Late last year, Wings acquired some absolutely astonishing stones: a type of Kingman turquoise that is known variously as black-webbed, fine-webbed, or simply spiderweb, but is of such an exceptionally high grade that it rivals some of the best and most expensive Nevada turquoise in hardness, quality, and appearance. This weekend, two of these stones found form in a pair of magnificent traditional earrings.
Skystones like these live up to their name: there really is no name that fits the color of the turquoise other than “sky blue.” But generally speaking, the most highly prized forms of turquoise (in Native art) are those with significant matrix, particularly a spiderweb matrix — and the finer and tighter the web, the more valued the turquoise tends to be. These two cabochons, in a rectangular cut, lightly domes with lightly beveled corners, possess all of the most desirable qualities of Indian turquoise: color, clarity, exceptionally fine webbing in inky black lit here and there by a glittering silvery-white shimmer of pyrite. From their description in the Earrings Gallery:
Twilight Falls Earrings
In the high desert, golden light blends with turquoise skies to turn twilight a momentary green. Here, that color is captured in the soft teal shade of two round spiderweb turquoise cabochons shot through with inky black matrices. They open onto a pair of truly extraordinary cabochons of exceptionally high-grade Kingman spiderweb blue turquoise, the web so tight and fine it resembles the stars of our galaxy. Each exceptionally large rectangular cab rests in a scalloped bezel, edged in twisted silver and opening into four hand-made rings that hold fringe of four hammered strands of sterling silver. The effect is of one of the evening sky, as dusk becomes night descending over the land, color altered and stars newly visible as they fall from the sky. Earrings hang two inches long (including “fringe”; excluding wires) by 3/4 of an inch across at the widest point (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; high-grade black-webbed Kingman turquoise; green spiderweb turquoise
$975 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Here, Wings has placed these breathtaking bits of the desert sky between their softer green cousins, the color of the heavens at that ephemeral moment before the sun drops below the edge the world, and a glittering fringe of starshine, to create something very traditional and wholly unique. Native jewelry depends upon both stone and setting for its spirit: What makes it unique among jewelry styles is the artist’s ability to create settings that summon the soul that lives in the stone, to allow it to sing in harmony with the entire work, yet still retain its unique voice.
With these earrings, Wings has succeeded. I have tried them on, of course, and they are works of substance in every sense the word implies. Because of its most common color, we tend to regard turquoise as a stone of the daytime sky, and yet it is night when we most feel the need for its symbolic protection. It’s why we paint windows and doors in its hue — to keep that which is evil, dangerous, or even merely undesirable firmly at bay outside — and we humans seldom feel the need for that protection more than after twilight falls and our eyes cannot see what hides in its shadow.
The dark may hold the unknown, and sometimes what we cannot see can indeed harm us. Sometimes, it’s merely the fear of what might be, rather than anything that actually is. Still, we are human, and it is natural to worry when our vision is curtailed by the lack of light, when Father Sun’s absence while he sleeps makes the blue sky look black to our mortal eyes. It’s hard to remember that the midnight above us is the same as the bright blue of day.
These stones show that turquoise is the color of the night sky, as well, and that it does not lose its ability to protect us simply because we cannot perceive its color clearly. And in Wings’s hand-made settings, it’s possible to hold the heavens and their protection . . . even after twilight falls.
~ 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.
