The snow arrived early today.
Not a lot, but when the forecast asserts that it will not begin before evening and it instead appears just after sunrise, it feels like a little extra gift. It was only a dusty, if a decent one at the time, and already melted by mid-morning beneath a sun newly emergent from the clouds . . . but now, the clouds have returned, and snow is falling, visibly, around the horizon on virtually all sides of us now.
More snow is slated for tonight and tomorrow, as well: While the local forecast predicts four inches, the one that takes elevation into account suggests that, at our altitude, we could see ten to twenty. I think it’s doubtful; I suspect that such accumulations will occur only on the peaks. But any snow at all is a gift now: More than that, it is medicine — prayers answered and dreams fulfilled by an early winter sky.
And that is the nature of medicine, a gift that flowers into healing, often when one least expects it; often, too, in ways that one never could have predicted, nor even imagined. It is a gift of Spirit, a manifestation of power, of dreams in flower that bring to fruition a world of health and harmony.
Today’s featured masterwork is manifest as these dreams, distilled to silver and stone [and a little leather, too], but in full flower all the same. From its description in the Accessories Gallery here on the site:
Dreams In Flower Bolo
Beyond the reaches of a cloud-webbed sky, other planes and spirits hold the power of visions and prophecy, of our dreams in flower in this world. With this new and eminently traditional bolo, Wings honors petals and sky and the web that filters our dreams, allowing them all the power and potential and possibility of fulfillment for a better world. The work is built around an extraordinary concha that found its first form in one of Wings’s old concha belts, one that has remained permanently in his personal collection. It’s an outsized classic oval concha, deeply scored, stamped, and scalloped with petal-like edges entirely freehand, with three nested ovals of stampwork layered inside three clean, evenly scored border ovals. The scored loops create a slight upward gradient, and the center is domed by hand, repoussé-fashion, to transform a flat heavy oval of sterling silver into a perfectly three-dimensional concha. Atop the center, a giant freeform cabochon of ultra-high-grade Cloud Mountain turquoise from China’s Hubei District, a gorgeous hard deep blue with an inky blue-black matrix of fine, tight spiderwebbing. This spectacular stone is set into a similarly finely serrated saw-toothed bezel and edged with twisted silver, the whole elevated slightly above the concha at the center via a short sterling silver base. The concha is strung on tightly-woven black leather cord, cut long to fit nearly any wearer’s neck, ending in serrated sterling silver tips that terminate in ridged saucer beads above a tiny round bead. Bolo is 3.75″ long by 3″ across at the widest point; cabochon is 2″ long by 1.5″ across at the widest point; bolo tips are 2-1/8″ long by 1/2″ across at the widest point (bead); and the bolo cord, including tips, is 58″ long total (all dimensions approximate). Other views shown above, below, and at the link.
Sterling silver; ultra-high-grade Cloud Mountain blue spiderweb turquoise; braided black leather
$2,500 + shipping, handling, and insurance
This is an extraordinary work, wrought in an old traditional style. From the heavy scalloped concha to the outsized freeform Skystone, it embodies classic Indigenous designs from a century ago.
Yes, back then, the turquoise was all local[ish], from one of four regional states; more rarely, perhaps, pulled from the earth of southern California or northern Mexico. And since that time, colonial profiteers have sought to exploit sites of origin to create market stratifications. But lapis has never come from this region; most coral does not, either. [If you’re wondering why I say “most,” parts of this region are built upon shell mounds that accumulated as the waters receded eons ago, forming the mountains that have become the hallmark of this place now.] So why would one believe that turquoise from elsewhere on this mysterious and powerful planet would be any less beautiful, any less valuable?
This particular specimen is magnificent. The material is hard; the color is an intense, electric teal blue; the webbing is ultra-fine, veined throughout the stone, in an eye-dazzling blue-black shade. Its giant size and freeform shape require that it be elevated above the gently sloping surface of the concha, a refinement that Wings has accomplished via a very short hand-made sterling silver post. The black of the braided leather makes the spiderweb matrix pop, and the concha is buffed to a rich, warm, glowing Florentine finish.
It’s a spectacular work by any standard, and the symbolic link between the fine spiderwebbing of the stone and the dreams of its name is deliberate: Our peoples have long sought wisdom, prophecy, healing, and truth through the world of dreams, and indeed, Grandmother Spider herself has sometimes taught us how to use her weaving skills for medicine. And we think of the world of dreams as one beyond the planes of this one — beyond the atmosphere, above the sky, in places so high that while Eagle might help to deliver our prayers, even he cannot dwell there and survive.
Outside the window, all the webbing now is created by clouds; snow is falling on all sides, if not upon us at this precise moment. But now we know that it will come. This will be a day of prayers answered, of dreams fulfilled by an early winter sky, and we are grateful for this medicine.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
