Today, we continue this week’s healing themes of elemental harmony with work that expressly coordinates with yesterday’s featured piece. So, too, do the signifiers surrounding it: Where yesterday we looked at the physical act of carrying water, today, it’s the metaphorical act of carrying sky.
It’s a motif that is distinctly indigenous to this part of the continent, wrapped up in both the symbolism of the area’s most iconic gemstone and in the signifiers of its most essential, existential natural characteristics: sky and soil, heat and rain.
We’ve talked at length, of course, about the meaning and significance of the Skystone, turquoise itself. It is itself an elemental component of Wings’s work, the stone he uses above all others to give form to his artistic vision. It’s a hallmark of Southwestern Native jewelry and art, a gift ot the people in the form of a piece of the very sky itself.
As we’ve discussed before, turquoise is seen as an object of protection. And it’s not merely the stone, but its very color. It’s why, at the old village, so many of the homes have wooden door and window frames painted in varying shades of turquoise: It keeps the inhabitants safe from any harmful forces that ride the winds outside. But it’s not merely protective; it’s a sign of an affirmative blessing, an incarnation of the rain that sustains life here. It’s called the Skystone because, so the old story goes, it came from the heavens imbued with the same shade of blue, tiny sherds of sky fallen to earth in the form of rain, hardened upon contact with the heat of the ground.
It’s the latter motif, in particular, that resonates in this pair of earrings. From the accompanying description in the Earrings Gallery here on the site:
Warm Blue Rain Earrings
The earthy fire of hematite warms these large smooth drops of the Skystone, fallen rain solidified into another precious form. The stones are set into sterling silver bezels hand-stamped on the reverse in flowing, feminine designs reminiscent of traditional pottery and basketry patterns, then suspended from hand-made sterling silver wires. Earrings hang 1-5/16″ below wires (dimensions approximate). Reverse shown below.
Sterling silver; natural blue turquoise
$425 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Earrings coordinate with A Little Jar of Rain necklace and Cloudburst earrings. [Note: Cloudburst earrings sold; necklace still available.]
Despite being designed to coordinate with the necklace featured here yesterday, the earrings stand just fine on their own, too. The cabochons are unusually large, silky smooth, and look and feel for all the world like tiny robin’s eggs — a perfect motif for this time of year, with Spring just around the corner according to the calendar, but in practical terms, already here. It carries forward the symbolism of new life, of renewal, of evolution and cultivation and growth and abundance.
It’s a way to capture and hold a bit of our brilliant blue skies after the long grays of winter.
And in this part of the world, carrying sky is carrying water.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
