Some days, nothing goes to plan. Some weeks, too, which is the way it’s been for a good while here now: my own work derailed right off the bat each morning by one thing after another, with no opportunity to get to it until late at night.

It’s nothing to do with the still-short hours of daylight; indeed, I’d be happiest if so-called “Daylight Savings Time” were consigned permanently to the dustbin of history as the dangerous and unhealthy corporate giveaway it’s always been. [No, it’s not about farmers, nor schoolchildren; it’s always been about nothing more than ever-greater profits for the wealthy, the rest nothing but the tiniest of fig leaves].

We are feeling the cumulative effects of such terrible societal governance now, in real time; the expansion of some years back by weeks on either end continues to do real damage, not merely to human health but to animals, domestic and wild alike, and to the Earth itself. This is just one [relatively] small indignity heaped upon insult after injury, to the point that it’s no wonder that the planet upon which we depend is thashing in agony now.

If it does not survive, neither do we, but our current crop of political “leaders,” both the fascist and the simply feckless, are hell-bent on killing it more every single day. Our peoples have always known the folly of neglecting Mother Earth, but this is an all-out assault on her very existence, by foolish evil people who believe they are too rich and too important not to be immune to any consequence, and by the millions world-wide can’t be bothered to care that their own survival is at stake.

Our traditions are rooted in stories that teach the opposite approach and worldview, from the cradleboard onward. We know that the goal is not dominion, but familial relation; know, too, that propriety exploitation kills, but communal care and defense ensures the survival of us all. Many cultures on this land mass share some variant of an old story about this Earth, not yet emergent from, variously, the floodwaters or simply the great seas that once covered it, with the First People desperately in need of a way to survive upon it. Where in some stories all of our animal relatives tried, with no success, humble Grandmother Turtle offered the one and only workable solution, the shell upon her back as a place to hold humankind safely.

Thus did ours become a world born of the waters, and it reminds us daily that we are all dependent upon each other, and that every being has a place here, and a role to play.

This week’s Friday Feature consists of two masterworks, creating entirely independently of one another and with no thought of them matching, but it’s abundantly clear that Spirit had other ideas. They are manifest as elemental spirits, as our very world, born of the waters, and of the sky, and they very obviously belong together, one representing the waters and the ground beneath our feet, the other the blue vault above us.

We begin with the former, the necklace that embodies the humble spirit I mentioned early, who in so very many stories saved the people and ensured our own existence. From its description in the Necklaces Gallery here on the site:

A World Born of the Waters Turtle Necklace

The story of Grandmother Turtle is one of a world born of the waters, ensuring the First People’s survival. With this extraordinary necklace, Wings honors the ancient story, its First Peoples, this humble grandmother spirit, and the waters from which she raised a whole world on her shell. The pendant is saw-cut freehand into a classic turtle shape, pointed nose and toes and tail, with spare stampwork in the form of tiny hoops for eyes and radiant arcs and points for scales. At the center, her shell is formed of an absolutely dazzling outsized cabochon of ultra-high-grade water-web Kingman turquoise: an inverted teardrop shape in classic sky blue, veined and webbed in fine traceries of black chert with hints of iron pyrite and the feathering characteristic of water inclusions in the stone, the whole polished to an impossibly glossy finish, as though actual water has been poured over its surface, never to dry. It’s set into a bezel made an entirely by hand, parallel lines saw-cut and filed freehand and hand-formed inward to hold the stone securely. Around the bezel, Wings has overlaid a collection of tiny freeform polished chips, all of very old natural turquoise from his private collection, each chip carefully placed individually and held with jeweler’s glue. The beads, all perfectly round spheres of burnished sterling silver, are threaded through a tightly-held slider-style bail stamped down the center with a simple line of powerful traditional symbols. Pendant is 3″ long by 2-1/8″ across at the widest point; focal cabochon is 1-1/2″ long by 15/16″ across at the widest point; beads hang 21-1/2″ long, excluding findings (all dimensions approximate). Other views shown at top and at the link.

