Our whole world is white.
It’s not so much that the colors of the spectrum have all come together in the winter light, although there is that, too. But after days of dithering, the weather has finally settled into real snow, the kind of big, wet, heavy flakes that accrete to every surface, falling steadily from a sky the same shade as the earth below it.
I had hoped to be able to feature another work today, but circumstances conspired yesterday to keep Wings from the studio. My back-up plan would have suited the weather well, but it left me uninspired. And so today, I’m going to do something that I do vanishingly rarely in this space: I’m going to feature a new work that has already been sold. It’s apt for day and season, and despite having sold within hours of posting its gallery entry here on the site, it’s sufficiently powerful — and beautiful — to deserve its own entry in this space, as well.
It’s Wings’s newest work, completed only two days ago, and snapped up that same evening a rainbow of shades gathered here and there into the embrace of pure silvered light: at the center, a heart of green turquoise with the faintest traces of azure around its matrix; a rainbow of color around it, accented with indigo; and its identity perhaps most personified by the rainbow moonstones among those jewels, a spectrum touched with blue, perfect winter light. From its description in the Necklaces Gallery here on the site:
From the Heart of the Light Necklace
From the heart of the light, the rainbow flows and falls. Wings summons the shades of the spectrum together in this radiant heart-shaped hoop of love and light and life renewed. It all begins with the pendant, comprising an extraordinary total of seventeen gems, including an exceptional cabochon heart-shaped of Hachita turquoise in rich greens and wintry grays and golds, all set into an extended heart-shaped bezel cut freehand of sterling silver. The focal heart cabochon, at the very center, is held fast in the embrace of scalloped sterling silver; the smaller perimeter cabochons, a radiant mix of rainbow moonstone, amber, coral, carnelian, garnet, amethyst, and denim lapis lazuli, with a tiny jade seed cabochon at the very base, all rest in plain sterling silver individual bezels. The slider-style bail, formed of solid sterling silver, is hand-stamped in motifs of sunlight and storm. The piece hangs from a strand of gemstone beads over sterling silver bead chain, a graduated mix in sizes and stones of round sterling silverplate, moonstone, jade, green turquoise, Labradorite, lapis lazuli, and faceted garnet. Full pendant, including bail, hangs 2-3/8″ long; heart alone, excluding bail, is 1-3/4″ long by 1-3/4″ across at the widest point. the hart cabochon is 1-14″ long by 1-1/4″ across at the widest point; round gemstone cabochons are 3/16″ across, save the jade seed cabochon, which is 1/8″ across. The bead strand hangs 19″ long (all dimensions approximate). Close-up view shown below.
Sterling silver; Hachita turquoise; rainbow moonstone; amber; coral; carnelian; garnet; amethyst; lapis lazuli jade
Bead strand: Sterling silver; moonstone; jade; green turquoise; Labradorite; denim lapis lazuli; garnet
$1,500 + shipping, handling, and insurance
SOLD
I watched this piece as it came together: starting with nothing more than a heart-shaped turquoise cabochon on his workbench, then slowly taking shape into something truly extraordinary. Even seeing it at every stage of the process, I still was not prepared for the work of art it would become — truly ethereal, touched by the light.
The beads from which it hangs capture the many facets of the pendant’s identity, too: lengths of green turquoise for the center stone at its literal heart; jade for the tiny seed at its root; moonstones to capture the blue-tinged mystery of the three surrounding it, like our Grandmother’s own embrace; just a touch of lapis and garnet to reflect the many blues and reds that hold it fast; and plated silver for the bezeled, bailed light to which it all belongs.
It is, truly, a one-of-a-kind work. At a fundamental level, the center stone sees to that, of course; natural turquoise, particularly that fraught with matrix, is always unique. But the way in which the focal stone is set, arrayed here against a backdrop of the light’s full spectrum, individual rays of color manifest seemingly at random around it . . . that, too, is sui generis, an imagining of the heart of our world, the light, in a way, an identity, uniquely its own.
And now, as the snow slows outside the window just for a moment, the other hues begin to break through: the forest shades of the evergreens, the gold and gray of wood. And as the clouds shift and settle in for the day, they grow darker at the base — no longer pure white, but infused here with cobalt, there with violet, and from their heart, too, a spectrum touched with blue, perfect winter 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.
