Today, it’s the final entry in this edition of our Wednesday/Weekend series exploring some of Wings’s best current work, brought together around related themes of medium and message. This week, we’ve been looking at the former as manifest in the blue intensity of lapis lazuli arrayed against his regular medium of sterling silver . . . and using the blue-and-silver path to find and explore the sacred spaces of this ancestral place.
We’ve talked already about the physical sacred spaces of earth and sky, of water and air, of places that are simultaneously tangible and ephemeral, mundane and mystical. We’ve also alluded, if only tangentially, to the literal sacred spaces of this place, places that belong. exclusive and entire, to the people indigenous to this land.
Some sacred spaces, of course, are shared across our cultures. Powwow is one example, which, although not sacred in the spiritual (i.e., “religious”) sense, is still sacred in the secular context of our cultural traditions. Another communal indigenous space that has evolved over the last century is the Native American Church, a practice that provides space for Natives of widely disparate traditions and beliefs to come together and share in Spirit in a way that, originally, provided at least a veneer of protection from outside forces bent on the wholesale destruction of indigenous spirituality. One of the images of the Church that regularly finds public expression in Native art is that of the Water Bird, a being that straddles sacred spaces, crossing thresholds and inhabiting lands both tangible and entirely mystical.
Wings equally regularly invokes and evokes the Water Bird in his art. Pendants and earrings are popular choices for obvious reasons: They lend themselves to creating pieces in specific shapes and forms. My own Water Bird earrings are one of my most-loved possessions; they were among his early work, a gift for his mother years ago. But sometimes he chooses to add Water Bird imagery to other works in more subtle ways, and so it is with today’s featured item. From its description in the Rings Gallery:
Blue Vortex Ring
The real sacred space of tradition manifests in multiple identities and ways; one such way is in a spiritual space, where the Water Bird flies. Here, a magical stone, a cobalt-blue cabochon of lapis lazuli, creates its own vortex atop a sterling silver band chased with mystical representations of the Water Bird. The stone is bezel-set and trimmed with twisted silver.
Sterling silver; lapis lazuli
$375 + shipping, handling, and insurance
In this instance, the Water Bird flies around the band of the ring, creating a sense of forward motion around a representation of life’s sacred hoop. It feels like protection; it feels like power, as we define the word. Above her wings, that brilliantly blue stone emerges out of a gently-scalloped bezel, like a flower slowly blooming, like the waters of the sacred lake arising from the earth. It brings together symbols of many sacred spaces, all in one compact place, to be held in — worn on — your hand.
It’s a reminder that sacred space is also something we hold and carry within ourselves.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
