The forecast predicts a high of seventy and no chance of rain, but the skies may have other ideas. It’s sunny, in that veiled low-light kind of way, the glow but not the rays penetrating the gray haze that this morning hides the blue from sight.
Nearing April’s end, and it’s finally feeling like spring.
Unlike much of this land mass, in this place, spring has not traditionally been much of a time for rain. Such plant life as blooms here in the first half of the year generally is of the hardier varieties, those that need little water and can withstand the sun and wind. Those patterns are changing now, and we have had more spring precipitation than usual, but our real rain comes with the heat of the summer: a monsoonal pattern of daily force and fury, capable of producing flooding rains and icy hail, even on a day when the high nears the century mark.
And still the wildflowers, the native shrubs, and the trees survive, even thrive. Oh, there will be limbs, and even whole trunks of the older trees, felled in the spring gales and the ferocity of the summer storms. But they are, quite frankly, rare. Our plant relatives here are strong, with hearts and spirits to match, capable of a great and vulnerable bravery in the face of elemental power, and of not merely surviving the contact, too, but blossoming in its wake.
This is what marks the seasons of the warmer winds here: in sun, in rain, a flowering.
It’s a bravery of heart and strength of spirit that finds expression in today’s featured work, one in the shades of spring petals and the summer storm, lit the sun’s fierce light. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Red Flower Rain Cuff Bracelet
A monumental cabochon of red flower jasper serves as the focal point of this magnificent unisex cuff. The stone, a warm, earthy rose shade with a mulberry and charcoal matrix of dendritic wildflower blossoms, is set into an elevated scalloped bezel, trimmed with twisted silver, and accented with a tiny chatoyant tiger’s eye cabochon at one side. The cuff, wide and weighty, features a hand-stamped row of matched thunderhead symbols chased along the center of the band, flanked at either edge by a single row of thunderheads. The band itself tapers slightly at either end for a comfortable fit. In the inner band, morning stars and other celestial symbols are scattered like constellations tossed across the pre-dawn sky. Band is 1-11/16″ across, narrowing to 1-3/8″ at either end; the bezel is slightly wider, 1-7/8″ long by 1.25″ wide; the visible portion of the stone is 1.5″ long by 1-1/8″ wide (dimensions approximate). Other views shown below.
Sterling silver; red flower jasper
$1,550 + shipping, handling, and insurance
This work’s name comes, in part, from that extraordinary focal cabochon at its center: red flower jasper, a stone that reminds me a bit of Japanese cherry blossoms wrought in a soft batik of dusty rose shades and dendritic spirits. The “rain” in the name comes in part from the bold, wide band that supports this phenomenal stone, with rows of thunderhead symbols edging either side and meeting in the middle . . . and also from the stormy aspect of the stone itself, like petals falling against a stormy sky, a rain of water, and of the blossoms too.
And it serves as a reminder that while the storm may rip free all that is not deeply rooted, rob us of our ornamentation, if we are strong and solidly planted, it cannot take who we truly are. In times as dark as these, we need to be sure of these qualities in ourselves more than ever, need to nurture and cultivate them, that they, too, may flower and grow and pollinate a world under siege by death and destruction.
It’s one of the reasons I love the wildflowers so: No, they are not “exotic,” they are not rare nor costly as the colonial world measures such things. They are delicate, fragile, even, but they are beauty at its most uncontrived, and they are strong enough to withstand whatever this world throws at them, to flower, to pollinate, to go dormant, and to bloom again at the proper time in an endless cycle of gentle, life-filled color.
This storm is more powerful than most, and it carries destruction upon the wind. Death has led, and it will follow, too. But those of us determined enough, and fortunate enough, to withstand the force of the storm, have a special responsibility now, not merely to survival, but to rebuilding a better world: in sun, in rain, a flowering.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2020; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
