Today is a little hazy, the heat holding the pall of smoke close and low to the land. As the wind rises, it will blow some of the smoke out past the peaks, but it will also usher in a new haze from the west. there is no rain in sight, and, it seems, no clear skies, either.
But I was awake at dawn, and I saw the sunrise sky, and it was a moment of almost perfect clarity: a few thin bands of cloud showing in silhouette just above the peaks, the sky behind them flawless, a blue so pale it melded with the gold into faintest green, limned by the silver light of the first rays of the sun.
The difference is stark, but so is its lesson: that the light is always there, whether we can see it or not. And if this land is nothing else now, it remains a land rich in light.
Today’s featured masterwork is an example of this lesson, and this gift. It’s one of Wings’s newest works, a big, bold cuff wrought in the old traditional style, smithed entirely by hand to honor the medicine that keeps our world in its place, alive and thriving even now. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
The Light of the World Cuff Bracelet
We are held safe within the light of the world, feet firmly grounded beneath the warmth and illumination of sun and moon and stars. With this old-style traditional cuff, Wings honors the earth that uplifts us and the spirits of light that keep our world alive. The band is wrought in vintage style, wide and heavy, with gracefully sculpted ends saw-cut freehand to create a comfortable fit. The stampwork is elegantly spare, the rays of sun by day and moon at night scored freehand, deep and even, on all four sides of the center, emanating from beneath the focal cabochon at center. Single layered directional arrows in an old-style traditional design point outwards in each of the four open spaces between the grouped rays; the rays to either side each terminate in a stunning line of arcs scalloped freehand at the very point where the band begins to taper. Centered on one of the narrower ends is a Morning Star hand-formed of four long, tapering points around a small central hoop, with its Evening Star counterpart centered on its opposite end. At the center of the band, set into a hand-cut bezel, sits a a freeform oval cabochon of natural Damele turquoise, seafoam green in hue with bronze-colored spiderweb matrix, marbled like the shell plates of Grandmother Turtle, she who holds the world on her back. Band is heavy fourteen-gauge sterling silver, 6″ long by 2-5/16″ wide at center and 1-1/2″ wide at sculpted ends; cabochon is 15/16″ high by 3/4″ across at the widest point (all dimensions approximate). Other views shown below.
Sterling silver; Damele turquoise
$2,000 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It’s an extraordinary example of freehand stampwork, the design as bold and powerful and it is simple, spare, and timelessly elegant. It’s a dazzling tribute to the work of the sun and stars, and to the sacred directions that hold their light.
And then there is the stone. It’s an almost perfect oval (truly ovoid, egg-shaped rather than symmetrical) of natural Damele turquoise, its surface still pitted with golden-bronze matrix even as its smooth surface highlights the gentle seafoam green of the gem itself. The matrix veins, more marbled than webbed, make it look like the plating of a turtle’s shell — that of she who, some old stories tell, used it to provide a world on her back, a world survivable for the First People of this land mass, way back in the time before time.
In this work, it’s fitting as metaphor, of course, but more literally, as well: After all, despite the fact that we tend to regard our world and ourselves as the center of all things, we know that it is merely one body spinning through the starlit dark of deepest space. What we observe in front of us is backlit by the sun that centers our solar system, its [relatively] near light enhanced by that of other planets and stars more distant still. Our proximity to the sun holds us in place, in orbit and on our proper axis, and ensures sufficient warmth, sufficient air to allow us to live and thrive . . . even with the ravages of climate collapse born of colonialism now.
And in this place, we are more fortunate than most: In a valley at nearly eight thousand feet above sea level, we are at once protected by the peaks and allowed the gifts of alpine light. It’s a spirit that animates this place, and is fully animated itself, one of uncommon mystery and untold magic, one of purest medicine. Even as we grieve that which is lost to us in this time of record drought, as we mourn the absence of the rain, we still inhabit a land rich in light.
There is always space and time to be grateful.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
