Today was an exercise in patience on multiple fronts . . . and a reminder of how little control we have over the world around us. It managed to embody autumn nearly perfectly, and yet still summer insisted upon her dues, as well: a mercury that neared eighty cooled by high winds that delivered a sharp chill; remnants of wildfire smoke veiling the horizon and monsoonal clouds climbing the skies as the leaves turned ever more fiery. And yet, even as the elms begin to shed their leaves, the gladiolus behind the house bloomed for the first time ever only yesterday.
This is Indian summer’s wildflower dance, an annual rite here when the sunflowers and the cornflowers and the Mexican hat are still blossoming in the light.
Of course, Indian summer is early this year, and the flowers have followed no customary pattern all season. But even the new patterns are beautiful, and as today’s upended schedule has reminded us, some things are worth waiting for.
The same is true of today’s featured masterwork — all new, completed only this evening, and the third entry in Wings’s limited signature series of necklaces, The Four Seasons. Fall will be here in full force soon enough, weather and wearable art alike, but this is Summer at its finest. From its description in the Necklaces Gallery here on the site:
Summer: Wildflower Meadow Under a Midday Sky Necklace
The most vibrant spirits of the warm winds dance all season long. This is the best of the high-country Summer: wildflower meadow under a midday sky, an emerald earth and a turquoise expanse alive in the silver light. With this necklace, Wings calls the flowers to dance once more, from the earliest days of spring to the very end of Indian summer, robed and shawled in their finest dress. The oversized pendant is cut entirely freehand of solid sterling silver, shaped into the graceful looping arcs of a giant prairie blossom. Each of its eight outstanding “petal” cabochons, each an oval of high-grade malachite spectacularly agatized and scalloped in extraordinary patterns, is ringed with a flowering, radiant sun motif. Single wildflowers swaying atop graceful stalks are stamped freehand in a random pattern all across the pendant’s face, twining around the square center cabochon of intensely-hued chrysocolla in malachite and fluttering between the petals. Each cabochon is set into a scalloped bezel and trimmed with twisted silver; the pendant backing is buffed to a rich, velvety Florentine finish, as soft as the summer breeze. Small matched blossoms trace the simple, lightly-flared bail, through which are strung a phenomenal mix of graduated beads: ultra-high-grade chrysocolla, solid and heavy, alternating with malachite cube beads and silver-plated large rounds, extending upward on either side into more malachite cubes interspersed with deep blue turquoise orbs and small but solid sterling silver rounds and tiny indigo apatite spheres. Beads are strung over extra-sturdy tri-ply foxtail made of heavy nylon specially treated and encased in metal, then silver-plated for color matching; findings are sturdy sterling silver assemblies. Pendant including bail hangs 5″, 4.25″ excluding bail, and is 4.25″ across at the widest point; the bail is 3/4″ long by 9/16″ across at the widest point; center cabochon is 11/16″ square; cardinal cabochons are 1″ long by 1/2″ across; ordinal cabochons are 3/4″-7/8″ long by 7/16″ across; bead strand is 22″ long, excluding findings. [All dimensions approximate.] Designed jointly by Wings and Aji; third in The Four Seasons Series. Additional close-up views of pendant and strand shown below.
Sterling silver (setting and findings);
malachite; chrysocolla in malachite (pendant cabochons); tri-ply silver-plated foxtail (to hold beads);
chrysocolla; silver-plate; malachite; sterling silver; turquoise; apatite (beads)
$2,000 plus shipping, handling, and insurance
The cabochons in this work are nothing short of phenomenal, all nine of them; the silverwork was designed, quite literally, around them. The “petals” of the flower are all ovals of extraordinary high-grade malachite, agatized in flowing, scalloped bands that look much like layered petals themselves. At the center rests an equally stunning square of chrysocolla in malachite, agatized in the same way so that it looks for all the world like stormclouds tracing a summer sky, all reflected in the flowing lines of the Great River.
Each of these remarkable gifts of the earth are set into scalloped bezels and trimmed with twisted silver, but they rest in the embrace of a larger setting that was cut freehand to their very lines, and stamped freehand in a similar riot of petals. The bead strand is formed of beads old and new, the spectacular large rounds of ultra-high-grade chrysocolla purchased explicitly in anticipation of this work. The malachite cubes, smooth, glossy, and beautifully banded, alternate with graduated rounds: lighter weight silver plate in the larger sizes, solid sterling silver among the smaller ones, with medium-sized orbs of deep-blue spiderweb turquoise and tiny luminous spheres of apatite in an electric indigo.
For those whose colors are blues and greens, the blues of summer sky and water, the greens of grass and leaf and petal, this is for you: stones like silk in a setting like velvet, all the soft richness of summer to wear year-round.
We shall have more summer days yet, Indian summer that feels more like the heat of June. But fall is here, both officially and otherwise; dawn and dusk are cold and sharp, and even the wildflowers will not be with us much longer now. As the world races headlong toward winter, we could all do with the memory of Indian summer’s wildflower dance, and its promise that we will see warm days again.
~ 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.
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.
