I could not be more relieved to see the end of this week.
With luck, and save for trips to the post office to ship orders, I will have to venture out only once next week. That will be as big a departure from the last several weeks as one can imagine.
in the past, I have gone weeks on end without leaving our home. That’s not the same as saying I haven’t left the house, of course; I leave the house every day for work out of doors, because that, too, is the nature of life in this place. But it’s a very different thing from having to leave our home overall, having to venture into the rat race of a town increasingly devoted to commercialism, even as shopping traffic and dollars are so clearly are drying up by the day. For us, it’s necessities: pharmacy, grocery store, feed store, hardware store, post office, doctor’s office, dentist . . . all the absolute necessities of modern life, but precious little else.
These days, that’s much more than enough.
And it’s not just because of the pandemic, still ongoing and just as deadly, even if those in authority would have you believe otherwise. It’s also not just because of the damage that errands wreak upon my body, multiple autoimmune disease having robbed me of the ability to sit, stand, or walk for very long at a time; on those occasions when I’m forced to do so, I pay for it for days on end, and so I know well what lies ahead of me now.
Most of all, it’s having to be away from our home, this land, the earth and sky and air and light of this sanctuary that we have been granted the great honor of serving as stewards now. I have said many times that this small plot of land is its own microclimate, highly variable from all that surrounds us, and that is most certainly true.
But it’s also a spiritual microclimate of sorts, a refuge not merely for us but for the wild beings who find sanctuary here: on this day alone, goldfinches, siskins, sparrows, jays, robins, and my beloved red-tailed girl, all in addition to the more common year-round presence of the magpies and crows and ravens, and increasingly, the invasive starlings and pigeons, too. They value the safety of this place, and the ready access to food and clean water. Then, too, there are plenty of trees, even those that humans regard as “dead,” that provide shelter and protection and perches for hunting.
And, of course, there is always the light.
Technically this is still fall, at least by colonial ways of reckoning. The land and its children here, of course, know that this should already be winter. But either season — indeed, in this place, all four seasons — bestow the gift of breathtakingly beautiful light, at all hours of the day and night.
This week’s Friday Feature, in keeping with the shades and spirits that have animated these posts from Sunday onward, is manifest in this great gift in four separate, equally beautiful forms. It’s four of Wings’s newer cuffs, all recently created, all set with extraordinary focals that, collectively, channel the lights of dawn, day, dusk, and night. All four are found in the Cuffs and Links and Bangles section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site. We begin with the one manifest as gilded desert spirits wrapped in the violet blanket of those wintry twilight moments of the dawn, one built around a focal of an unusual material. From its description:
Desert Spirits Cuff Bracelet
This is a land of desert spirits, as hardy as they are delicate, and as powerful as life itself. With this cuff, Wings pays tribute to those that keep these harsh lands alive and thriving, from the silken petals of the cactus blossoms to the velvety wings of the butterflies that call these lands home in the warm months of the year. The band is formed of two strands of heavy-gauge sterling silver triangle wire, cut to identical lengths, fused at either end, and spread gently apart at the center, the better to hold the focal. Each upper angle of each strand is stamped freehand in a compound repeating patter of simple linked crescents, like the arc of the light, above which float those ethereal pollinators, the butterflies. At the center, in a scalloped bezel edged with twisted silver, rests an extraordinary marquise-shaped cabochon, neither stone nor shell, but a mix of materials both natural and made by human hands: a slice of indigenous cholla cactus, approximately an eighth of an inch thick, immersed in purple resin whose hues range from amethyst to violet to deepest plum, depending on the angle of the light. The cholla resembles golden flame; the resin channels the light through its body, and Wings has excised a central section of the bezel backing to permit it to filter through and show off the bold yet delicate color to best effect. Inner band is 6″ long; each strand is 5/16″ wide; together, fused at ends, 5/8″ wide; spread apart at center, 1-1/4″ wide total; bezel is 2-3/8″ long by 1-1/8″ across at the widest point; cabochon is 2″ long by 1″ across at the widest point [all dimensions approximate]. Other views shown at the link.
Sterling silver; cholla cactus in resin
$1,500 + shipping, handling, and insurance
This is a spectacularly beautiful work; one need only follow the link to see the brilliance of its shifts of color and shine. The swirling violet hues of the resin catch the light and refract it back our into the world, a stunning backdrop for the gilded waves and whorls of the indigenous cholla cactus. And despite the winter season, the tiny Art Deco butterflies that adorn all four outer angles of the dual-strand band seem perfect here: fluttering gentle spirits who touch the earth as gently as the light of sunrise and sunset here, gold and silver rays backed by the violet of the dark, receding or arriving.
