This day dawned in the soft glow of a cloud-veiled sun, coral and turquoise and silver brought together in the circle of a radiant celestial dance. Their steps herald a dance of another sort, that of temperature and weather, of sun and storm, wind and light.
Yesterday’s high gained fifty once again — and once again, the forecast calls for the snow’s return as early as tonight. The experts’ predictions have softened somewhat from yesterday, at which point they were projecting snow for virtually every day this week and, intermittently, a good half of the next, as well. Now, it appears that they expect a reprieve in the latter half of the week. Give it an hour, and they will have changed their models and minds again.
We rely less on technology and more on long experience and the evidence of the world around us. In truth, it’s no less accurate; those who live with the land live by the weather, by necessity. The outside world gives precious little credence to lived experience in the face of its vaunted computer models, but we know the value of paying attention, and we find that earth and sky tend to tell us what we need to know, provided we take the time to listen.
And that is one of the gifts of these elemental spirits, this willingness to provide markers along the way. These weeks that are part of the colonial world’s season of love are, at least here, a very much harder, harsher season of elemental extremes . . . and yet, we understand that they, too, are expressions of love in their own way. In some places, extremes are required for survival, and the swirling mix of fire and ice, storm and light, is nothing less than love dancing.
Today’s featured work embodies both dance and dress of dawn skies and sunrise, a beautiful radiance tinged with hints of the storm to come along the way. From their description in the Earrings Gallery here on the site:
Love Dancing Earrings
The spirits go love dancing in the light of a Pueblo sky. Wings summons their form and shape in these new earrings, coppery-red hearts wrapped in turquoise robes. Head and torso are formed of a matched pair of hearts as full and red as the iconic love they represent: red agate cabochons in the color of the metallic micaceous earth indigenous to this land, yet translucent as the glow of a Pueblo sunrise. Each is set into a scalloped hand-made bezel, with an organic tab extended at the top to hold delicate silver wires, and a jump ring attached at the lower point. Via a second set of jump rings, the lower body hangs suspended from the hearts: brilliant sky-blue triangular turquoise cabochons aswirl with coppery matrix as red as the hearts, each set into its own scalloped bezel and set adance in the light. Earrings hang 2.25″ in overall length (excluding wires); red agate heart cabochons are 5/8″ long by 9/16″ across at the widest point; turquoise cabochons are 1″ long by 9/16″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; red agate; natural blue turquoise (probably Royston)
$825 + shipping, handling, and insurance
These have long been one of my favorite pairs of earrings in Wings’s recent body of work: figurative forms, dancing spirits, manifest in one of his favorite shapes, the heart, radiant in the shades of the sun and a turquoise Pueblo sky. They are the perfect weight and length, solid enough to hang straight and sway gently without pulling on the ear.
And they are, to my mind, the perfect encapsulation of the gift that is late winter here: cold blue skies lit by the flames at their heart: a winter’s love in the sun’s fire.
Despite the cold, in the face of the snow soon to come, they make me want to dance.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2020; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
