A day that dawned in a pale pink glow has now turned almost entirely to clouds. There is no snow yet, but the leading edge of what is now being described as a major winter storm is moving in fast.
It’s a good day to stay indoors by a hot crimson fire and watch the crystal blue waters of winter descend. For us, the expectation is not rain, but snow, but that’s merely a shift in shape, a gathering of angles and a hardening of geometry. But in this place, this is the form of the First medicine that feeds and heals the land the most.
Tomorrow is the day the broader culture has reserved for lovers, and for love. If the forecast holds, we shall spend it beneath a heavy blanket of falling snow. Cold days and heavy weather have always seemed to me to speak of romance, but in this instance, they also bespeak a love of a far more elemental, existential sort. It’s a love that illuminates and warms, that waters and cultivates, that nurtures and heals: a love that means survival.
Today’s featured works are a pair of pairs that embody the faces and facets of this love — the healing geometry of the heart, the illuminating warmth of the fire, the rich blues of falling water. Both pairs are found in the Earrings Gallery here on the site. We begin with the pair above, those is the colors of the fire. From their description:
An Illuminating Love Earrings
An illuminating love warms and guides our whole world. Wings honors the heart of Father Sun and the Eye of Spirit alike with these fiery earrings, built around a pair of extraordinary cabochons of highly-polished spiny oyster shell the color of flame. Each gentle throated heart cabochon rests in a scalloped bezel, trimmed with twisted silver. Dancing from each sunny stone is a unique, distinctive pendant: from one, a hand-made repoussé heart, a classic symbol of love; from the other, also hand-made and repoussé in form and shape, a diamond, the traditional representation of the Eye of Spirit, a motif signifying wisdom, guidance, and illumination. Both earrings dangle from sterling silver earring wires. Earrings hang 1-5/8″ long (excluding wires) by 7/8″across at the widest point; cabochons are 3/4″ long by 3/4″ across at the widest point; pendants are 3/8″ long by 3/8″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; spiny oyster shell
$475 + shipping, handling, and insurance
These earrings are fire indeed. The color of the spiny oyster shell cabochons is a perfect coral, a blend of crimson and amber flame identical to the roses Wings brought me today.
Their counterpart hearts, created at the same time, are marbled with rich red and a little gold, but these drops are all cool water. From their description:
The Heart of the Rain Earrings
At the heart of the rain flows the First Medicine. Wings honors medicine, mechanism, and the love of the spirits underlying it all with these earrings, centered around a pair of stunningly beautiful Bisbee turquoise cabochons in the shaped of throated hearts. Each stone is the perfect blue of the morning desert sky, finely webbed with the rich smoky-red siltstone matrix that is Bisbee’s hallmark. Each is set into a hand-wrought scalloped bezel trimmed with twisted silver, small organic tabs extending from the throat and the tip to hold the sterling silver earring wires and the four hand-made pendants, two per dancing drop. Each teardrop pendant is hand-made of sterling silver, stamped repoussé-fashion to create rounded, graceful depth and edged with tiny rays. Earrings hang 1-5/8″ long (excluding wires) by 1″ across at the widest point; heart cabochons are 7/8″ long by 3/4″ across at the widest point; teardrop pendants are 1/2″ long by 1/4″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; Bisbee turquoise
$675 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Together they remind us that medicine is found in opposites: not so much a question of attraction, despite the romantic connotations that surround this weekend, but more one of complementary characteristics. Our world teaches us this lesson daily, of the need for heat and cold, dark and light, snow and fire.
These are the tools and the teachings and the trappings, too, of love: a love that means survival . . . for our world, and for ourselves.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2021; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
