It is hot: into the nineties the last three days, actually hotter here on Thursday than it was in Santa Fe, despite the substantially higher elevation.
Originally, our forecast was for seasonal patterns of rain all week, but all hope of that vanished early on. That particular forecast was bumped to next week, and now, a quick glance shows us that it’s been moved to the week after that instead.
The aridity of the air is late-September weather here — as, of course, are the now-rapid changes in the colors of the leaves. The heat is more what we would expect from June, before the annual monsoon season gets under way . . . but of course, we don’t have clearly-demarcated seasons now.
And so we do our best to co-exist with the rising mercury, with the lack of cooling air and the insidious dryness that is turning the foliage before its time. And we await the return of a warbonnet sky, one that wears the rays of the sun like feathers even as it wields the power of the incipient storm.
Today’s featured masterwork embodies just such a sky, and its gifts — a work wrought in an old traditional style translated for contemporary wear in Wings’s unique trademark fashion. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Warbonnet Sky Cuff Bracelet
Summer arrives in a warbonnet sky, bright blues feathered with clouds that become bringers of rain, to the drumming of thunder and the bright bolts of Thunderbird’s arrows. The band is formed of three separate heavy-gauge strands of sterling silver triangle wire, each strand’s upper angles stamped in repeating arcs, like the thunderheads that deliver the First Medicine to a hot and thirsty earth. The strands are fused seamlessly at each end, then spread gently apart to hold the elaborate focal of the piece. It’s a complex setting, saw-cut, texturized, and stamped entirely freehand, set at the center with a highly domed oval of natural Fox turquoise from Nevada in the blues of the desert sky webbed by the purpled shades of the storm. The stone is set into a bezel made entirely by hand, its edges saw-cut and bent inward to hold the cabochon securely, the stone resting upon a bed of tobacco. It sits atop a tribute to the four winds and the sacred directions, the four spokes of the cross texturized by hand using a single tiny divot-end stamp. The spokes are excised from the surrounding silver by hand, using the filament-thin blade of a jeweler’s hand-saw, leaving an embrasure of paired radiant cloud-and-feather motifs, the warbonnet of its name, and scored, stamped, and scalloped freehand and domed ever so gently to rest comfortably atop the band. The band is 6″ long; each strand is 1/4″ wide, conjoined strands are collectively 3/4″ wide at either end and 1-1/4″ across at the widest point at top center; the focal is 2-3/8″ high in total, by 2″ across at the widest point; the cabochon is 7/8″ wide by 5/8″ high (all dimensions approximate). Other views shown above, below, and at the link.
Sterling silver; natural Fox turquoise (Nevada); tobacco
$1,875 + shipping, handling, and insurance
This is an extraordinary work, one wrought in a very old traditional style, updated for daily wear. The three fused strands of heavy-gauge triangle wire lend substance and solidity to the cuff, the cloud-like chased crescents of the stampwork on all six upper angles creating texture and depth and catching the light. The focal is wrought of a much lighter gauge of sterling silver, so that the whole doesn’t weigh unduly on the wrist. Even so, it’s saw-cut freehand of a sufficiently substantial gauge to permit it to holds its form and shape easily, the cutwork lightening the weight by excising portions from the center Four Sacred Directions motif, and from the scalloped edges all the way around it.
The stampwork, too, is phenomenal: all the lines of each individual feather-like ray scored freehand, as is the radiant stampwork embossed at each scalloped end. But the part that I really love about this one is the cross-shaped motif at the center, a tribute to the Four Sacred Directions, each side of each spoke edged by an impossibly slender border scored freehand, the whole interior texturized by hand using a single tiny divot-end stamp, struck hundreds of times over the entire face, the result a rich texture that resembles the oldest styles of cast work.
And then there are the bezel and the stone it embraces.
The bezel is wrought entirely by hand, each segment saw-cut individually, filed smooth, and shaped directly to the stone. Its plain edging, though, is perfect for the high doming of the Skystone at its center, allowing the jewel to speak.
And that stone is spectacular, too. It’s a relatively small oval of natural Fox turquoise from Nevada, from the mine formerly known as the Cortez. If I didn’t know its provenance, I would have assumed it was Bisbee, from Arizona — such is the brilliant sky-blue color, webbed as it is with deep red siltstone matrix.
For this one, Wings has a added a final detail that remains hidden from everyone but creator and wearer: Instead of filling the bezel with sawdust, as is common when it needs to be evened somewhat, Wings has spread a thin layer of traditional tobacco in it. It provides a perfect layer, gentle and capable of conforming to any irregularities in the silver or the stone, but it also acts as an agent of prayer: a prayer for the sky, for the world, for ourselves.
To be able to wear a prayer, ongoing, and to be reminded to offer our own? That is a gift, and that, too, is medicine.
~ Aji
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