There are times when Wings produces something that can rightly be called a masterpiece. He’s done that twice this week, each completed yesterday. One was a commissioned piece, designed for a specific purpose.
The other was the cuff shown above.
The photos don’t come close to doing it justice. It’s one of those works that is so perfect that it touches something in the spirit, on a deep and elemental level. I was lucky enough to watch it take shape over a period of weeks, as he designed overall pattern and added each individual bit of stampwork.
And after all these years, and all the thousands of pieces he’s created . . . this week’s work was something truly phenomenal, in the literal sense of that word.
I can’t show you the other one yet; it was shipped today to its wearer, who has not seen it, and he should be the first to lay eyes on it. But I can show you the one Wings made to be added to our inventory of pieces for sale. From its description in the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Sometimes, all of the elements of a piece come together in a perfect reflection of Nature’s own elements. So it is with this cuff bracelet, handmade of heavy twelve-gauge sterling silver. Directional signs become visionary when centered around Eyes of Spirit in a complex symbol that repeats along the length of the band, scored on either side and flanked by motifs of the heavens and the rain. The inner band is lightly hammered for an antiqued effect and edged with fertile blossom patterns. At the center, a stunning oval cabochon of Colorado turquoise, a perfect sky blue with matrices in green and bronze and brown, seems to map earth and sky themselves. Other views shown above and below.
Sterling silver; Colorado turquoise
$950 + shipping, handling, and insurance
The stone itself is a phenomenon in its own right, a rare specimen among turquoise from the sate just north of us. It looks for all the world like a topographical map, or an aerial view of earth and sky, a vision of mountains, of greenery, of the waters, all luminous beneath a robin’s-egg sky. It’s a beautiful planetary jewel, one that befits use in any form of silverwork.
But it’s the band that makes it.
As I said, I watched it take shape. I watched the careful detail work, the meticulous design and execution that went into it. And it produced a pattern of incredibly powerful symbolism, a series of images that, collectively, become something far greater than the sum of their parts. Symbols of the Four Sacred Directions, rendered in a design that displays ordinal as well as cardinal points. Eyes of Spirit placed squarely at the center of each, signs of power and protection, of dreams and visions. The entire row edged with motifs of climate and of the celestial, combined in a way that creates yet a third, cyclonic, embracing effect. The inner band, texturized by gentle hammering, then edged with signs of life in the desert. And all of it drawing the eye inexorably toward that stone.
The entire cuff radiates power: elemental, natural, spiritual force. When you try it on, you can’t help but feel it. It’s like having the world in microcosm at rest atop your wrist.
It’s earth and sky in miniature, mapped with the navigational instruments of the sacred, with the seer’s eye of Spirit.
~ 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.
