A day that began in shades of clear bright turquoise is now webbed with inky clouds, as storms criss-cross the edges of our small world here in a late-season monsoonal dance. The foliage is less green, more gold than yesterday, and the winds lead with a sharp chill edge as they shift rapidly between directions.
With the first formal day of fall less than a week distant now, Indian summer is fading fast, and with it, the dreams of warmer winds. It is time to arm ourselves for the long battle that is winter in this place.
It’s a perfect day for the imagery of one of Wings’s newer works — not brand new, true, but not yet long in inventory, either. It’s a piece conceived in an ancient form, one that serves as literal armor, but executed expressly to protect of the spirit. From its description in the Accessories Gallery here on the site:
Dream Warrior Bow Guard
Some of our fiercest battles are fought in and over dreams. Wings invokes the dream warrior and and the warrior’s art in this old traditional-style bow guard. It begins with a solitary concha from one of his old belts, a piece that has spent decades in his private collection: multiple layers of solid, heavy sterling silver hand-cut into ovals of ascending size, the base layer scalloped gracefully around its edge, all stacked atop each other in an overlay pattern. Each layer is edged with hand-stamped chased images in traditional designs — the force of the lightning, the shelter of the lodge, the power of the rising sun. The center oval is domed, repoussé-fashion, and the entire finished concha is domed yet again to trace the line of the wrist. A small sturdy column of sterling silver arises from its center to hold the bezel of the central stone securely in place. The stone itself is an extraordinary giant cabochon of high-grade Cloud Mountain turquoise from China’s Hubei District, bright teal blue and webbed in inky indigo as tightly and thoroughly as Grandmother Spider’s dreamcatcher, set into a saw-toothed bezel and trimmed with bold twisted silver. Flanking the center concha are a pair of tiny round conchas whose stampwork repeat the lodge motif around diminutive round blue-green center stones. The conchas are screwed into a band of warm golden-hued moosehide, thick, sturdy and velvety to the touch. The band extends outward three inches beyond each small concha to allow for custom cutting and lacing to fit the wearer. In its current from, prior to sizing to suit, the full band extends 11.25″ long by 2.25″ high; the small conchas are 2-7/8″ across and their cabochons are 1/4″ across; the center concha is 3/5/8″ high by 2.75″ across, and the focal cabochon is 2″ high by 1-3/8″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate). Other views shown at the link.
Sterling silver; high-grade Cloud Mountain turquoise; old blue-green turquoise; moosehide
$2,500 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Our peoples know well the blessings, and the dangers, of dreams: They inform and inspire, but they also open portals to other planes of existence, worlds beyond our knowledge or imagining. It is the wise soul that prepares itself to venture into such spaces willingly, donning armor of both both physical and metaphysical sorts. In the places where the spirits dwell, protection is required for mere mortals, and spiritual safeguards are at least as important as the more tangible variety.
With autumn, too, comes the time of year when spirits grow restless; some cross the threshold separating their world from ours, the better to travel among us for a time. Not all are possessed of malign intent, but even the least malicious among them may make mischief by their very presence. Engaging with them is always risky, especially for those who have not been given the vocation to do so, and arming oneself is essential.
Bow guards have long been used by our peoples, a tool of the hunt and of the fight alike. We are now approaching the time of hunt and harvest, but also of greater dangers that lurk in dark days and long nights of the cold season. Not a few of the coming battles will be fought in the space of dreams.
It’s wise to be armed, in person and in spirit.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2017; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
