to appreciate it, but be good stewards of it.
Last year, the fields were all burned brown, no green to be found anywhere, and precious little in the yard, either. Today, the whole landscape is awash in shades of jade and emerald, grasses growing lush and full around water sources and deposits, but also gaining on the brown earth in the dry places. Our world here looks much more like what we tend to call “normal,” and now we begin the planning process needed to keep it that way throughout the warm season.
Today’s featured works embody this blessing, this gift of spring and summer: fertile worlds, and the waters that make it so. In the past, I have featured these two works separately, but they more properly belong together — not intended to match, but coordinating and complementary, whether through the auspices of chance or the offices of Spirit. They were created close in time, and certain stones drawn from the same deposit and the millwork of a piece. We begin with the cuff, one of my favorites and a work that looks even better when worn than it does against the stark contrast of black velvet. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
The Greening of the Earth Cuff Bracelet
The greening of the Earth finds full expression in summer, a manifestation of fertility and gift of renewal. Wings honors season and spirit with this bold new cuff of solid sterling silver, hand-milled in a flowering pattern and set with five spectacular green turquoise stones. The high-grade freeform center cabochon, likely from Colorado’s Evans Mining District, manifests in a rich green the color of a great deep lake studded with small coppery islands of red-gold earth; it rests in a scalloped bezel trimmed with twisted silver. The center cabochon is flanked by a matched pair of deep teal-green rectangular cabochons, lightly domed, beveled at the corners, intensely-hued and traced with faint white webbing and traces of inky purple matrix, both also resting in scalloped bezels and trimmed with twisted silver. At either end sits a single small round cabochon of turquoise, each in mixed teal blues and greens with matrices of moss green and violet and ivory, each set into a simple low-profile bezel. All stand boldly above the band, brightly polished silver with the floral millwork thrown into sharp relief and highly textured to the touch. The band is 6″ long by 1″ across; the center cabochon is 7/8″ high at the highest point by 5/8″ across at the widest point; the rectangular cabochons are 9/16″ long by 3/8″ across; and the round cabochons are 3/8″ across (dimensions approximate). Designed jointly by Wings and Aji. Side views, showing the detail of the smaller cabochons, appear above and at the link.
Sterling silver; natural teal-green American turquoise (likely from the
Colorado Evans Mine and Nevada’s Pilot Mountain and Royston Mines)
$1,995 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Some small time after creating the cuff, Wings turned to the remaining rectangular cabochons and a bit of leftover silver, and with them wrought a complementary ring in the same spiraling, flowering millwork patterns and the same deep teal stone in the shades of water and sky. This one embodies the flora of early summer here, water lilies floating in ponds newly filled by runoff from the thaw of the spring just past. From its description in the Rings Gallery:
Water Lilies Ring
Water lilies are the flowering spirits of summer mornings, fragrant, delicate, bright momentary beauties of warm-weather ponds. Their lives are brief but brilliant, intensely-hued and -scented gifts to those who think to look for them. Wings brings their likeness to hand year-round with this bold new ring, a stone the color of the waters set upon a wide solid sterling silver band milled in floral pattern. The band’s design calls to mind the lilies’ graceful petals and the spiraling orbs of their pads, each spiraling, flowing line thrown into sharply-textured relief. At the center sits a lightly domed and beveled rectangular cabochon of deep teal at the perfect midpoint between blue and green, atrace with lines of delicate white foam and inky purple depths, the colors of a sheltered summer pond. The stone sits gently in a scalloped bezel trimmed with twisted silver. The band is 1/2″ wide; the setting is 3/4″ long by 5/8″ wide; the cabochon is 9/16″ long by 3/8″ wide (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; deep blue-green turquoise
$525 + shipping, handling, and insurance
And now, in the short space of time in which I have been writing, the forecast looks suddenly more promising: The wind is rising; the sun has moved its face behind the clouds. It may yet be too chilly for summer, but we may be granted the gift a greening earth, from the waters of warmer winds.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2019; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
