Today looks, and feels, nearly perfect. The air is clear and cool, kept that way by a brisk but gentle breeze. The three live aspens outside the living room windows are now almost entirely gold, their upper branches fast going bare; the rest of their kind hover around the halfway mark of the turning process. Only a few scattered puffs of white dot the cornflower sky, and there is a briskness to the day to match the breeze, the animating spirit of a world readying for a long winter’s rest and yet wholly, gloriously alive.
In a land that a mere four months ago seemed not merely dying but already desiccated by drought, it seems nothing short of a miracle.
It’s not, of course; it’s a combination of the world’s own pattern strength and Wings’s daily work to keep this land alive. But if it’s not a miracle, it’s certainly medicine, for the land, and for us.
And it reminds me just how much of our existence is invested in — rooted in — hope.
That, too, is reductive; it’s not just hope, it’s faith, as well. Faith in the old patterns, and the old ways that kept them alive; faith in uor current existence, made possible by the strength and bravery and endless work of our ancestors, whose legacy has survived the waves of a half-millennium of colonial destruction. We are born of ancient peoples and power, our own strength forged from ancient fires — of birth, of destruction, of creation, of council and ceremony and nothing less than prophecy itself — and we have faith in our collective power to see these catastrophic conditions through to the other side, to a world reborn and reclaimed and alive once more.
Today’s featured masterwork is this faith, this hope, this prophecy and promise manifest in silver and stone and nothing less than the works of the ancestors themselves. It’s one of Wings’s newest works, itself renewed only yesterday by the dismantling of its original bead strand and the creation of a new, more fitting one: one whose earthy black-and-white mix to match the sherds is punctuated by solid sterling silver and high-grade malachite to match its central green spirit. From its description in the Necklaces Gallery here on the site:
From Ancient Fires Necklace
From ancient fires is our whole world born. With this extraordinary new necklace, Wings honors the fires, the gifts of the ancients, and the green of an Earth reborn. The pendant, cut freehand to follow the lines of the focal settings, is edged freehand in scalloped motifs that flow like water and dance like flame from Wings’s home-made stamps. At the top, an equally ancient Pueblo pottery sherd, bold geometric black on white in the old Pájarito style, evokes the head of a human-like figure; at the bottom, another pottery sherd from the same era, this one hand-painted in black lines on white clay, suggests a kirtle and sash or skirt; at center, a freeform dagger of fabulously lacy deep green malachite whorled with orbicular traces of lighter green marks the center of the body, suggesting a cycle of birth and rebirth from the surrounding clay and the flames that hold them all. A lightly flared bail, lined, edged, and cut freehand, holds the pendant securely. The strand is a cascade of like colors and textures, all beads hand-selected to pick up the shapes and shades of the pendant and its focals: a gradient of deep gray marbled Picasso jasper and pale gray cloud jasper rounds; coarsely textured barrels of basaltic lava rock and matte onyx rounds; doughnut-style rondels of sterling silver alteranting with orbs of high-grade malachite in bands and whorls of rich, deep emerald green. Bead strand is 20.5″ long, excluding findings; pendant including bail is 4-1/8″ long; pendant alone is 3-1/2″ long by 2-1/8″ across; bail is 3/4″ long by 1/2″ across at the widest point; upper pottery sherd is 1-1/4″ high by 1″ across at the widest point; malachite cabochon is 1-3/8″ across by 1/2″ high; lower pottery sherd is 1-1/4″ high by 1-3/16″ across at the widest point (all dimensions approximate). Other views shown below.
Pendant: Sterling silver; old black-on-white Pueblo pottery sherds; high-grade orbicular malachite
Strand: Tri-ply foxtail plated with silver; sterling silver findings
Beads: Picasso jasper; cloud jasper; basaltic lava rock; high-grade malachite; sterling silver; matte onyx
$2,500 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It’s an extraordinary work of wearable art, one for whom the word phenomenal was coined: a phenomenon of contemporary silver, stone, and mastery; a phenomenon of Mother Earth’s own art; a phenomenon of ancestral work and skill and talent from hundreds, perhaps thousands of years ago.
And the newly formulated bead strand suits it perfectly, the mix of jaspers and basalt and onyx a near-flawless collective color match for the old pottery sherds, while the deep evergreen of the malachite beads draw the eye to the central dagger, a stone of heart and soul and animating spirit.
I love this work beyond all reason: the symbolism, the shades and stone and sherds, the spirit of it. But most of all, I love the skill and love — yes, love — and the honor and respect with which Wings so carefully put it together. The sherds are in their original form from when the earth of his own land threw them up to him to hold; the only change is the most careful filing of the edges, smoothing them just enough to stay safely seated in their bezels. The stone is one of those that has no match or mate — a one-off, freeform, its shape not conducive to ordinary settings, but perfect for a figurative work such as this.
And then there is the silverwork. All saw-cut, entirely freehand, all in one sitting, the lines that served as aguide to the filament-thin blade created by Wings’s own hand-made stamp, one sculpted in an old traditional flowing-water pattern that, freed from the surrounding silver, assumed the form of flames. That, too, is fitting, given that it serves as the setting not merely for the stone but for these ancient pottery sherds, themselves brought into being from earth and water and fire.
It reminds us how much of our existence is owed to old powers, old forces, old medicines and spirits. We are here by the gifts of the Earth, of the Creator and other spirits, of the ancestors and of prophecy — and like Father Sun, around which our world revolves, they emit an ancient glow that warms our world still.
In that, we have faith, and in that, there is always hope.
~ 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.
