So much for institutional meteorology.
After days of insisting that we would have rain today, the morning’s forecast is as clear as the skies. At the moment, the only cloud cover consists of the rounded white cumulus tops barely visible over the southern ridgeline. The rest of the heavens are a blue expanse, skies not so much freeform this morning as merely free in air a good twenty degrees colder than that of recent mornings.
Of course, in this place, the weather can change on less than the proverbial dime: Storms blow up in an instant, and vanish just as rapidly. But the remaining prediction of snow tomorrow suggests at least some change in the offing, although you’d never know it now.
What is a relatively sure thing is the shape of the day to come. That line of cloud tips to the south, simmering behind the ridgeline? That will eventually boil over, spreading west and north and east, small individual clouds moving with increasing rapidity, accumulating mass, connecting up with each other in a trail across the sky. Although the forecast doesn’t call for it, and at the moment, the air is still, this is spring, and the winds will doubtless rise to meet the day, an intercessory force that brings earth and skies together, shielding the sun in a cloud of another sort — dust, in walls and whirlwinds. The dirty light of spring adds a hint of green to cornflower skies, and the clouds, whether of a mind to deliver rain or no, eventually become a darkened web by sunset.
In other words, our world now looks much like the stone in today’s featured work, one of brilliant clarity of color and the mystical whorls of cloud webs. From its description in the Rings Gallery here on the site:
Freeform Skies Ring
Our world is just orbicular enough to stay balanced on its axis, and in an infinite universe, we live beneath freeform skies. Wings brings them down to earth with this new ring, a solitaire both bold and bright. The wide band is cut freehand in his signature scalloped design, then hammered by hand with scored of delicate strikes by a jeweler’s hammer. The stone is spectacular, an old blue turquoise cabochon from his personal collection: free-form, lightly domed, an electric shade of sky blue spiderwebbed with indigo and emerald green matrix and bits of golden-ivory host rock. The stone most likely hails from Nevada’s Fox Mine (the old Cortez Mine) or the Royston District, and is set securely into a scalloped bezel. The band is 7/16″ wide at its widest point and 1/4″ wide at its narrowest point; the cabochon is 7/8″ long by 5/8″ across at its widest point (dimensions approximate). Sizeable. Other views shown above and at the link.
Sterling silver; old natural blue turquoise (likely Fox or Royston)
$625 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Even now, as the sun arcs higher, the clouds follow. Wisps of white are moving inward, their inky bases still hidden from view. They are unlikely to deliver the rain that was earlier promised — perhaps not even tomorrow’s projected snow — but in spite of the cold’s return, they carry with them the look and feel and spirit of spring. We can chart the progress of the season by their trail across the sky, one that will lead us surely to warmer days.
~ 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.