Sterling silver; ultra-high-grade water-web Kingman turquoise; very old polished turquoise chips
$2,500 + shipping, handling, and insurance

Wings has been creating works in Turtle’s form and shape for many years now, pendants and pins and the occasional bolo and pair of earrings, too. But this one is truly something special. That focal cabochon that forms the center of her shell, ultra-high-grade water-web Kingman turquoise in a hard, clear sky blue so finely webbed with chert and pyrite like ink that has begun to feather beneath drops of water — it’s an example of the Earth’s own art, a truly phenomenal mineralogical specimen.  And Wings has done it justice with a bezel wrought entirely by hand, every segment saw-cut and filed and shaped to the stone individually for a perfect embrace.

Then ringing it with a scattered overlay of those impossibly old tiny turquoise nuggets from his private collection was an inspired choice. It creates the effect of her own shell plates, a little armor against the forces in the world that would harm the Earth, or her children.

Spirit knows we all need some of that armor now.

The second of today’s featured works is clad in similar fashion, another “overlay” of the very same nuggets. These are specimens that have been in his private collection for decades, even generations, occupying a spot on an upper shelf in an old glass apothecary bottle, the kind with a glass stopper. They’re old enough, small enough, and fragile enough that he would not have wanted to try to drill many of them, and risk wastage of such beautiful stones. But overlaid here, like the arc of a cobblestone sky limned by silvery light, they’re perfect.

Indeed, the whole cuff is perfect, and perfectly suited as a complement to the necklace above. From its description in the Cuffs and Links and Bangles section of the Bracelets Gallery:

Cobblestone Sky Cuff Bracelet

We live beneath the arc of a cobblestone sky, pebbled with clouds, dust, and drops of rain, and held limned, day and night, in the silvery light. With this cuff, Wings calls down path of the overhead blue, the gifts of precipitation, and the framing light of sun, moon, and stars. The band is wrought of solid fourteen-gauge sterling silver, weighty and substantial, cut wide and classic with smooth, subtly rounded corners.  Lengths of sterling silver braided wire form a narrow border on all sides, the space between it and the edge chased in a repeating pattern of crescents linked by tiny hoops, evoking distant suns and closer moons. In the broad space between borders, Wings has filled the silver with a scatter inlay of lightly polished and very, very old nuggets from Wings’s personal collection — tiny bits of pebble turquoise in brilliant sky blues and soft greens, like celestial cobblestones paving the path of the light. The pebble turquoise is set atop the silver via translucent jeweler’s glue, clear as glass, and sealed in place with more of the same. Cuff is 6″ long by 1-3/4″ wide; inlay area is 1-3/16″ wide (dimensions approximate). Other views shown at top and at the link.

Sterling silver; old natural turquoise
$2,500 + shipping, handling, and insurance

It’s an extraordinary design, and in truth, I own the prototype: a narrower version of similar design, the first work he made using this technique. He was so pleased with the result that he created another, larger one for sale [my own wrists are small, and the narrower size fits me more comfortably]. It’s eye-catching, the kind of bold yet subtly detailed work that never goes unnoticed.

And in truth, it looks very much as our skies looked today: brilliant turquoise in clear blues, stippled and spotted and webbed with a mix of clouds, from thunderheads building early into tower walls to the east late in the day to broad trailing bands that were limned in silver iridescence. It made for an extraordinary sky, a reminder of how rapidly conditions and appearances can change here; a reminder, too, of the breathtaking beauty that these skies confer upon us and upon the earth and waters below, no matter the season or weather.

All of it is a gift; all of it is medicine. And it’s no small miracle that, as wounded as our planet is now, it still manages to confer such wonders upon us daily. Instead of aiding these forces in authority and control in the heedless, headlong rush toward ever-greater destruction, we can scale back, scale down, simplify our lives and our expectations and soften our presence, our very footsteps, upon the Earth.

For we are her children, too, and she sustains us no matter our bad behavior. Like the other spirits with whom we share this space, like the planet itself, we, too, are born of the waters, and of the sky.

The very least we can do is act like it.

~ Aji

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2025; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.