With 2015 only three short days away, thoughts turn to a turning over, renewal, resolutions, a new beginning. And with it, perhaps unbidden, hope: hope for positive change, for good results, for health, for happiness, for peace, for prosperity.
It’s easy to get wrapped up in expectations that will inevitably meet with disappointment. Knowing that, it’s also easy to get discouraged, to give up before the new year even appears.
As with all else in life, it’s a balance.
We don’t make formal resolutions, really. For us, the new year’s arrival exists more in the vein of “Here’s a new chance — let’s try to make the most of it.” Oh, there are things I want to accomplish in 2015, of course. I gave up smoking years ago, we generally eat healthy, and around this place, we both necessarily get plenty of exercise. But there’s always something to refine and improve on the health front. I want to focus more on my writing, and on the issues and causes that matter to me — but I say that every year. It’s less a question of if than of how. And this year, when only yesterday, December added yet a third marker of grief and loss for me, it’s a reminder that I want to make a difference . . . that, I want, like those whose loss I mourn today, to be a force for good in this world.
So with all of that, why focus today on prosperity?
It’s all in how you define it.
For us, prosperity isn’t necessarily about material wealth or possessions. It’s about being able to live in harmony with our world, about merely having what we need for our well-being, about having enough to be able to spare some to help others not as fortunate. That’s prosperity.
It’s why I gave Wings copper as a Christmas gift this year. It’s not much; just a tiny (but heavy) piece of ore, a bit of native copper from my own home lands, where it’s been a gift to our people from before the dawn of recorded time, back when the Great Lakes covered the entire earth there. I’ve written before about how copper came to the people: It’s a story of a child’s courage and strength of spirit, and prosperity for the people in a way not unlike the Christian parable of the loaves and fishes.
As long as we are attending to our responsibilities, as long as we are living in harmony as we have been given to do, there will always be enough to go around.
And so, now that Christmas is past and the new year beckons, it seems a good motif for winding down this season’s series on small holiday gifts. Today, we have three items, all very similar, but each unique in execution and in spirit. they’re all by one of Wings’s old friends and fellow silversmiths, a good man by the name of Rodney Concha. Rodney makes jewelry of all kinds, but he’s best known for his belts and buckles in the traditional Southwest Indian style known as conchas (yes, just like his name).
Concha, of course, is the Spanish word for “shell,” and we’ve looked at both the word and the style here in the past. We’ve also already had Rodney’s work here, although not previously featured on this blog. One of his masterpieces, an item from Wings’s own private collection, has long resided in the Other Artists: Miscellaneous Jewelry gallery — a fabulous full concha belt, hand-made in Rodney’s own trademark style:
This beautiful vintage-style traditional concha belt is from Wings’s private collection. The word concha is Spanish for “shell,” and the individual pieces, or conchas, do indeed resemble silvery shells. This one is rendered in heavy sterling silver, each piece individually hand-stamped. The belt is high-quality, heavy leather, such dark brown that it’s nearly black in color. By Rodney Concha (Taos Pueblo). [Close-up views of belt and buckle shown at the link.]
Sterling silver; dark brown leather
$1,500 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Because of weight and value, extra shipping charges apply
The belt is crafted in Rodney’s usual medium, sterling silver. Occasionally, though, he’ll make items of other materials, and so it is with today’s featured pieces, each wrought in glowing copper. The symbolism of the copper itself, combined with the motifs in the smithing of each of these three buckles — eagle feathers, used to send our prayers aloft, radiating like a sunburst sky from a central Eye of Spirit — to me, it’s a powerful metaphor: of benediction upon the old year, of invocation for that yet to come.
Here, I take them in reverse order of appearance elsewhere on the site. Each is roughly similar in size and in amount and type of detail (and they are identical in price). But I do have an order of preference, based upon how the each piece comes together both aesthetically and symbolically, and so as usual, I close with the one that speaks to me most intently.
We begin with the third:
This classic Southwest Indian concha belt buckle takes form in the warm and healing hues of burnished copper. By Rodney Concha (Taos Pueblo), it bears his trademark Eye-of-Spirit-and-sunburst center, edged by scalloped stampwork that flares in the traditional eagle-feather pattern at either side. Buckle is 2-5/8″ long by 2″ high (dimensions approximate).
Copper
$125 + shipping, handling, and insurance
SOLD
The second, of course, seems at first glance to be nearly identical, but look closer. You’ll see distinct, discrete differences:
Rodney Concha (Taos Pueblo) is known for his elaborate belts and buckles in a traditional style that bears his name: concha, for their shell-like shape. Here, he has created one out of glowing copper in a very old, very iconic shape and pattern, with a slightly-domed interior and scalloped and feathered edges. At its very center rests an Eye of Spirit; the sunburst pattern radiating from it manifests in what is known as an eagle-feather design. Stampwork in traditional symbols trace an oval around the center, edged on either side by more feathers turned lightly upward at the tips. Buckle is 2-3/4″ long by 2-1/8″ high (dimensions approximate).
Copper
$125 + shipping, handling, and insurance
SOLD
And finally, the first — my personal favorite:
This iconic belt buckle, a hallmark of traditional Southwestern Indian jewelry, is hand-wrought by an artist whose name the style bears. Rodney Concha (Taos Pueblo) is known for his beautifully complex belts and buckles in the classic design known as concha (the Spanish word for “shell). He has coaxed a large and highly stylized version from beautiful rose-colored copper in a shade that evokes the shell for which it is named. The repoussé mid-section is centered by an Eye of Spirit, from which radiate rays in the shape of eagle feathers. Meticulously detailed hand-stamped symbols encircle the middle, ending in scalloped edges at top and bottom, and in more eagle feathers, gently upturned, at either side. Buckle extends 3″ in length by 2″ in height (dimensions approximate).
Copper
$125 + shipping, handling, and insurance
SOLD
One of the things I love about Rodney’s work is that, generally speaking, it can be worn by anyone. Gender is irrelevant; it’s a timeless style that suits any identity, anywhere. In an art genre like jewelry that is so often rigidly gendered and otherwise circumscribed, it’s a beautiful thing to find pieces not forced into unyielding social constructs, pieces that are able to share their blessings and their symbolic power with anyone.
Perhaps that in itself is another good lesson for the new year, and another way of bringing prosperity— as our traditions define it— to all.
~ 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.
