Dawn has broken in a blaze of fiery light — a shifting kaleidoscope of color born violet, then rose, then coral, then amber, and now gold tinged at the edges with molten silver. The lights on the Christmas tree, as brilliantly saturated with color as they are, are still only a pale imitation of what the sun can offer on a far more expansive canvas.
For the moment, the trees stand backlit by the muted rays, sentries large and small standing watch over the nascent day. Before long, though, the low-angled light will gain purchase in the sky and once it crests the peaks, the juniper and piñon and spruce will glow with an evergreen light.
It’s fitting for these green spirits, large and small. Even in winter, they create new worlds daily, by way of needles filled with chlorophyll, the creative spark that ignites photosynthesis.
It’s fitting, too, for today’s featured work, one of Wings’s newest — a spare and elegant pair of earrings in the shape of the winter pines. From their description in the Earrings Gallery here on the site:
Evergreen Light Earrings
Our winter Earth stands snow-spangled and strong in an evergreen light. With these earrings, Wings pays tribute to the wintry warriors of the steepest slopes, now covered in snow and decorated for holidays every day. These sparkling drops are cut freehand from hand-milled silver in a vertical repeating pattern that looks for all the world like ornaments and tinsel cascading from perfectly pointed evergreens, three-dimensional and shimmering in the light. Each dancing drop hangs suspended from sterling silver wires by way of sturdy silver jump rings. Earrings are 1-3/4″ long by 7/8″ across at the base (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver
$250 + shipping, handling, and insurance
These tiny trees remind me of our much larger one, nestled next to the stairs in a cascade of lights, spangled here and there with glittering ornaments. It is one of the aspects of the season that I love unreservedly, despite the differences in our own ways of marking winter’s birth from those of the dominant culture. It reminds me of the essential, elemental beauty of the season, one in which earth and sky, sun and moon, storm and light all contest and collaborate to conceive a beautifully ornamented world.
The trees are spirits of the season, as surely as any other, and in our tendency to regard them as warriors, we forget that they are nurturers, too. Conspirators, catalysts, and creator spirits: The trees give life to winter in the most literal of ways, and to us with it.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2018; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
