After weeks of intermittent rains, sudden and otherwise, this week seems as though it will be all about the light.
That’s the case with fall here anyway; the light that is so glorious year-round takes on truly otherworldly qualities now. It has to do with the return of a perfect clarity of air, something visible, tangible, despite not being able to touch it or actually, even, to see it: We only know its presence by the absence of so much else.
We did not quite have that clarity at dawn this day. Oh, the sky was a beautiful blue unmarred by a single cloud, but a faint haze hovered in the air between us and the peaks, no doubt the leading edge of the smoke plumes from California tht have coalesced here into a single faint but visible pall. Now, though, as the morning wanes and a few puffy white clouds begin to form on all sides, the faint autumnal breeze has driven the haze out of this place entirely.
Once again, what remains is the light.
And so, on this day, I’ve decided to approach the week’s work a bit differently. Today’s featured work is one of Wings’s newest, one that captures the ethereal beauty of autumn in this place . . . but it is also a work tht has already sold. It’s rare that I feature a sold item here, unless it is brand new, and, lke this one, possessed of such beauty and power that it deserves its own entry in this space if only so that it is seen in the way that it deserves. And this tribute to the alpine desert land and light certainly deserves that.
It’s one in Wings’s new informal collection of pendants, created only nine short days ago. It is now going to be worn by a very dear friend, a near-perfect match to a barrette she commissioned Wings to make for her a couple of years ago. [I will also note here that, while Wings will never duplicate a piece, he will create others in similar or related styles, and I happen to know that at the moment, he has two such sharply angled triangle cabochons in his inventory: one dendritic landscape jasper; the other, smaller, chrysocolla in malachite.] And despite its ephemeral spirit, it’s a work of solidity and phsyical substance, sixteen jewels set upon a single organic backing, as shown below. From its description in the Pendants Gallery here on the site:
The Dance of a Desert Sun Pendant
In this dry alpine world, earth and sky daily deliver the dance of a desert sun, warm and radiant in all the shades of fire. With this pendant, Wings gives figurative form to the space where they meet to dance with the animating spirit of the light. The entire backing of the pendant is a single organic piece, cut and scalloped freehand specifically to hold this collection of jewels in this exact combination. At the top, set into a scalloped bezel with the back extended just beyond, the edge stamped in radiant hoops, sits a fabulously domed and beveled cabochon of golden rutilated quartz, sharp yellow needles including throughout the icy gem. Beneath, the figure wears its own ribbon skirt, a triangle of Apache sage rhyolite banded in dusty rose and mulberry and daubed in wine-hued shrubs, like the desert prairie at sunset. It’s set into a scalloped bezel and edged with a total of fourteen small round cabochons , each set into its own saw-toothed bezel, the extended backing samped freehand around each stone in a radiant motif: five fiery garnets, four gentle pink mussel shells, and five chatoyant gray moonstones to pick up all the colors of dawn and dusk. The bail is hand-milled in a horizontal dot-dash pattern that hints at the banding of clouds and the possibility of rain, and is cut freehand in a gentle flare. Full pendant, including bail, hangs 3″ long; without bail,2-3/4″ long by 2-1/2″ across at the widest point; bail is 1/2″ long by 3/8″ across at the widest point; upper setting is 1-16″ across by 1″ high; lower setting is 2-1/2″ across at the widest point by 1-7/8″ high; rutilated quartz cabochon is 3/4″ across by /4″ high; rhyolite cabochon is 1-3/4″ across at the widest point by 1-1/4″ high; small garnet, pink mussel shell, and gray moonstone cabochons are all 3/16″ across (all dimensions approximate). Ships with an 18″ sterling silver snake chain.
Sterling silver; Apache sage rhyolite; golden rutilated quartz; garnet; pink mussel shell; gray moonstone
$1,025 + shipping, handling, and insurance
SOLD
It’s an extraordinary piece, as much for the freehand silverwork thst frames it as for the unusual beauty of the stones that capture and refract all the glow and texture of the autumn desert. The upper stone is an incredible specimen of golden rutilated quartz, highly domed and beautifully beveled on the corners, with a riot of sunny rutile criss-crossing its icy center. The lower stone is a material known as Apache sage rhyolite (named, apparently, for the one area in which it thus far has been found, which extends from the southwestern corner of what is now known as New Mexico into the southeastern corner of what’s called Arizona, and down into the northern reaches of what’s known these days as México). Its hallmark is that naturally-occurring appearance of a desert landscape across its surface, banded in dusty shades of rose and mulberry and violet like the colors of this whole region’s sunset sky. And the tiny mix of deep wine- and flame-hued garnet, shimmering pink mussel shell, and chatoyant gray moonstone that embrace the lower stone all radiate their own fiery light.
It’s one of those works that pays tribute to this land in startlingly tangible ways: to the beauty of a desert earth, always in flower in some form or shape; to the banding of the sky before the storm and after; to the fire of dawn and dusk, of sun and moon and stars.
But at this season, particularly, it’s all about the light.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2022; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
