Yesterday morning, it was almost possible to believe that summer was here: almost no wind, and air so warm that no jacket was needed. It is March, however, and early days, too, and so the winds arrived later in the day, leaving a mercury in the mid-sixties feeling much colder than it read.
Still, we are getting weather now in this late winter that is not merely spring, but late spring, with unusually cloudy skies to accompany it. It’s strange, at this time of year, to see skeletal branches just beginning to bud silhouetted against blue-black thunderheads of the sort more likely to deliver late-summer rains. This is what climate change has wrought: seasons out of season, with all that that implies. Still, in this land, we perforce adapt, and quickly, too, because the rains are a gift that we dare not treat dismissively.
And in truth, after this winter, the motifs of summer are more than welcome. While the season itself is months off yet — indeed, the long-range forecast predicts several days of snow beginning a week from now — I find myself appreciating the sun and the early warmth this year in a way unprecedented for this child of autumn and winter. I think similar feelings informed Wings’s creation of his latest piece, another in his collection of coil bracelets that summons the stormy spirits of summer. From its description in the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Summer Storm Coil Bracelet
It is the summer storm that brings the rains to the high desert, a vortex of cobalt clouds blessing the land and turning it lush and green. Wings captures the colors of the monsoon season in this coil bracelet, one with more coils than usual, and larger amount of stone. A pair of large oval beads of dark blue lapis shot through with wispy golds and grays anchor either end like thunderheads. The rain begins with small rondels of azurite with malachite, touching down against dark green malachite the shade of summer’s greens. The malachite leads to segments of green turquoise barrel beads and rondels interspersed with large chunky green turquoise nuggets spiraling to the center, where there rests another large oval bead, this one the perfect hue of a robin’s egg. Joint design by Wings and Aji.
Stainless steel; green turquoise, malachite, azurite with malachite; lapis lazuli
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
This work is a more expensive than most of the entries in his coil collection. Like one other such bracelet, today’s featured piece contains far more stone than the others: five coils rather than three or four, with plenty of big chunky pieces of turquoise and lapis. The coil is not heavy on the wrist, but the collective carat weight of the gemstones is as immense as the substance of its symbolism.
It’s a beautiful reminder of the season to come: a season of abundance, manifest in a bold bejeweled spiral in the colors of earth and sky, and of the summer storm.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
