Today we introduce Wings’s latest masterwork, a liminal piece that embodies thresholds: between the seasons, between the worlds, between the oldest of traditions and the most contemporary of spirits. It has become, immediately, my new favorite among his current body of work, and with good reason, honoring as it does the old ways and motifs, but infused with his own creative identity and spirit.
On this day, it fits our world here especially well, too —a robin’s-egg sky criss-crossed with trailing dark clouds that have released only a little rain, but enough to allow the flowers to stand a little taller, the butterflies to fly a little higher, the earth’s heart to be with a little deeper love.
It’s a piece built around one of a set of stones he acquired almost four years ago, a collection of extraordinary spiderweb turquoise cabochons from Arizona. They are Kingman turquoise, but this is no ordinary Kingman, no; this is the highest-quality stone the mine produces, a perfect turquoise blue shot through with delicate yet bold spiderwebbing in inky black, matrixed so tightly as to seem to form tiny diamonds across the surface of the stones. This rectangular cabochon was one of the larger ones, of exceptionally high value in both economic and aesthetic terms. But a stone depends on its setting to display its beauty properly, and this setting does not disappoint: It’s an exceedingly traditional collection of symbols re-envisioned in a contemporary arrangement, channeling the old ways to give form and shape to the here and now. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Indian Summer Dreams Cuff Bracelet
Before the snow flies, spirits of earth and sky dream Indian Summer dreams. Wings honors these visions and the spirits who dream them with his newest masterwork, a piece conceived in the deep symbolism of tradition and executed with 21st-Century élan. The focal point is a large, beautifully spiderwebbed rectangular cabochon of ultra-high-grade Black-Web Kingman turquoise, a robin’s-egg Skystone tightly matrixed with complex black chert webbing. It rests in a saw-toothed bezel, elevated atop the center of an exceptional hand-made band, flanked on either side by three separate rows of hand-stamped arrowhead symbols pointing down either side of the cuff, each stamped individually via more than one hundred separate strikes of the jeweler’s hammer. This edging is flanked on either side by a pair of lodge symbols, their apices pointed toward paired inverted sunrise symbols motifs that form an embrasure down the remainder of each side of the band. In the center of these rays of silvery light are the dreams and dreamers: a trio of late-summer butterflies alternating with the flowing waters of seasonal rains, all cascading downward to paired blossoms holding a heart at their center. Together, they bring a reminder that summer returns, life renews, and love outlasts all. The band is 1-1/16″ across; the cabochon is 1″ long by 13/16″ of an inch across (dimensions approximate). Other views shown above and below.
Sterling silver; ultra-high-grade Black Web Kingman turquoise
$1,750 + shipping, handling, and insurance
This is one of those truly extraordinary works that reminds me of Wings’s deep connection to his culture and lifeways, to the history and identity of his art as his ancestors expressed it. The result is spectacular enough to take my breath away, and even to take him aback; constantly immersed in his art and vision, he tends to forget, or not to notice, the exceptional mastery and beauty of the results.
Today’s work is a work of dreams and for dreams: of earth and sky celebrating these last warm sunny days limned by the lines of the rain, of the butterflies in their final mating dance before moving southward upon warmer winds, of the flowering of love that transcends season and time. It is a time for Indian Summer dreams, and for the works that give them form and life.
~ 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.
