Despite the newly warm days, summer is not yet here, at least if the calendar is to be believed. The mercury similarly belies the arrival of the hot season, with the air still cold at dusk and dawn and all the hours between. the unsettled nature of this threshold between spring and season has rendered our days here a dance with the elements: the fresh loamy soil of the earth awaiting the gift of seeds; the sudden appearance of winds so strong they bend the trees; the fire of the sun’s daytime heat as it arcs overhead; the water of the rain and the runoff that meet and pool in fields and pond.
In these days, the elements combine in ways they do not at other times of year, a flexing of their powers and stretching of their wings, so to speak, before they settle down to the business of the changed seasons.
We have spent the week looking at the things of the earth, an fitting focus for this early part of the month, in a week when we are readying the soil here for planting. But the earth assumes another form this season, too, wedding itself to the wind to become the whirlwind.
We call these small dances of earth and air dust devils, and they can be fiendish: I was caught in one a few days, a stinging spiral of earth swept upward and onward, undeterred in its progress by anything in its path. When caught in one, your only recourse is to turn your back, letting it wash over you and around you, breaking apart as it encounters your form, melding together again into an earth-skimming vortex on the other side. You plant your feet and bow your head and brace your body and grit your teeth against the thousand and one tiny piercings of the sand as it passes over you, then sigh in relief once the small storm has passed.
It’s enough to make one want to take flight, to rise above the land and break free of the bonds elements and seasons alike.
Today’s featured work embodies both this earth-bound dilemma and its more airy transcendence. From its description in the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Taking Flight Coil Bracelet
Some call it the phoenix; others, the firebird; still others, a being with no given name. It is a symbol of metamorphosis, of rebirth, of freedom of spirit. Wings captures it here and then sets it free, spiraling upward into the air on a coil of earth and fire. Four small faceted garnet beads refract the light from either end; rectangular beads of earthy and colorful jasper, named for the great land-bound cat, alternate with nuggets of fiery iron pyrite. At the center, the small wingéd spirit, summoned from polished elk antler with inlaid eyes of jet, takes flight to soar above the world. Joint design by Wings and Aji.
Stainless steel; garnet; leopard-skin jasper; iron pyrite; elk antler
$225 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It’s a small work, one that weds beads in the colors of the soil and the storm with nuggets of flash and fire . . . all spiraling upward in their own whirlwind to support the flight of a small and fragile yet powerful spirit.
In a season when the world too often reminds us of our own smallness of stature and fragility of the flesh, it’s good to have a reminder of another sort: of our inherent power to transcend the bonds of the physical plane and, supported by the forces of the elements, to let our spirits spiral skyward as they take flight.
We, too, can become the whirlwind.
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.
