Yesterday’s weather was the storm that wasn’t: breathlessly ballyhooed by corporate-media forecasters, it turned out to be next to nothing here, only the slightest dusting finally arriving well after full dark.
We will take it and be grateful for it, but we’re more than a little weary of the increasingly silly hype in a time and place so decimated by drought.
Of course, storm spirits are trickster spirits, and in this place, we have always known that they are fond of mischief and caprice. That has always been the case here, a land of high peaks surrounding stark sere plains, a place where the Tail of the Dragon sits in an eternal audience to the dance of the whirlwind spirits.
We had precious little whirlwind yesterday and none today, either, but its ferocious dance is not far off now. Despite the thin rime of snow on the ground and the chill in the air, the day feels more of spring than of winter, and in fact the spring and summer birds long since made their decision to remain even through such cold months as we are granted. Spring is the season when the trickster winds find their fullest expression (and do their greatest damage), battering the land and everything upon it with brutal force that seems to come from all directions.
It’s best to enjoy today’s weather while it lasts.
And beautiful weather it is, brilliantly sunny, the snow shining silver beneath an encircling embrace of clouds both blue and black beneath a clear overhead expanse. The mountains may yet get a little more snow, caught now in a whirlwind of turquoise and indigo, violet and slate.
It’s an image, and a dance, that finds expression in both of today’s featured works — no formal set, these, yet clearly complementary all the same. We begin with the larger of the two, the necklace, wrought in a form that evokes simultaneously a sense of motion and all the power and protection of a medicine shield. From its description in the Necklaces Gallery here on the site:
Dance of the Whirlwind Spirits Necklace
When the winds come from the Four Directions to meet at the center of all that is, they summon the spirit of the whirlwind to dance in the vortex of the storm. Wings summons all of the spirits in this work, a large, heavy talismanic medallion of solid sterling silver, hammered by hand and lightly domed in repoussé fashion. A symbol of the Four Sacred Direction in a flaring stylized cross shape rests atop the medallion as an overlay. Each spoke is marked with a single cabochon of cobalt-blue lapis lazuli, the color of the rain; they spin inward toward the vortex at the center, embodied in a large round onyx cabochon of mysteriously glossy depths. The hand-made bail is accented with tiny hand-stamped hoops, the shape of the spiraling wind itself. The pendant hangs from an alternating strand of round sterling silver and lapis lazuli beads, with small square lapis and round onyx beads stretching toward either end of the strand, each end terminating in two tiny Florentine-finish silver beads. Pendant is 2-1/8 inches long (including bail) by 2-1/4 inches across; beads are 19 inches long (dimensions approximate). Close-up views of the pendant shown below.
Sterling silver; onyx; lapis lazuli
$1,500 + shipping, handling, and insurance
The pendant assumes the form of all the blues of sky and cloud around a central storm: a whirlwind, yes; a vortex; a place of raw elemental power stretching to and from all of the Four Sacred Directions. The surface of the lower layer, all hammered freehand, shimmers like water, both the rippled surface of the lake and the sparkling jeweled drops that fall from the sky.
The bead strand similarly evokes storm and sky, small black onyx beads extending into the lighter blues of lapis cubes, then sterling silver interspersed with old ultra-high-grade lapis spheres in the most extraordinary shade of perfect blue-violet.
Taken together, they not merely coordinate but positively conspire with the second of today’s featured works, a pair of earrings built around the same deep and glossy black onyx as that at the center of the pendant, their silver setting wrought with a similar sense of motion as the pendant itself. From their description in the Earrings Gallery:
From All Directions Earrings
Sometimes we need protection from the winds that seem to buffet us from all directions. Sometimes, great gifts and blessings arrive on those same winds. Wings captures the dichotomous nature of our journey around the hoop with these earrings, jet-black onyx and silver polished so highly it’s nearly white, that embody the power of the winds and the sacred directions: gifts simultaneously of wild unharnessed power and of shelter from the storm. The settings are representations of the Sacred Directions, those reaches of our world guarded by the winds, that here encompass both cardinal and ordinal points. Each is cut freehand from sterling silver, with the spoke at each cardinal point gently curved on the end to imply the arcing shape of the hoop and impart a sense of motion around it. At the center of each, the vortex: a large round onyx cabochon, like a pool of liquid jet, resting gently in a scalloped bezel and trimmed with twisted silver. Settings are 1.75″ high by 1.75″ across; cabochons are .75″ across (dimensions approximate). Earrings are a companion work to Dance of the Whirlwind Spirits, in the Necklaces Gallery.
Sterling silver; onyx
$725 + shipping, handling, and insurance
The genius of these earrings lies in the the shape of their spokes, gently curving arcs around the cardinal points of the compass that, in contrast with the sharp corners at the ordinal points, impart a feeling of turning, of the movement of the dance. It’s the perfect counterpart to a piece who own power lies in its feeling of rotation, reminding us that storms (and their absence) move in circles and cycles, too.
As a write, the clouds continue to trace a path around the peaks, a cosmic shawl to embrace the shoulders of our small world here. Meanwhile, the world turns, too, in its eternal dance, and whatever the dangers from without, it still holds its step and gives us life. Sometimes, the vortex is needed: a whirlwind of turquoise and indigo, violet and slate, delivered by the powerful spirits of storm and light.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2021; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
