‘T’is the season, or so the carols tell us: a season of joy and peace and love and giving. Giving is a long and time-honored tradition in our cultures, one that needs no holiday for its practice — indeed, it is an obligation. Our celebrations and memorials are marked by giveaways, our daily interactions by offerings, and through it all runs the knowledge thaat we are charged with showing generosity to our fellow man and woman.
Indeed, in my way, the seven fundamental virtues are themselves known as the seven gifts. And gifts they are: The spirits have granted us this knowledge as a guide to going well through life, and if we heed these lessons, if we accept these gifts and put them into practice, they will go far toward ensuring a good journey around life’s hoop.
A couple of weeks ago, I introduced Wings’s latest signature series, a set of collections within a collection known as The Seventh Fire Series, built around this concept of the seven gifts, of the virtues that virtually all of our peoples hold in common, whatever name they give them. We began with Bravery, a virtue much needed at a time when new geopolitical developments had made it abundantly clear that we will be called now to lives of active resistance.
Now, in recognition of the holiday season that much of the world celebrates at this time, and offered to coincide with the Solstice, Wings has released his second collection in the series: The Generosity Collection.
Again, it is a series of seven coil bracelets, each larger than the norm, with four coils, and comprising a more valuable array of gemstones. Each is designed to embody one of the aspects of generosity found in our traditional ways. And each is meant to serve as a reminder, when worn, that going well through life requires us to act in accordance with kind hearts and generous spirits, to give openly and freely — of ourselves, of our time, of our ability to teach future generations, and of our thanks for the generosity that is shown to us daily by the world.
Once again, these are jointly designed. Their descriptions are offered here, but they have no corresponding entries in the Bracelets Gallery yet; that will appear in the days to come. They are presented in the order that has presented itself to Wings. The first among them is already sold, but the remaining six are still available, at least for the moment.
We begin with a gift that has been given to us, one we are charged with giving, in return, to those who follow us: Tradition.
Tradition Coil Bracelet
Tradition is a gift of the spirits to us, and a gift from us to future generations: ancestry, history, culture, language. Tradition is our identity at the level of blood and bone and spirit, an identity that is ours alone, passed down through millennia by way of DNA and prophecy, story and ceremony, and it is this legacy we leave to our children’s children. Wings captures the infinite hoop of tradition in the colors of this place, turquoise sky and blue lake, combining the gifts of Mother Earth with gifts fashioned by human hands: the rich blues of spiderweb turquoise in shades of cobalt and indigo interspersed with the electric brilliance of Sleeping Beauty turquoise, terminating in nuggety sky blue spiderweb turquoise beads that flow into midnight blue goldstone chips the shade of the night sky. Beads are strung on memory wire, which expands and contracts to fit nearly and size wrist. Jointly designed by Wings and Aji.
Memory wire; dark blue spiderweb turquoise; Sleeping Beauty turquoise; sky blue spiderweb turquoise; blue goldstone
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
SOLD
Sometimes, our cultures’ emphasis on generosity requires us to be the giver in situations where other cultures would normally assume us to be the recipient. Such is the case with time-honored tradition of the Giveaway.
Giveaway Coil Bracelet
Among many of our peoples, one of our most lasting traditions is the Giveaway, a celebration in which food, clothing, blankets, and other items are given away to members of the community by a person the community is honoring, or in honor or memory of a another community member. It’s an expression of gratitude, of thanksgiving, of a good heart and a generous spirit, one that accepts an honor by showing concern for the community as a whole. Wings pays tribute to this indigenous form of tribute with this coil, one of gifts of the earth in lightly polished nugget form, the blues and greens of earth and sky and water interspersed at intervals with bits of deep blue goldstone. At the center of the strand is a long row of nuggets in the color of the Pueblo sky, bright polished beads of Sleeping Beauty turquoise. It’s a recognition of the gifts of the natural world that we share, and an expression of gratitude that Mother Earth and the spirits choose daily to hold their own giveaway to our benefit. Beads are strung on memory wire, which expands and contracts to fit nearly and size wrist. Jointly designed by Wings and Aji.
Memory wire; blue and green spiderweb turquoise; Sleeping Beauty turquoise; blue goldstone
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
SOLD
We are also expected to show generosity on a daily basis, entirely apart from honor events. One fundamental way this requirement manifests is in the obligation to make a small gift in recognition of the imposition we create by asking for something, and in thanks for what we are given, whether by the spirits or by other persons: to make Offerings.
Offerings Coil Bracelet
Sometimes, we have little in the way of material goods, but that does not mean that we have nothing to give, either to others or to Spirit. In our way, it is customary to make an offering to the spirits at prayer: a little cedar or sage smoke, a little sweetgrass, a little tobacco, sacred items offered as we send our prayers spiraling skyward on tendrils of smoke propelled by an eagle feather. Wings honors this tradition with a coil made up of water and sky and smoke and the golden light of dawn. At the center, fourteen perfectly round lapis lazuli beads in shades of violet blue and cobalt are bisected by four freeform amber beads that glow like the sun. This central line is flanked at either end by short segments of brilliant sky blue Sleeping Beauty turquoise nuggets, themselves flanked by more amber beads. The coil flows toward either end in lengths of square smoky lapis lazuli beads, then sky blue spiderweb turquoise nuggets, and at last tiny rondels of azurite with malachite, all separated with short segments of sunny amber. Taken together, it produces the effect of a spiraling tendril of smoke and light offered to the early dawn sky. Beads are strung on memory wire, which expands and contracts to fit nearly and size wrist. Jointly designed by Wings and Aji.
