A winter storm approaches, the sky a roiling mass of black and gray, backlit here and there by the sun’s silvery white light.
The neighbors’ cattle have found their way here through a downed section of fence, and have joined the horses in busily vacuuming up every last tinge of green in the our fields before the snow arrives to cover what remains. At the end of a week with highs near sixty, far more of the green is present than usual at this time of year. Still, the overall landscape is the gray-brown of winter dormancy, and in a few hours, if the forecast holds, it will all be white.
It’s been one of our themes here this week: the neutral shades of this threshold season, when winter has arrived, but not yet fully committed to stay, the black of stormclouds and rich soil contrasting with the silvery white of snow and ice, mediated by the grays and browns of sleeping earth and foliage — and with the other, more animated spirits of the season, the raptors who soar upon the winter winds.
We began this week’s Wednesday/Weekend series highlighting Wings’s silverwork with his latest addition to his new collection of coil bracelets, a tribute to those very winds and the earth upon which they whirl and dance. It was itself an earthy and elemental piece, all shades of black and white and gray and brown, glowing with the fire of hematite, the shimmer of shell, the mysterious light of opal.
It’s the perfect companion to today’s featured work, one he created a few months ago of similar hues — one that embodies the power of one of the great spirits of this season.
I wrote about this piece on the day he completed it, noting how long the stone that serves as its focal point had remained untouched, awaiting the perfect time to make its presence known:
Sometimes, a stone will sit silently in Wings’s collection for years, only to rouse itself one day and call out so insistently that he has no choice but to create its piece.
Today’s featured item, finished only this afternoon, is one.
We were looking through his inventory of stones a few months ago, and happened across a beautiful biconvex cabochon of Botswana agate, cut into a smooth silky shape known in geometry as a lens. He set it on his workbench and returned to existing projects. He told me last night that, from that time, the stone has called to him. Finally, he stopped all else to listen, focus, and shape by hand the setting it identified as its own.
Until the stone was set within the bezel, it remained impossible to perceive its true identity. In loose form, the shape and colors of the agate reminded me of nothing so much as one of our canoes, wood grain in natural earth tones, in much the same efficient shape. Even as the bezel took shape, the whole picture eluded me; Wings could see it in his mind’s eye, but not yet fully comprehend its meaning.
Once complete, stone set finally in the bezel, the picture fell into place: a feather belonging to Bald Eagle, our protector and inspiration, our messenger and guide. His feather is a great gift and blessing, a conduit for healing and a means to send our prayers to Spirit.
It was an inspired wedding of silver and stones, substance and symbol. From its description in the Necklaces Gallery here on the site:
The Night Eagle Necklace
The Night Eagle soars the skies from dusk to dawn, occasionally leaving behind a feather to bless the morning. Here, that feather manifests in a stunning specimen of Botswana agate, nested bands of color on a spectrum from black to gray to darkest brown to warm pale beige and white, all filtering starlight through their translucent lines. At its tip hangs the moon in the form of a tiny white moonstone of unusual chatoyance. Both stones are set into a singular hand-made bezel, featuring ajouré cutwork in an extended traditional design on the reverse, allowing the agate and the light it refracts to touch the wearer. The pendant hangs from a bold handmade bail featuring a repeating pattern of sacred spaces, suspended from hand-strung beads of hematite alternating with periodic pairs of olivella-shell heishi in the same deep golden brown found in the agate itself. The pendant hangs 3.25 inches long, including the 5/8″ bail; the strand of beads is 18 inches in length (all dimensions approximate). Other views shown above and below.
Sterling silver; Botswana agate; moonstone; hematite, olivella-shell heishi
$875 + shipping, handling, and insurance
If you’ve ever seen an actual eagle feather, you’ll know that they are not uniform in color or pattern: Some are near-solid, with gradations that pale to white near the end of the shaft or the tip; some are speckled throughout; many are a combination of bicolor swatches with the speckled patterning scattered seemingly randomly across the white portion. Many feature color gradients at an angle across the feather, a gentle sloping pattern weighted mostly to one side, altering the feather’s overall appearance in much the same way the lines of the agate cabochon draw the focus away from the stone’s center and give it a new identity.
But what eagle feathers all share, for our peoples, is the immanence of spirit: an indwelling animating force that carries with it the power of Medicine.
It is that force that animates this piece: one of Wings’s truly inspired works, one inspirited by the being whose power it represents.
Even in dark of night or depths of winter, it’s the embodiment of a spirit for all seasons, its power ready for us to call upon it, to carry it with us along our path around the hoop.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
