After a hot and humid day with no rain at all, this day dawned amid a thin and silvery haze. Now, approaching its midpoint, most of that veil has cleared, but the thunderheads are building themselves into towers on all sides. The patchy blue sky above is unlikely to remain so for long at this rate, but none of it is a guarantee of rain for today.
Still, what we are likely to get is one of those stellar summer sunsets unique to alpine-desert climates, with layers of jewel-toned colors illuminating the darkening sky. On such evenings, we know the time and season by tracking the shades and shapes of the light.
That may seem an odd way of putting it, but this is a place of geometry as much as geography, one in which the light is at once an animated and animating spirit, capable of assuming its own form and mass in angles and spheres. It’s the sun, of course, and also the moon, but it’s also more and less tangible than the rays of distant orbs and stars, a reality that breaks through in the lines and shadows and spaces between — in the collaboration and conspiracy and contention of light and storm, cloud and shadow.
It’s a truth found in the imagery of Tuesday’s edition of Red Willow Spirit, in the elemental power and tidal pull of fire and ice in the same sky.
This week’s Friday Feature is a tribute to the skies in that post, and in the same order: garnet flame, twilight amethyst, the moonstone that rides high in the night. It’s a collection of threerings, all wrought in similar style, an informal series in miniature of adjustable rings that Wings revived recently after a hiatus of more than a decade. All three are found in the Rings Gallery here on the site. We begin with the one shown at the top, glowing with all the scarlet fire of the summer sunset. From its description:
Beneath the Sun’s Red Eye Adjustable Ring
Our world is warmed and illuminated beneath the sun’s red eye, a distant orb of starfire that sustains the whole planet. With this self-adjustable ring, Wings distills the sun’s scarlet blaze into paired garnet cabochons, sparking and sparkling in the light. They sit at either end of a band formed of sterling silver half-round wire, its convex surface stamped freehand in a repeating pattern of linked diamonds, signifying the guiding power of the Eye of Spirit. Each end of the band is hammered by hand to support the stones, perfect beveled squares whose depths glow with the darkest red flame, each set into a plain low-profile bezel. Band is 3/16″ across; cabochons are 1/4″ across (dimensions approximate). As shown here, the open band is sized at roughly a size 13 (including 3/8″ gap between stones at ends of band), and can be tightened to a smaller size (or opened wider for a larger size, with stones set further apart). Other views shown below.
Sterling silver; garnet
$350 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It was extraordinarily difficult to capture the fire and depth of the garnets at these angles — less blood-red than the royal hues of rubies and wine. But the flash from within each lightly beveled cabochon hints at something more, a little distant starfire to illuminate the last moments of the day.
Of course, the gradients of sunset (and sunrise, too) last only moments, shifting imperceptibly but thoroughly and with astonishing rapidity. After the reds come the deepest purples of the threshold between day and night, a glow backlit with the faintest fading light before the curtain-fall of dark. It is this amethyst glow that is found in the second of today’s featured works, shaped slightly differently and embodying the violet shades of the dusken sky. From its description:
Summer Twilight Adjustable Ring
As summer twilight descends, remnant thunderheads limned by the silvery light of the setting sun turn the western sky shades of amethyst and violet. With this ring, Wings brings the stormclouds to our level, pairing off domed round cabochons of deepest amethyst atop a sterling silver bad. A length of sterling silver half-round wire forms the band, its convex surface stamped freehand in a layered traditional motif of directional arrows pointing inward toward each other at the base of the hoop. At the top, two large domed cabochons of deep purple amethyst are set opposite each other in saw-toothed bezels, violet depths catching passing rays of light. The ring is wrought in a self-adjusting “wrap” style that permits the wearer to tighten it until the stones pass each other, or wear it as shown, with gems seated opposite. Band is 3/16″ across; cabochons are 3/8″ across (dimensions approximate). As shown here, the open band is sized at roughly 8.5, and can be tightened to a smaller size (or opened wider for a larger size, with stones set further apart). Other views shown below.
Sterling silver; amethyst
$350 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Once dark falls, it’s tempting to see the skies as black, but very often, they are anyting but. Here, on a beautifully clear night? The sky can be visibly wine-colored even in the darkest hours . . . or even with the icy shimmer of the fullest moon shining brightly across it. We can track its path across the sky, too, and as our ancestors knew so well, its position, like that of the stars overhead, tells us season and month and even the hour.
And its position, or perhaps more accurtely, the illumination it provides, is manifest in the third and final of today’s featured works. This work returns to the geometry of the square, even as it channels the light of sphere that is Grandmother Moon. From its description:
To Light All the Corners of the Dark Adjustable Ring
Grandmother Moon is a spirit to light all the corners of the dark. With this self-adjustable ring, Wings draws her refractive and reflective glow down to earth. The band is formed of sterling silver half-round wire, its convex surface stamped freehand in a linked series of sinuous lines, like small flowing rays of the moon’s icy light and the flow of the tides that are subject to her influence. The band is hand-hammered flat at either end to support the two mysterious stones: highly domed and sharply beveled squares of fabulously adularescent rainbow moonstone, each set into a plain, low-profile bezel that allows its blue fire to shine to radiant effect. Band is 3/16″ across; cabochons are 1/4″ across (dimensions approximate). As shown here, the open band is sized at roughly a size 13 (including 3/8″ gap between stones at ends of band), and can be tightened to a smaller size (or opened wider for a larger size, with stones set further apart). Other views shown below.
Sterling silver; rainbow moonstone
$350 + shipping, handling, and insurance
At this time of year and phase of the moon, it rises late: in the early hours of the morning, high and bright in the northeastern sky. Right now, it’s amber at moonrise, but as it crosses overhead and becomes more distant, the blue-white shimmer begins to subsume it, radiating a cooler, brighter light.
And as of this morning, although on the wane, it was still a little more than half-visible, still brilliant enough to cast its glow across the whole of the land, if without the kind of electric fire of its full phase.
It’s a reminder that the spirits of the skies are always here for us, even in ways that we do not always consider or even acknowledge, always present with guidance, direction, wisdom: Even the faintest illumination still lights our world, and shows us our place in it. But at this season, it’s a special gift, a way of grounding ourselves and centering our world and cosmos by tracking the shades and shapes of the light in some of its most brilliant and beautiful forms.
That’s medicine.
~ Aji
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