That clouds that blanketed the dawn have mostly dissipated now, leaving behind a vast turquoise sky to the whole of its four corners, marbled here and there around the peaks with bands of gray and white. There is no snow in the forecast now, only an endless cold blue.
But we still hope, and pray, and dream of a better winter for this land that needs it so desperately.
This is the way of things here; we are immensely practical peoples, after all. The need to survive a sustained and deliberate campaign of genocide, now these five hundred years and more, has made us the hardest, most clear-eyed of realists. We keep our feet firmly planted in the real world, but we never lose sight of the better version we are charged with building, nor of the promises and prophecies of the ancestors, of their visions and their dreams. It is by those guideposts that we mark and make our own way, always recommitting ourselves to our work as we go.
Today’s featured work embodies those guides, both the visionaries who foresaw these days and the prophecies they ensured would be handed down to us to fulfill. From their description in the Earrings Gallery here on the site:
Day Dreaming Earrings
The Eye of Spirit guides and illuminates, granting us not daydreaming but day dreaming, a portal into other worlds even beneath the brightest blue skies of the daylight hours. Wings honors their shapes and shades and spirits with these earrings, each a trio of such symbols of wisdom and the visions toward which they guide us, all wrought in Skystone and silver. Each dangling drop is formed of two layers of 20-gauge sterling silver, designed and cut wholly freehand, then overlaid atop each other and fused seamlessly together. Three graduated square bezels, turned at right angles to form the iconic diamond shape of the Eye, are fashioned vertically down the upper layer, and each holds a brilliant sky-blue cabochon of Sleeping Beauty turquoise, polished nugget-style to leave surfaces deeply textured and matrix clearly visible. Each drop is suspended from sterling silver wires via an organically wrought and drilled tab extending from the base layer. Earrings hang 2″ long, excluding wires, by 15/16″ across at the widest point; small cabochons at top are 1/4″ along each edge and 5/16″ across the diamond’s center; medium cabochons at center are 5/16″ along each edge and 3/8″ across the diamond’s center; large cabochons at bottom are 3/8″ along each edge and 1/4″ across the diamond’s center (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; Sleeping Beauty turquoise
$975 + shipping, handling, and insurance
These earrings are not named for the practice of wasting time, of mindless and unfocused thought. In our way, we know that dreaming is an active pursuit, one that requires work and no small amount of sacrifice: fasting, offerings, solitude, prayer. We know that the charge we are given at birth, to go well through life, does not refer to the accumulation of authority or conveniences or material things, but rather, to mind always what we do according to our teachings and our ways, to build a better world through our own courage and wisdom, our generosity and willingness to sacrifice for the common good.
We are charged with fulfilling the ancestors’ visions, and to leave behind our own for our children’s children. It is very real, present, and immediate work, this journey along the road of dreams, and it is what will keep our world alive and safely habitable for the generations yet to come.
~ 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.
