Last night, in the dark hours, the rain resumed its work: hours of heavy, steady, soaking rain, not a rumble of thunder or lightning bolt nor even a real gust of wind in evidence. And so, while there are a great many more leaves on the ground today than yesterday, it seems as though my prediction has not come true after all; there remain exponentially more leaves on the trees than on the ground, and it did not get cold enough to turn them overmuch from their still-dominant green.
The moutains, of course, are another matter entirely. They are blanketed mostly by evergreens, with ribbons and fringes of deciduous trees scattered about in stands large and small. The robes remain mostly coniferous in color, if a bit paler and decidedly thinner than only days ago. The fringes, though, are shades of orange and amber and molten gold racing downslope to hang from the ridgelines and gild the slopes.
In other words, it’s a semingly flawless day at the birth of official autumn: abundant sun amid blue skies trailed by puffy white clouds, bits of gray here and there hinting at stronger weather just past and perhaps to come, gold limning the ridges of the peaks and slopes and lining the opposite side of the road, copper and crimson flames shivering on the fire maple, and of course, greens in every conceivable shade, from the blue teal of mountain spruce to the fading chartreuse of new-turning aspens. And those greens find beautiful, ethereal expression in the works presented here today.
This week’s Friday Feature works are a bit different from the usual groupings that find their way into this space. Typically, I choose multiple pieces from the silverwork that complement and coordinate with each other, or, if selecting instead from Wings’s gemstone bead collections, I feature a set that is already at least informally matched. This week, we transgress both of those norms to create an even more informal collection in miniature that draws from two different gemstone bead groupings and from the silverwork, as well, to create a spectacularly well-coordinated trio that seem to go together even more perfectly than their original counterparts. It’s a bead necklace, a pair of bead earrings, and a silverwork cuff bracelet, none designed to be sold together, and yet, combined in this way, it’s hard to see how they would be presented any other way. And while the name and description of each refers to summer, now banished by officialdom if not entirely by ambient air temperature, they each combine elements of winter. And of course, there is no way from summer to winter except through the last green fire of fall.
We begin with the necklace, the same one shown above. From its description in The Beaded Hoop Collection in the Necklaces Gallery here on the site:
The Mystical Flames of Falling Stars Necklace
Summer is the season of meteor showers, of the mystical flames of falling stars that pull the green glow of foxfire from the earth and aurora from distant skies as they arc through the night. With this necklace from his newest collection of extraordinary bead jewelry, Wings calls down the refracting green fire from the dark velvet of the midnight hours. At the center, four extraordinary giant barrel beads of faceted old-style green glass alternate with ultra-high-grade rondels of shimmering aquamarine, all of them catching and refracting the descending fire of the summer night. Moving upward, rich gray-green Picasso jasper rounds flow into more hot green and fiery ice. Anchor segments consist of doughnut rondels of glossy snowflake obsidian like individual starlit skies, bisected by individual aquamarine and rainbow moonstone rondels, beneath the intensity of deeper space: giant orbs of black tourmaline, smaller black moonstone spheres, icy selenite, and the starlike twinkle of sterling silver. Necklace hangs 22″ long, excluding findings (dimensions approximate). Designed jointly by Wings and Aji. Another view shown at the link. Necklace coordinates with Where the Lightning Strikes earrings [sold] and A Storm-Tossed Wildfire Sky coil bracelet. From the Fire series in Wings’s new collection, The Summer Elementals (all pieces shown at the link).
Strand: Tri-ply foxtail plated with silver; sterling silver findings;
Beads: Aquamarine; faceted green glass; Picasso jasper; snowflake obsidian;
rainbow moonstone; black moonstone; selenite; sterling silver
$400 + shipping, handling, and insurance
This particular necklace has struck me, from themoment of its completion, as extraordinary: luminous green fire filtered through the facets of outsized and old-school cut glass beads, alternating with the stardust shimmer of high-grade aquamarine and contrasting with the blacks and grays and snowy white of the rest, a little foxfire to illuminate the icy dark. It’s a gift for our dark hours now, certainly, coming far earlier than only a week ag o with a mercury that descends to far colder temperatures, too.
