June seems to be starting off with a bang, or perhaps a bloom: of water, of rain, of wildflowers, of all the life of summer.
Yesterday brought us four separate storms, from the earliest hours of the morning to a true monsoonal downpour in afternoon, then to a soft but steady rain in late afternoon to early evening, one that repeated itself not long before midnight. Predictably, the official forecast altered almost immediately, reducing what had been something in the neighborhood of a sixty-percent chance of rain for today to nothing more than fifteen percent.
And shortly after we left to run the day’s necessary errands, the sun gave way almost entirely to clouds, and as we watched from a distance, we could see the rain begin to fall over our lands back home.
It turned out to be more than “rain”: It was a mix of snow on the peaks and a torrential downpour here at their feet. It’s rained once or twice here since, albeit much more lightly. And the clouds that are moving in once more suggest that there is perhaps more on the way before dark.
But the light has been flowering, too: Last night, a low but complete rainbow stretched across the base of the eastern peaks, as though earth and sky were making their position on this month’s significance known up front, in full and glorious Technicolor. It’s too dark for a rainbow tonight, at least given the current clouds, but our world is robed in its own rainbow of color now, a land in the full bloom of summer weeks before the season’s “official” advent.
It’s chilly, true, but there’s no mistaking the verdant green and the lush leaves and petals suddenly visible everywhere. In other words, it’s the perfect weather and climate for the works in this week’s Friday Feature: a pair of pairs, earrings in two distinctive forms — one set with cabochons, one without. Although each is manifest in its own unique style, both feature the same bold, graceful millwork pattern rolled into the silver; both are found in the Earrings Gallery here on the site. We begin with the more recent of the two, the pair above, a tribute to the first wild petals that flower to the four directions at this time of year . . . and to the brilliant reds of the cactus flowers and Indian paintbrush that are among the indigenous (and Indigenous medicines of summer here). From their description:
The First Wild Petals Earrings
In a volcanic land of lakes and rivers carved through mountains emerged from timeless seas, of formations built atop ancient shell mounds, the alpine prairie flowers bloom with the first wild petals of summer. With these earrings, Wings summons spirits older than time to dance with newborn blossoms in the fiery shades of genuine sponge coral and the silver of the light. Each geometric sterling silver drop is hand-rolled in a brash, looping floral pattern, equal parts Art Deco and Flower Power and all summer medicine, then saw-cut freehand into a spoked pattern that honors the four winds and the sacred directions. At the center of each, bezel-set and edged with twisted silver, sits a bold round cabochon of sponge coral in soft rich shades of flame-red stippled with hi ts of orange and bronze and plenty of natural texture across the surface. Sterling silver jump rings link them to sterling silver earring wires. Earrings hang 2-3/8″ long, excluding wires, by 1-3/4″ across at the widest point; cabochons are 9/16″ across (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; sponge coral
$625 + shipping, handling, and insurance
The cabochons in this pair are big, bold, and bright . . . and yet muted, too. There’s a naturalness to them, a subtlety to their beauty, only found in sponge coral like this. It permits you to see the veins clearly, and the color variation that occurs, without dyes or heavy polishes. [And for those wondering, because I’ve been seeing far too much of this material mislabeled and another misrepresented in the process: This is natural sponge coral, not apple coral. Apple coral is a blend of the dust and detritus and scraps of other coral left over after lapidary work, heat-treated to meld it together, then subjected to its own lapidary work of polishing, cutting, cabbing, etc. Both contain coral, but in very different forms, and only one can be said simply to be coral in its present form, unaltered and unadulterated.]
But because these cabochons have a muted natural finish, the Florentine finish that Wings chose for the earrings in which they sit seems perfect — not too bright, not too shiny, just rich and velvety and just as subtle as the material at their center.
The high polish is left to the second of today’s featured works, and it’s just as perfect for that pair, one wrought entirely in silver — no cabochons, and yet, none is needed. These are big, bold half-spheres, flowering worlds that dance in the warm winds and bright light of summer. From their description:
Flowering Worlds Earrings
Summer brings us the gift of flowering worlds, alive and fertile and awash in petaled light. Wings evokes orbs and blossoms both with these dynamic earrings, near-perfect spheres hand-milled in a profusion of wild blooms. Each dangling drop is formed from a bold sterling silver concha, ever so slightly oval in shape and fully three-dimensional half-spheres. Each concha is milled in a vibrant wildflower pattern reminiscent of ’60s “flower power” motifs, each flowing petal rising in sharp relief. The earrings are domed, repoussé-fashion, to provide extraordinary depth; delicate holes hand-drilled at the top hold sterling silver wires. Earrings hang 1-15/16″ long by 1-7/8″ across, excluding wires (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver
$475 + shipping, handling, and insurance
This pair is so simple, and yet so powerful. I honestly expected them to sell right away, but I suppose some things don’t translate well on-screen.
Yes, they are simple — spare circles domed into conchas of a sort . . . but before that, milled by hand to transfer a bold, looping floral pattern to the silver to rise from it in sharp relief. It’s equal parts 1910’s Art Nouveau grace and late ’60s Flower Power brashness, each its own wearable half-world manifest in the medicine of abundance and light.
And our own world needs that now. Yes, we need abundance, or at least the way in which we define that word, which means that everyone has enough to survive and thrive. In our way, true abundance, true prosperity? Has no room for billionaires or greed; if everyone does not have their basic needs met well enough to thrive, it’s not abundance, it’s not prosperity.
But we have the means to ensure it. When we talk about building a new world, a better world for future generations? This is what we mean. It’s the obligation with which the spirits (and our ancestors) have charged us. And it’s a world that we risk losing to climate collapse.
But there is still time. The rains of the last two days have shown us just what a little medicine can accomplish by way of healing, of reclamation, or renewal. We have been given the unexpected gift, once again, of a land in the full bloom of summer. We need to make sure that everyone has access to its abundance.
~ 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.
