New week; more trickster winds.

In theory, they will usher in snow this week, but as always, we remain skeptical. If we are indeed so fortunate, it will be a welcome respite, because the spring winds have arrived two months early, bringing the year’s hardest season forward . . . and it’s not as though it will end any earlier as a result.

Eliot declared April to be the cruelest month, but here, it’s the whole of spring, even when it overlaps with winter. After all, it’s only February now.

The shortest month is also the one that our culture defines, among other things, as belonging to lovers, a product of the holiday that will fall right at its midpoint, this coming Friday. Valentine’s Day is variously embraced as a day for romantic love and scorned as “Hallmark holiday” of pure commercialism, but historically, it’s rooted in the early Christian church, and in the often-bloody dynamics of saints and martyrs. I’ve written about the origins here, much of which is lost to the mists not only of memory but of mythology, too.

But neither Christian nor European traditions are unique in ascribing matters of love to the heart, nor to equating the symbolism of the heart itself with romantic love. It’s imagery that encompasses other forms of love, as well, from filial and familial to platonic to spiritual, from love between people to to love of and for animals, of and for the very Earth itself. And while shades of red, like that of the physical human heart, are most often associated with the upcoming holiday [in truth, a spectrum that includes white and pink and purple, with red at its center], there’s no reason to limit symbolic illustrations to a single color.

Today’s featured work, one perfect for Friday’s celebrations [and there’s still time to ship, probably through Tuesday], is an example of how such variations manifest themselves. It’s a pair of earrings built around two heart-shaped cabochons, Skystones both — the blues of the sky webbed with earthier shades, representative of an atmospheric love such as our world shows for us when it brings the gift of the snow [or the rain]. There’s a unique quality to this pair that the description covers, and I’ll cover it in detail below; from its description in the Earrings Gallery here on the site:

An Atmospheric Love Earrings

If water is life, and breath, and medicine, then the rain is itself an atmospheric love, one skies and storm bestow upon the earth. With these earrings, Wings pays tribute the turquoise blues of those alpine desert skies, to the Skystone story that turns raindrops into jewels, and to the earth that survives and thrives by their gifts. Each dangling drop is formed of a perfect turquoise heart set into a low-profile scalloped bezel and edged with a slender strand of twisted silver. These Skystone cabochons were acquired as part of the same parcel, similar in size and shape and shade, but they appear to be from two different mines: the floating green matrix with fine brown veining marking the left as likely Royston; the clear bright blue with fine tendrils of red siltstone a hallmark of Bisbee on the right. They render a slightly deeper blue on-screen than they appear in natural light, and while they appear to be of slightly different sizes, their dimensions are identical; the difference lies in the shape in which each was cut, independently of the other. Both drops are suspended from slender sterling silver jump rings, with sterling silver coil-and-ball-bead French wires threaded through them. Earrings hang 1-1/8″ long by 1-1/16″ across at the widest point; cabochons are 7/8″ long by 7/8″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate).

Sterling silver; natural American turquoise, likely Royston (left) and Bisbee (right)
$625 + shipping, handling, and insurance

As the description notes, these were part of a slightly larger parcel that Wings acquired as one group: four to six heart cabochons of roughly similar size and shape and color, all sold together. At a glance, they appeared to be the same. It was only when he sat down to begin the work of turning them into wearable art that the differences became clear.

First, while their length and width are the same, the proportions are slightly different. If you look closely, you’ll see that the heart on the right is more compact, with tight, even lapidary work; the one on the left features a wider throat, with upper arcs that are spaced more widely apart, even though their full width is about the same as that of the other cabochon.

Second, while they both share the same clear sky-blue base color, their wildly different matrix colors and patterns mark them out as coming from different mines. The one on the left is a ringer for Royston turquoise from Nevada; the bright green and golden-brown matrix that seems to float over the surface is a hallmark of some of that mine’s finest material. The one on the right, with the same clear blue, has only small bits of diffuse webbing at the edges, all of it red siltstone, which in turn is a hallmark of Bisbee turquoise, from Arizona. Neither cabochon came with any identifying information more specific than “natural American turquoise,” but both seem a safe bet based on appearance and quality.

And, as a friend pointed out, the fact that they come from two different sources seems all the more apt for a wearable symbol of romantic love: two individual spirits, united but still unique, each bringing their own beauty and power to a whole greater than the sum of its parts.

That is, perhaps, the best part of true love of any sort — the way that it merges and melds and yet preserves the integrity of its constituent elements, the way it brings together our best impulses and creates something even greater from their combining and recombining. It’s not a static event, nor a tangible thing, but a process, a practice, a praxis: love as air and atmosphere, love as breath and the act of breathing.

At this moment, the whole world is in flames; the phrase “parade of horribles” seems meant for these dark days. It seems naive to think that “love” can fix everything, and of course it is, because what most of the world defines as love is a very shallow thing, easily sundered, lacking in enough substance for its own preservation.

But we know that love is not a thing, or rather, not only that. Love is so much more, and capable of so much more. But it begins with us, and it begins with approaching it as a process and practice and praxis that we follow daily, as a way of living, a way of being.

It won’t be instant, and it won’t be easy. But it this world is to survive, and us with it, it begins with this . . . and with each of us.

~ Aji

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2025; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.