It’s a perfect October day: clear, bright, just a little cold, not enough to require much in the way of layers, but in the embrace of a wind with a scalpel’s edge.
No rain overnight, although it’s once again forecast for tomorrow night and Friday, but the mercury has plunged sufficiently to turn whole stands of trees newly gold along their upper reaches. Such clouds as we have today hold no storms; they have drifted here in long, wispy bands and with feathered edges. Like the winter birds, newly arrived, and the butterflies that have yet to depart, they float overhead on a soaring, shimmering light.
It’s the light of full autumn here, a radiant fall for the fall, and it represents the best of space and season, a gift of pure magic.
The small spirits know it; they are luxuriating in its glow as long as possible, eager to use up every last moment of its illuminating warmth. It’s why some of the summer birds yet remain, and why those messengers of warmer winds, the butterflies, still decline to return to their migratory path.
In this place, at this season, the light itself is a messenger, too — one that reminds us that we are not alone even when the cold deep dark of winter descends. It’s manifest, too, in today’s featured work, an illuminating masterpiece of soft wings and sunlight and promises both made and kept by Mother Earth and her spirits. And while it’s named for a light that appears only twice in a year, the next not due for nearly two months yet, that moment’s cousin danced across the land only just over a week ago. From its description in the Belts Gallery here on the site:
Solstice Light Butterfly Concha Belt
The solstice light is a transcendent gift, as transformational as any chrysalis, as graceful and gentle as the butterfly’s wings. Wings brings together turning point, spirit, and light in a work of power and medicine that takes the form of a true butterfly concha belt: no metaphors here, but a work of genuine hand-cut butterflies floating along the length of the leather. Each concha, like the buckle, is cut freehand of sterling silver, body and antennae articulated, wings scalloped at their edges by hand via meticulous ajouré saw-work. The stampwork spreads gracefully across each wing, veins like gossamer branches embracing tiny hoops in a style that evokes the fine flowing lines of Art Nouveau, and each scalloped wing edge is accented with the hand-stamped rays of a rising sun. At the center of each concha sits an oval tiger’s eye cabochon, each hand-picked for its spectacular chatoyance to rest in a scalloped bezel. The focal point of the buckle, a larger butterfly wrought similarly freehand and set into a scalloped bezel trimmed with delicate twisted silver, is a large inverted teardrop of genuine Dominican blue amber, the surface naturally textured to refract the light, the interior full of equally natural inclusions that look like tiny strands of embedded jewels floating in the light. Conchas and buckle are all lightly domed, repoussé-fashion, and each butterfly hovers atop its own bouquet via the sterling silver loops on the reverse, each hand-cut, hand-shaped, and hand-milled in a wildflower design. Each silver piece is buffed to a soft polish slightly brighter than Florentine. The belt is made of heavy black leather, hand-cut and hand-beveled, with medicine motifs in the form of bear-paw prints hand-stamped down its entire length in a repeating pattern; keeper ties are slender but sturdy braided black leather. The leather belt is 11/16″ high; the conchas are 2.25″ across at the widest point by 2″ high at the highest point; tiger’s eye cabochons are 1/2″ high by 3/8″ across; buckle is 3.5″ across at the widest point by 2.5″ high at the highest point; visible portion of the Dominican blue amber cabochon is 15/16″ high by 5/8″ across at the widest point (all dimensions approximate). Other views shown above and below. Note: Not designed for jeans, trousers, or any apparel with belt loops; this particular work is designed to be worn externally over shirts, blouses, or dresses.
Sterling silver; Dominican blue amber; tiger’s eye; black leather
$5,500 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Notes: Requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply.
The leather belt is a standard length; a hand-made belt in a specialty size may be ordered
(either shorter or longer) for an additional $325 charge.
The description refers to this masterwork as a “butterfly concha belt,” and indeed it is, but not in the way that term is usually meant. Among Southwestern Native jewelry styles, the label is a term of art, with its own distinctive definition, one that is by turns stylistic and symbolic: Generally speaking, it refers to the type of belt in which the traditional conchas are separated by smaller, vertically-oriented flared conchas whose outlines resemble those of a butterfly. Wings has one of those in inventory, too, of course: a work entitled Illuminating Skies that would be an equally good fit for this day and season. But with today’s work, Wings took the label literally, deciding instead to create a piece that would both embody and inspirit these tiny, powerful messenger spirits who ride the wind and light.
And despite the chill, some remain to us. Our few monarchs have long since moved on to lands closer to the sun than ours, of course, but some less flamboyant wingéd messengers are yet here — small periwinkles and modest whites and sulphs, the last a much paler gold than their larger cousins. Still, they ride the winds with skill and grace, spiraling among such petals as are still in flower. At this season, the message they bring us is one of late beauty and not a little reassurance, riding, like the day itself, a soaring, shimmering light.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2019; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
