Today, Wings’s latest work takes flight.
It’s a pair of tiny dancers, small curving pairs of wings in the thinnest sterling silver. From a distance, their mirrored flanged shape evokes the human figure, resembling stylized vintage representations of Pueblo maidens, narrow at head and foot, wrapped in silver dress and shawl. As they dangle, they dance, their steps keeping time with those of the wearer.
Up close, they look like dancers of another sort, matched pairs of silvery wings joined together at the center to dance upon the currents of the air. From their description in the Earrings Gallery here on the site:
In Flight Earrings
Bold wings of sterling silver unite in the center, then gather and stretch to their full length in flight. Each triangle, hand-cut of exceptionally fine-gauge sterling silver, is smoothly shaped to create elegant rounded edges and buffed to a mirror finish. The gentle flanges are conjoined by means of a sterling silver hinge at the center, allowing the wings to dance in unison as they dangle softly from the ear. Each simple spirit, whose shape evokes the stylized outline of a dancer in flight, is held fast to wires by means of slender silver jump rings. Each earring hangs 2.25 inches long (excluding wires) by .75 inch across at the widest point (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver
$250 + shipping, handling, and insurance
They are utterly spare and simple, and astonishingly elegant. They’re also more complex in execution than they appear: each of the four flanges that make up the pair individually cut, freehand, from a sheet of thin, fine-gauge silver. Each half of each hinge is meticulously soldered onto its side, then wedded permanently together to create a full vertical wingspan. And unlike many of Wings’s earrings, these he buffed to a brilliant sheen, a finish that captures and holds and releases the light in an endless dance of reflection and refraction.
He’s contemplating a series, one that would feature similar shapes but with small stampwork accents, a way of lending subtle individuality to each pair. For now, with this first pair? Matched pairs of simple silver wings, a tribute to the aspects of the avian beings for whom he is named, are enough to invoke the spirits of the air and set them adance.
~ 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.