Of course, once the nascent sun has gained the ridgeline of these towering peaks, the colors fade rapidly into the golden glow of the day. At this season, if — as is most certainly the case now — there is no snow on the horizon, the air is possessed of such perfect clarity that it cuts with a scalpel’s edge, and our whole small world here shimmers beneath the gaze of the sun.
It’s a phenomenon manifest in today’s second featured work, also recently created and wrought in a classic Art Deco style. It’s a single-strand cuff whose focal jewel is banded with striking golden rays, an avatar of the geometry of light. From its description:
The Geometry of Light Cuff Bracelet
Our world is ruled by the geometry of light, day and night, season and time itself all framed and reckoned by its angle or its absence. With this phenomenally elemental Art Deco-style cuff, Wings honors the power and beauty of the light in all its variations, reminding us that everything from the sun’s golden glow to the haunting iridescence of the storm to the silvery lines of constellations in the darkened sky are all gifts of medicine for our world. The band is formed of heavy-gauge sterling silver half-round wire, flat on the underside and rounded on the surface. Down the central two-thirds of that convex surface, Wings has scored repeating patterns of deep lines in groups of four, some straight, others on the diagonal, in a mirror-image pattern of Art Deco angled geometry. Single directional arrows, layered and deeply embossed, point toward either end of the band. Flowing-water motifs formed by Wings’s own hand-made stamp trace the inner band, punctuated at intervals by star-like blossoms. The focal at the center is an outsized teardrop of extraordinary banded Labradorite, the included veins formed over time on a geologic scale, the whole cabbed to the exact angle of the diagonal lines incised so deeply into one side of the band. The color shift between gray and gold is eye-dazzling and powerful, seeming to refract the internal fire of the storm itself. It rests in a bezel cut extremely low to show off the beveled edges, the backing extended to hold the twisted silver that embraces the stone. Band is 6″ long by 3/8″ wide; bezel is 1-1/2″ long by 1-1/16 across at the widest point; cabochon is 1-1/4″ long by 1″ across at the widest point (all dimensions approximate). Other views shown at the link.
Sterling silver; banded Labradorite
$1,400 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Because this is Labradorite, there is a substantial color shift at play in its depths. In the brilliant light of the setting, or beneath a camera’s flash, it glows as deeply golden as it appears in the image above. Follow the link, and it will appear in its many guises, from gray to green to gold, the unusual banding in this specimen always clearly evident.
And, of course, Labradorite’s gray hues also seem to embody the iridescence of the clouds that herald a gathering storm, as true of summer rains as of winter snows in this place.
But dusk here at this season delivers an unusual gift of illuminated and illuminating skies: a twilight, on a night as clear as this, there is a clear green central band to the post-sunset gradient in the western sky. It’ clearly visible to the naked eye, if unwilling to be captured and held in place more than a matter of minutes. But this third cuff, also the newest featured here today and completed only last week, channels both this phenomenon and the luminous foxfire green of a most ancient light. From its description:
A Most Ancient Light Cuff Bracelet
Distant galaxies, older than time, shine through our cosmos with the glowing green of a most ancient light. Wings captures their unusual color, which came as a surprise to scientists, in the ethereal shimmer of this beautifully designed cuff bracelet. The band is of triple-strand construction, two lengths of heavy-gauge sterling silver half-round wire linked at the center by an impossibly slender strand of sterling silver braid wire, the three fused seamlessly at the ends and spread gently apart, equidistant, at the very center. The outer, wider strands of the band are all stamped freehand in a repeating pattern of three-dimensional starburst motifs, punctuated by tiny five-pointed stars dancing between each one. At the center, resting in a low-profile bezel snipped and scalloped freehand, is an otherworldly cabochon of luminous Labradorite, a giant oval that glows green, with plenty of teal and gold flash throughout. The bezel is embraced by a delicate strand of twisted silver, framing the stone perfectly. This stone has an extraordinary degree of color shift and flash, depending upon the light; in shadow, it appears gray-green, with a few brown and black inclusions visible; in sunlight, the teal blue and gold show through soft seafoam greens; and beneath a camera flash or artificial light, the stone turns electric, a mix of foxfire green, chartreuse, and pure gold. Inner band is 6″ long; half-round strands are 1/4″ wide; braided strand is 1/8″ wide; cuff ends of full band are 1/2″ wide; center of full band is 1-3/16″ across; bezel is roughly 1-3/4″ long by 1-1/16″ across at the widest point; cabochon is 1-1/2″ long by 7/8″ across at the widest point (all dimensions approximate). Other views, including the wide diversity of colors and light expressions, shown at the link.