Memory wire; lapis lazuli; Sleeping Beauty turquoise; blue spiderweb turquoise; azurite with malachite; amber
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
SOLD
And sometimes, an offering takes a very specific form. It may not be a universal practice, but if it is not, it is very nearly so now. In our cultures, a time-honored way to make an offering, especially when seeking assistance or a favor, is with a gift of Tobacco.
Tobacco Coil Bracelet
The spirit of generosity compels us to offer a gift when we seek a favor; it shows respect. It’s customary, when seeking the blessing of the spirits or the assistance of our fellow man or woman, especially an elder, to offer a small gift in the form of tobacco. It shows respect and gratitude, and assures the recipient that his or her assistance is not taken for granted. in our cultures, indigenous tobacco is its own plant, or mix of plants, and Wings summons their spirits with this coil bracelet in the colors of the plants themselves. Dark green fluorite nuggets, as deep in hue as raw emeralds, trace the center of the spiral; to either side, crystalline nuggets of bright lime green peridot, the color of the new plant, stretch outward; and at either end, the strand terminates in tiny green turquoise chips. Each segment of gems is separated by a short length of brilliant amber that glows like the lit bowl of a ceremonial pipe. Beads are strung on memory wire, which expands and contracts to fit nearly and size wrist. Jointly designed by Wings and Aji.
Memory wire; green fluorite; peridot; green turquoise; amber
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Part of living a life of generosity, however, exists not merely in the giving of material things. It also exists in the recognition of, and gratitude for, that which we are given. One of the most elemental such gifts, and one we are charged with nurturing, is the most basic: Life.
Life Coil Bracelet
The spirits charge us to be generous with our fellow persons, which is only right; after all, the spirits are generous to us. At the most fundamental levels, they offer us life: not merely our own lives, our own journey around the sacred hoop, but the living world that surrounds us, manifest in the four sacred elements of earth, air, fire, and water. Wings pays tribute to this gift by summoning the symbolism of the elements into being around a wearable hoop, beginning with fire in the form of peach-colored African opal nuggets; reaching toward air the color of sunlight, in yellow African opal; thence flowing across the lush green earth in peridot; and finally merging into the center, water in thick nuggety chips of lightly polished blue amazonite. Beads are strung on memory wire, which expands and contracts to fit nearly and size wrist. Jointly designed by Wings and Aji.
Memory wire; peach and yellow African opal; peridot; blue amazonite
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
SOLD
The world, and the spirits that inhabit it, show us generosity in more seasonal ways, too. One of the greatest gifts that we can receive, and one we are meant to share and celebrate with the community, is an abundant Harvest.
Harvest Coil Bracelet
The harvest season is when Mother Earth is at her most generous, and an abundant harvest is one of the gifts of the spirits that our peoples have sought since the dawn of time. Wings captures the colors of autumn’s gifts with this coil, a whirlwind of turned leaves and ripened Indian corn. Segments of bright golden yellow and warm peach-colored African opal lead inward from each end toward fiery amber, ending in a length of blood-red branch coral at the coil’s center. Each gemstone segment is separated by a string of four old-style faceted copper barrel beads, and each end terminates in a length of seven of the same coppery nuggets. Beads are strung on memory wire, which expands and contracts to fit nearly and size wrist. Jointly designed by Wings and Aji.
Memory wire; peach and yellow African opal; amber; branch coral; copper
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
SOLD
But whatever the season, there is one form of generosity that the spirits have granted us simply by virtue of our existence, and one that we in turn are expected to give to others, particularly the vulnerable, those in ned, and the young who benefit so greatly from it: Time.
Time Coil Bracelet
The seventh coil in Wings’s Generosity Collection of the Seventh Fire Series represents what is often the greatest gift of all: Time. The spirits grant us time to walk upon the earth;l in turn, we are charged with giving generously of our own time to others, particularly the younger generations who need help to learn the people’s traditions and ways of going well through life. Wings honors that gift with this coil of opposites: dark and light in a single endless hoop. Time is measured in days and nights, and here he summons the shades of each, the bright white light of day and the deep purples of night and the smoky hues in the spaces between. At each end are old-style faceted copper barrel beads leading to a short length of faceted garnets; then, pen-shell heishi in deep purple and white alternates with segments of white-shell heishi, thence flowing inward into a long strand of free-form beads of deep plum-colored spiny oyster shell. At the very center rests a single sphere of mysterious sugilite, violet and lavender with wisps of white and gold matrix, like an earth shrouded in the mists of dawn and dusk. Beads are strung on memory wire, which expands and contracts to fit nearly and size wrist. Jointly designed by Wings and Aji.
Memory wire; pen-shell heishi; white-shell heishi; garnet; copper; sugilite
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
SOLD
Wings has released this collection now, mindful of its symbolic connection to the current season. But, in truth, it represents a gift that is never out of season; like all of the virtues, it is a fundamental part of the well-lived life, a life of courage and harmony. It’s also fundamental to a life of active resistance, for how can we be inspired to the defense of others if we cannot feel generous toward them and their needs? On this first day of winter, a storm once again in the offing here and due to arrive in mere hours, Wings’s newest collection reminds us that it is always a season for generosity.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
