It’s cold.

I know I’ve said that the last few days, but today it’s real cold, a temperature that’s risen one degree from the twenty-eight it was at nine-thirty this morning. It’s nearly one o’clock in the afternoon now, and at this rate, we may not reach the freezing mark all day.

It’s also snowing. Not heavily; the ground cover shows plenty of green through the threadbare patchwork of white, and plenty of gray-gold, too, in the spots where dormancy still holds sway. But it’s snow, and that’s more than the recent breathless forecasts for several inches, due to begin in early afternoon yesterday, have actually produced. Predictions yesterday and even through midnight insisted that we would have consistent snow, often heavy, from no later than three o’clock in the afternoon well into the early morning hours; it even went so far as to tell us, repeatedly, that it was snowing right at that moment, whatever times it happened to be.

The truth was very different. While snow squalls raced around the peaks on all sides of us for most of yesterday and into last night, not a single flake fell here — not one — until around eleven o’clock this morning.

All of this, of course, is perfectly ordinary for April here. More, we are accustomed to getting a mid-month blizzard, a foot or more falling overnight and entirely gone by noon. That, a glance at the extended forecast suggests, will not occur this year. But for now, we shall welcome this gentle snow and be grateful for it, one more step in Earth’s round dance as it turns from the end of winter toward the full face of spring.

Today’s featured masterwork embodies this dance in spectacular form. It’s an old traditional design, built around an old and beautiful focal stone — a bolo saw-cut and scored and stamped and shaped entirely freehand, one whose very imagery imparts the same sense of circular motion that its name implies. From its description in the Accessories Gallery here on the site:

Earth’s Round Dance Bolo

The changing of the seasons are the Earth’s round dance, orbit and revolution in a timeless circle of celebration and ceremony. With this bolo, Wings summons the spirit of an evergreen Earth that gives us life and breath, centered in the winds and the Sacred Directions, traveling its own orbital path in the cosmos that carries us all. The bolo itself is wrought in a beautiful traditional concha design, a giant circle radiating silvery light. It’s saw-cut, scalloped, scored, and stamped entirely freehand, radiant arcs adding shimmer to the scalloped edges, three deeply scored circles separating the individual stampwork patterns. The outer ring is formed of nested crescents divided into quarters, each chased segment seeming to move outward to meet at the cardinal points. Those points each contain a single tiny central star, those at East and West evoking guiding Eyes of Spirit.The central ring is formed of two repeating half-circle segments of chased petal-like motifs, radiant Art Deco symbols that meet at the bottom between more tiny stars, and join at the top in their own tribute to Spirit’s Eye. the central portion consists of four old-style geometric thunderhead motifs, arrayed spoke-outward at each of the cardinal directions; the space between is texturized entirely by hand, hundreds of strikes of the hammer against a single tiny divot-end stamp. The concha is domed by hand, repoussé-fashion, the focal cabochon set at the very center in the embrace of a hand-scalloped bezel. The stone is a very old, slightly freeform cabochon from Wings’s private collection, backed but not calibrated, domed and richly textured, a glorious blend of teal, spring, and forest greens webbed and patched with host-rock matrix in a gradient that ranges from ivory to gold to amber shades. It’s too old to be sure of provenance now, but it looks most like old King’s Manassa from Colorado, or perhaps Stone Mountain or Royston from Nevada. The cord is tightly braided leather in a rich russet brown, ending in sterling silver tips with saw-toothed openings and molded ball-bead ends. Concha is 3-1/2″ high by 3-1/2″ wide; cabochon is 7/8″ high by 3/4″ across at the widest point; tips are 1-7/8 long with molded ball-bead ends at 1/4″ across; cord is some 48″ long, including tips (all dimensions approximate). Other views shown above, below, and at the link.

Sterling silver; OLD natural turquoise, likely King’s Manassa, possibly Stone Mountain or Royston; braided brown leather
$2,000 + shipping, handling, and insurance

The stone is smallish, irregularly freeform, but highly domed and with a rich surface texture. The greens of the stone are a blend of forest and emerald and a little seafoam at the top with a faint underlying hint of blue; the matrix is a patchy mix of ivory host rock and red-gold mineral inclusions with hints of brown here and there. It’s one from Wings’s private collection, a stone that has been in residence there for decades. The greens and golds suggest three possible mine sources, one from Colorado and two from Nevada: King’s Manassa, just a bit north of us here over the state line and known for its rich greens and patchy golden-hued matrix; and both Royston and Stone Mountain in Nevada, both known to produce beautiful material in these very same shades. Irrespective of original mine source, it’s a beautiful specimen, and one of a kind. Wings has done it jsutice here by setting it inot a hand-scalloped low-profile bezel and edging it with a slender strand of twisted silver.

The golden brown shades in the matrix, infused with coppery reds, are captured in the bolo’s cord, as well. It’s a thick strand of tightly braided leather in a color often called “saddle,” neither tan nor quite fully brown, either. It picks up like colors in the focal stone, and its own reddish hue seems to glow above and around the aged Florentine-finish silver of bolo and tips.

But the real phenomenon of this piece is in the stampwork.

It’s an extraordinary mix of three level markers scored freehand around it, all using a single short chisel-end stamp chased repeatedly [chasing refers to the repeated application of a stamp in the same spot to deepen it, and, with a line, gradually to extend it]. The very center, beneath the focal, is built around old-style geometric thunderhead stamps placed outward at the Four Sacred Directions; the entire space between them is texturized by hand using a single tiny divot-end stamp and scores, perhaps hundreds of strikes of the jeweler’s hammer.

That central portion grounds the work, placing it firmly in context. The two outer rings provide the sense of motion: along the inner ring, Art Deco radiant petals paired at the top, points outward, the stamp them placed directionally on either side and chased all the way around that half of the hoop. Where the points meet at the bottom, tiny stars appear above and below. The outer ring, the largest, is chased with larger crescents, simple slender arcs, each aimed to meet its counterpart at the cardinal points. Despite the differing directions, it makes the imagery seem orbital, and one can almost feel the motion of it as the Earth dances into spring. Tiny stars sit at each of the four spaces where the arcs meet, and the final outer edge, saw-cut and scalloped freehand, is stamped with radiant sun motifs, reminding us of the great gift of our place in the cosmos, always in the light.

Winter is not yet wholly gone, spring not yet fully arrived. But as our world reminds us now, it is still time to dance.

~ Aji

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