If this week has been all fire close to home, up on the peaks it is evergreen. The aspen lines disappeared last week, amber leaves all having scattered to the winds at that elevation, leaving patches of brown tundra to score wavering lines down slopes of varying shades of green.
In the fire that is the October light, even the greens become something otherworldly, ranging from pale jade to emerald to the blue-toned teal of the firs in dusk’s shadow. As the day wanes and the predicted clouds move in closer, the deeper hues will become more evident — and so will the silvery light that holds them gently in its embrace.
Even as autumn races relentlessly forward toward winter, we are fortunate here: We live in a place that is, in no small part, evergreen, a place that thrives in all seasons in the glow of radiant sunlight. Indeed, in this place, we live in the world at the center of the light.
And that is how, in a season more identified with fire, today’s featured work came to be . . . and how it came by its name. From its description in the Earrings Gallery here on the site:
The World at the Center of the Light Earrings
The old stories teach that the First People emerged into this world, the world at the center of the light. It is, in part, an evergreen world, with peaks that remain green even beneath the deepest snows. Wings pays tribute both the lush fertile colors of the earth and to the light in which they thrive with his newest earrings, a pair wrought in the traditional Pueblo concha style. Each earring is cut freehand in a flowering form, like a blossom with scalloped petals ringing its edge. From the center, hand-scored spokes radiate outward to end in tiny round hoops, each pair connected just inside each scalloped edge with a sunrise symbol, turning each paired scoreline into a ray of shimmering light. Each earring is domed from the reverse, repoussé-fashion, to form a traditional concha; the center of each is set with a spare, low-profile bezel holding a glossy round malachite cabochon in evergreen shades. The earrings are buffed to a soft, shimmering Florentine finish, and hang suspended from sterling silver wires. Conchas are 1.75″ across and hang 1.75″ long (excluding wires); cabochons are 3/8″ across (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; malachite
$525 + shipping, handling, and insurance
These earrings are crafted in a traditional style, simple and elegant and free of extraneous adornment. The stampwork is spare, with deep clear lines in an archetypal pattern. The stones are equally simple, with a minimum of banding, but what banding there is produces a spectacularly beautiful result: brilliant green centers deepening to the color of raw emerald at either edge, creating the perception of unusually rich depth. The stones themselves are the colors of our still-bright grass edged with the bluer greens of piñon and cedar, and the conchas themselves shine with the softly shimmering intensity of October’s dawn and dusk light. Despite their size, they are light on the ear, and have instantly become one of my new favorites.
The description invokes the old stories, those of emergence from an underworld, a place dark and devoid of light. It’s a story not exclusive to our indigenous peoples; variants exist in indigenous cultures the world, some of them having survived to take their place in the pantheon of that deified field known as “Western philosophy” (Plato’s cave, anyone?). But it works just as well entirely as metaphor, too. We are, after all, heading fast into the season of short days and long nights, when the world seems unreasonably cold and dark. Today’s work reminds us that, even in the colder seasons, the light remains, and so, too, does a certain amount of green in a world partly dormant, yet still vibrantly alive. In one sense, this world is every world, and we live there daily, regardless of time or season: the world at the center of the light.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2017; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
