Friday is finally here.
It’s been a rough week, on multiple fronts. I would say that I’m glad for the weekend, and some downtime, but the truth of the matter is that I won’t get any; there’s too much to do, especially at this time of year.
Still, there’s the psychological aspect of knowing it’s the weekend, of feeling that perhaps the rest of the world around us will at least slow down a bit. I’s been a hard year by every conceivable measure, and a world that now operates full-force, 24/7/366, is not merely unhealthy, but utterly unsustainable.
This morning, there has been a steady plume of smoke arising from the mouth of the canyon just north/northeast of us — all too close for comfort, especially in this drought. In itself, the plume is a reminder of how much things have changed, and how drastically, in just a few short years. It’s a prescribed burn of sorts: “burn piles,” an attempt to keep fuel undergrowth under control. But had forest management here been handled properly by those in authority, and had those in structural control at all levels taken an approach that respects the land and the watersheds properly, there would be a lot less need for these “lesser of two evils” dangers now.
To be clear, I’m not saying that prescribed burns are an evil; our peoples have always known their utility in good resource management. But those that are handled improperly, or on a cavalier schedule, are indeed problematic. And couple the recent history of local negligence with a climate in collapse due to colonial bad behavior across the board, and the sight of smoke becomes a source of fear now.
Among our peoples, old stories abound about what the future of this land mass holds. Some were prophecy foretold then; many more are prophecy fulfilled now; nearly all have assumed the status of teachings, such are the lessons they impart to a world that rejected the most basic common sense. And as we have also always known, respect for the sacred translates to a thriving, healthy, harmonious world overall.
Respect for the sacred, of course, is not just a matter of ceremony. It’s respect for the earth, for the waters, for the sky; respect for air and fire, wind and light, and the power of the storm; respect for our relatives, human and not. In my own way, it’s one of the foundational teachings for a life lived well, and accordingly, it’s not a set of rules, of prescriptions and proscriptions per se, but rather, a way of life, of being.
In this place, there is precious little more valuable than water, and these lands are full of sources: from great river to smallest stream, from sacred spring to sacred lake, to be in relationship with the land here means to hold the water protected, always. That includes the in-ground and above-ground sources, but also that which falls as rain and snow here —sacred waters, sacred sky, each dependent upon the health of the other to sustain the cycle, no longer endless, of evaporation and precipitation.
This week’s Friday Feature consists of two works that embody the power and value, the medicine, of both. It’s a cuff and a pair of earrings, both created recently, yet entirely separately from each other, with no thought of them matching.
At least, not initially.
But the stones come from the same parcel, some Cripple Creek cabochons from Colorado that Wings acquired some fifteen years ago, if memory serves. And given their similarities, not merely in color and matrix but in shape, it’s clear that these are works that belong together as surely as do the waters and the sky they collectively represent.
We begin with the cuff, one of Wings’s newest bracelets, completed only three months ago. From its description in the Cuffs and Links and Bangles section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Sacred Spring Cuff Bracelet
This is a land of holy waters, of great river and sacred lake, of sacred spring and the First Medicine in its most powerful forms. With this cuff, Wings pays tribute to the local watersheds and the hot springs arising from them, delivering healing medicine to those who seek their gifts. The band is wrought of solid sterling silver of a decently heavy gauge, just light enough to allow the wearer to adjust it with some ease. The entire outer surface is hammered by hand, then buffed to a high polish, evoking the appearance of local waters in the sunlight. The focal stone is a freeform cabochon of Cripple Creek turquoise from Colorado, nearly half-moon in shape, manifest in the rich blues and greens of lake and river and hot spring, too, and finely webbed with the reds and golds of shoal and riverbank and local clay. It rests in a bezel wrought entirely by hand, each segment saw-cut individually, filed smooth, and shaped to the stone, the whole edged with a slender strand of twisted silver. Along each edge of the inner band, repeating lines of half-moon crescents echo the shape of the stone and the pull of the tides. Band is 6″ long by roughly 3/8″ wide; Bezel is 1-1/8″ long by 11/16″ high’ cabochon is 7/8″ long by 1/2″ high at the highest point (all dimensions approximate). Other views shown at the link. Cuff coordinates with Sacred Waters, Sacred Sky earrings, set with stones from the same parcel; together, they would create a subtly powerful, classic matched set.
Sterling silver; natural Cripple Creek turquoise from Colorado
$1,400 + shipping, handling, and insurance
The stone is phenomenal, a beautifully soft but intense robin’s-egg blue, stippled and veined with white host-rock matrix and patched with coppery inclusions. The freeform half-sphere shape is perfect for the band, a simple, spare expanse of silver hammered freehand, like the great river shimmering in the sunlight. and the stone is set into a bezel wrought entirely by hand, each segment saw-cut, filed smooth, and shaped directly to the stone, then edged with a delicate strand of twisted silver.
The stone is a perfect match to those in the second of today’s featured works. It’s a work that is newer still, a pair of earrings completed only three weeks ago, but clearly intended by the Earth whose artistry created the stones to belong with the cuff that holds the same material, above. From its description in the Earrings Gallery:
Sacred Waters, Sacred Sky Earrings
In these lands, rain and that which brings it is life, breath, medicine: sacred waters, sacred sky. With these earrings, Wings honors the turquoise blues of the alpine desert skies, the marbled white webbing of clouds that become the storm, and the rich greens and browns of this thriving mountainous land. Each compact drop is built around a freeform cabochon of natural Cripple Creek turquoise from Colorado, part of a larger parcel of cabochons acquired some years ago. These stones are beautifully matched, but not mirror images; their vaguely triangular shapes show material of classic sky blue, with Cripple creek’s hallmark white host-rock stippling and patchy bronze and green matrix. Each cabochon is set into a low-profile scalloped bezel edged with a slender strand of twisted silver, with an organic bezel backing that extends at the top into hand-drilled tabs, through which are threaded sterling silver coil-and-ball-bead earring wires. t the lower end, that backing extends at side angles into two scalloped arc, saw-cut freehand, to accommodate the two hand-made ingot ball beads overlaid atop them. Each bead is stamped with a flowering motif, raindrops as petals opening. Earrings hang 1-1/8″ long by 3/4″ to 7/8″ wide at their respective widest points; cabochons are 3/4″ long by roughly 1/2″ across at the widest point; ingot beads are 3/16″ across (all dimensions approximate). Earrings coordinate with Sacred Spring cuff bracelet, set with stones from the same parcel; together, they would create a subtly powerful, classic matched set.
Sterling silver; natural Cripple Creek turquoise
$725 + shipping, handling, and insurance
These drops, too, place the water directly within the embrace of the light. But instead of a hammered expanse, Wings kept it compact, sized perfectly to the smaller stones: along the lower angle of each, a pair of sterling silver ingot ball beads, wrought entirely by hand, each stamped on the top with a signifier of a world in flower in the rain and the light.
It’s not that the works themselves are sacred; Wings would never make such a claim. Rather, it’s his use of his talent and skill to distill symbols, signifiers of the sacred, into beautifully wearable form, where those reminders may always be near to the wearer’s mind and hands — an inducement to incorporate such teachings not merely into one’s work, but into one’s worldview and way of life, of being, of existence itself.
The world outside our doors has long since forgotten one of the most basic admonitions of virtually every culture the world over: that we are to respect the sacred. There is precious little that fits that descriptor better than this world that was created for us, that holds and sustains and nurtures us, and that is so badly wounded now by the bad acts of thankless humans.
We have work to do to save it, and thereby ourselves. We can begin with remembering how to regard and engage with it properly.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2024; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
