Yesterday, the mercury finally rose well past seventy, nearing eighty by day’s end — confirmation at long last that we really have moved closer to the sun. Now, at dawn, the skies are clear, the air shimmering, a world of green and golden light glowing beneath a sun that has just crested the peaks.
It may not feel quite like it yet, but this day will look, at least, a bit like summer.
It’s more than welcome at this point. An unseasonably warm winter and early spring has remained remarkably consistent with the passage of time. Yes, it’s true that the highs have risen, but not by much in relative terms, and the lows have remained unusually stable — hovering, until today, near or below the freezing point. Combined with an early start to the monsoon season, with cloud cover that breaks customary patterns, and our highs have been distinctly chilly, as well.
But now, on this first day of June, a morning temperature well into the forties makes the prospect of summer real again. It’s fitting, perhaps: As a small child, not yet familiar with the role of solstice and equinox, I regarded June first as the first day of summer, and here, of course, June is usually our hottest month.
It’s getting a late start on the latter point this year, but at least the sun feels closer this morning.
It’s a feeling found in today’s featured work, the first in Wings’s newest series, The Standing Stones Collection. It’s a series of earrings created in an old traditional fashion — not heishi, but beadwork all the same, small cairns of gemstones simultaneously stacked atop each other and cascading downward. And in this instance, a perfect preview of summer: tiny jeweled renderings of solstice imagery. From their description in the relevant section of the Earrings Gallery here on the site:
Closer to the Sun Earrings
Summer brings us closer to the sun. Wings honors the Earth’s annual migration with these gemstone bead earrings, small vibrant worlds orbiting a golden center stone spreading warmth and light. Each set of beads is strung on sterling silver wire, top and bottom mirrored solar systems around a large freeform bead of polished citrine. Extending outward at either side, the colors change from a golden glow to verdant greens, with perfectly round beads that move from golden mother-of-pearl shell to the swirling golden hues of green garnet, thence to leafy jade and at last to the summer-grass shade of malachite. Each dangling drop is suspended from sterling silver wires via a delicate silver jump ring. Earrings hang 2.25″ long, excluding wires (dimensions approximate). Designed jointly by Wings and Aji. First in The Standing Stones Collection.
Sterling silver; malachite; jade; green garnet; gold mother-of-pearl shell; citrine
$155 + shipping, handling, and insurance
These are the perfect work for this first day of June in this place, summoning the structures and shades of the season. The solstice is now only three weeks off; the standing stones that dot the land show shadows foreshortened, standing open and bare as our earth summons the courage to approach the sun.
And this day has dawned awash in the glow of a nascent sun, a world of green and golden light.
~ 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.
