We began this week’s series highlighting Wings’s own work with an exploration of themes of healing, as seen through the lens of his latest piece. Then, the motif took corporeal form, in the shape of hands and hearts.
Today, it’s a journey of a different sort, following a path that leads, eventually, to the very heart of the year, as Spring begins to heal the darkened and battered earth of Winter, clearing a trail to the warms suns of Summer.
As I noted when I featured this piece last year, Summer itself is less destination than ongoing journey, and it is from that imagining of the season that this cuff takes its name. From its description in the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
The Corn Maidens and other female spirits evoke the sights and sounds and smells of Summer, with its lush and fertile greenery. In some traditions, Summer is a time of journeys, of pilgrimages, or simply of the travel associated with planting and growing cycles, all manifested in this heavy-gauge cuff bracelet. Hand-stamped symbols representing the Sacred Directions, possible paths on a journey, travel the length of the band and are topped by five matched round cabochons of soft green turquoise with a warm golden-white matrix. Tiny, evenly-spaced sacred hoops accent the band’s edges, while matched repeating sets of traditional symbols trace the inner band. Another view shown below.
Sterling silver; Stone Mountain turquoise
$725 + shipping, handling, and insurance
As I said earlier:
[I]t fits with the perception that Summer is not so much a season but a journey: a well-traveled and familiar path, not always a smooth or easy one, but one with its own particular beauty and its own abundant blessings designed to get us through the rest of the year.
. . .
In my mind, Summer has a color, and that color is green: the brilliant green of the leaves on the trees, the soft green of the grass, even the pale foamy green of the local rivers and streams. These stones he chose for this cuff, all matched from the same lot, contain all of those greens and more — and still more, they’re all shot through with a matrix in that delicate golden color, the same color as the summer sun as it appears in Taos Pueblo’s own mysterious light.
It’s a piece equally suited to this season, though: when the yellowed and faded grays of the winter soil still show themselves amidst the rapidly spreading green, in the crevices and corners where the grass has not yet reached. The stones bespeak the protection of Summer’s own dress, while the stampwork evokes the powers of the directions coupled with the protection of Spirit, all edged in images of the sacred hoop of life itself, a journey of another sort.
As the meadowlark atop the blue spruce outside the door reminds me, her song is a call to begin the journey — out of the cold and into the healing warmth of a new season.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