We all need a little extra fire now.
The second of today’s featured works is the pair of earrings, designed to complement another set entirely and yet seemingly intended by Spirit to belong to these other two pieces, instead. From their description in The Standing Stones Collection in the Earrings Gallery:
Summer Ice Earrings
This is the season of summer ice, of monsoonal storms that deliver hail from cloudburst skies. With these earrings, part of the final entry in his signature Elementals series, Wings calls the frozen water of from the skies to cool the earth on the hottest days of the year. At the top, a fabulously refractive orb of rainbow moonstone anchors each strand; beneath, puffy rondels of snowflake obsidian, naturally patterned like hail upon rich soil, alternate with smaller rainbow moonstone rounds. The lower half of each strand consists of alternating pairs of chrome diopside marbled in the rich greens of the land in summer and icy selenite, shimmering tiny hailstones scattered over the hot and thirsty earth. Each dangling drop is strung on filament-thin sterling silver round wire, suspended from sterling silver French-style earring wires. Earrings hang 2.5″ long, excluding wires (dimensions approximate). Designed jointly by Wings and Aji. Earrings coordinate with When the Rain Finally Falls necklace and River, Flood, and Crest coil bracelet [sold]. From the Water series in Wings’s new collection, The Summer Elementals (all pieces shown at the link).
Sterling silver; rainbow moonstone; snowflake obsidian; chrome diopside; selenite
$175 + shipping, handling, and insurance
And yes, the name speaks of summer, but in this place, at the heart of the summer rainy season? It can feel, and look, positively wintry when the hail blankets the earth. It used to happen once or twice a year, but now, with the catastrophic efects of climate change, we go whole summers with no precipitation at all . . . or, as occurred this year, extended periods of extreme and sometimes violent storms.
The hail keeps us humble, reminding us that the seasons are not subject to the same restrictions as we mere mortals.
And speaking of hail, finally, we have the bracelet — unusually in coordinating with the other two works, a cuff wrought in sterling silver and stones. From its description in the Cuffs and Links and Bangles section of the Bracelets Gallery:
Hail In Summer Cuff Bracelet
One of the gifts of the rainy season is hail in summer, a bit of snowy white to grace the green of a heated earth. Wings brings together the green and the white and heat, too, with this slender cuff bracelet studded with gems of summer and winter. The slender band is stamped free-hand in a repeating pattern of directional symbols down the very center, spokes pointing to all of the Sacred Directions like a radiant star, or the crystalline structure of a snowflake. Each side of the band is edged in a separate repeating pattern of triangular motifs, a symbol used at once to represent the mountains and the shelter of the traditional lodge, radiant with light at the base. The ends of the band are rounded by hand and filed smooth, each stamped in a single radiant sunrise image. Along the center, five gems are set into scalloped bezels and backed with sterling silver, the layer then overlaid across the band itself — a cascade of three round cabochons of grass-green jade alternating with a pair of domed oval cabochons of snowflake obsidian, icy white patches adorning the glassy black molten material. The band measures 6″ in length by 1/4″ across; jade cabochons are 3/8″ across; snowflake obsidian cabochons are 1/2″ long by 3/16″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate). Other views shown at the link.
Sterling silver; jade; snowflake obsidian
$1,150 + shipping, handling, and insurance
I love this slender band; the overlay is a phenomenal example of meticulous freehand stampwork, the snowflake obsidian ovals a cooling presence. But it is the jade cabochons that set this work aflame, subtle and soft in one light, wild with all the mystical flow of foxfire and aurora combined.
We are too far south here to see the Northern Lights in winter, but they will no doubt show themselves in my own homelands occasionally. Regardless, we know of their presence, and at our elevation, we share winter temperatures with the lands where they appear routinely. Those days are not far off now.
On this first full day of official autumn, it’s good to stop and look around, to acknowledge and appreciate the beauty of landscape that surrounds us at this moment. This is, after all, the last green fire before the snow begins to fly.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2022; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