Sterling silver; Labradorite
$1,600 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Its title, as the description notes, refers to the glow that astronomers have found emanating from the oldest, most distant galaxies that modern technology can reach. It seems to embody the otherworldy greens of bioluminescence on this planet, although its source is clearly different — affected, presumably, by the ending of light waves over such distance and all the stardust material between them and us, combining to create what our eyes [and apparently instruments] perceive as foxfire.
And again, this cuff’s focal stone has it. Aside from the Art Deco-infused starburst imagery that traces the outer semgents of this triple-strand band, old-style stampwork that pays tribute to the radiant designs of a century past, the stone itself is animated by its own distinctly tricksterish spirit: Gray Labradorite that clearly shows green in virtually any light, infused with teal blue and hints of gold in natural light but turning nearly neon green and gold together under the artificial glow of a flash. It’s the same color found in meteorites, what we call shooting stars, streaking electric green across the darkened sky.
And speaking of darkened sky, there are always those spirits that illuminate the night hours for us. Even on a new moon, the stars still show us their cold gleaming power from afar. But most nights are brightened by the glow of the moon, and it is her spirit that is the focus of the fourth and final of today’s featured works.
This one is overtly, deliberately wrought in an old-style Indigenous Art Deco design. it’s also a work wrought according to a lunar geometry, glowing with the icy white shimmer of an early winter’s moon. From its description:
A Lunar Geometry Cuff Bracelet
The moon’s light moves in a lunar geometry, orbit and ellipse, rays and shafts of silvered light. With this cuff wrought in a style that evokes the elegant Art Deco lines of a century past, Wings pays tribute to the paths of the dark hours and honors our Grandmother’s ethereal glow. The band is wrought of heavy nine-gauge sterling silver, cut classically narrow so that the cuff becomes stackable with others. All along the surface, Wings has scored, freehand, deep lines arrayed on the diagonal, all of them an abstract pattern that repeats down the length of the band with plenty of negative space to offset them, and wrapping around the sides and ends of the band in 360 degrees. In between stylized points, some textured and radiant, others spare, add depth to the linear patterns. Old-style layered directional arrows frame his hallmark on the inner band, and. tiny a single Water Bird takes flight at each end of the band. The whole is buffed to warm, richly textured Florentine finish, framing the focal perfectly: a single oval cabochon, very old and very highly domed, of luminous gray moonstone, set into a lain low-profile bezel. Solid nine-gauge band is 6″ long by 5/16″ wide; moonstone cabochon is 1/2″ long by 3/8″ across at the widest point; cabochon and bezel rise 3/8″ above the band (all dimensions approximate). Other views shown below.
Sterling silver; old gray moonstone
$1,300 + shipping, handling, and insurance
This link, too, is worth following to see the piece from differing perspectives. The band is extraordinary, with deep, even, beautifully chased freehand scorework in a pattern that seems as random as the scattering of the stars across the night sky, yet follows its own internal logic and path as surely as do they. The stone at the center is a marvel: an unusually elongated oval, very highly domed, its gemmy depths by turns foggy, misty, smoky, or clear, like its namesake adrift through bands of high thin clouds. This is the smallest of the stones, making the cuff itself seem smaller than the others despite its similar gauge and width, but just like Grandmother Moon herself, it is powerful.
We call water The First Medicine, and so it is, but there is another First Medicine, too: the light. On our world, nothing survives without its gifts; the light delivers warmth, and illumination, and nothing less than the breath of life itself. And it seems the perfect punctuation point to this quartet of works — also like its namesake, subtle, understated, more humble than flamboyant, and yet so ethereally beautiful that it’s as capable of stealing breath as the cold night air does now.
Together, these four recent works take us through the cycle of a whole day, from the moments before we awaken to those long after we have drifted off to sleep . . . and they remind us of the great power and medicine of their gifts, always cause for gratitude, whether we can see them or not. These are the lights of dawn, day, dusk, and night; together, they keep our world alive, and us with it.
~ 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.
