The dominant culture calls them “rites of passage”: those moments when a young person crosses a threshold between one state of being and another, from infancy to childhood, from childhood to youth, from youth to adulthood. Absent a few mostly unavoidable physical changes, most such “rites” consist really of changes in interactions in the public or communal sphere, many of them cast as expansions of “rights” — starting school, promotion and eventual graduation from schools of various types, first date, driver’s license, right to vote.
In traditional cultures, many such “rites of passage” are far less public, but no less real for that. Many of them do, likewise, involve changes to “rights” afforded to young people, usually accompanied by expanded responsibilities, as well. But some are merely recognition of one’s status within the culture, an immanence of identity, a way of saying, “We claim you as our own, as one of us.”
So it sometimes is with regalia, with the traditional dress worn for certain occasions, whether private or public, ceremonial or simply celebratory. And so it, in some cultures, with adornment of other sorts, such as the wearing of jewelry.
It’s not uncommon in indigenous cultures to see very young children wearing jewelry, and not the plastic costume jewelry found in the outside world, either. No, this is the real thing, of the same materials and same value as that worn by their elders, simply writ small for tiny ears and necks and hands and wrists. Most little girls (and some little boys) I know have their ears pierced in infancy, and grow up wearing earrings of precious metal and genuine gemstones, albeit tiny versions that are age-appropriate and unlikely to get caught and cause injury during play. Many also wear modest chain or bead necklaces and slender cuff bracelets, sized to scale for little bodies.
But there comes a point where it’s time for children to have their own fully adult jewelry. In some instances, it’s amore formalized event, carrying specific meaning and perhaps recognition of new status. For others, it simply occurs organically, and is nothing especially remarkable from a cultural standpoint, but it’s a crossing of a threshold of sorts nonetheless.
This is one of the reasons why Wings occasionally buys jewelry items made by child artisans: It recognizes their status as fully actualized members of their culture, and at the same time, it encourages them in their art, and in the prospect of carrying on their people’s traditions. It’s also why he occasionally makes pieces that are sized specifically for children.
At the moment, we have only one left in inventory, but it’s one consonant with the themes we’ve been exploring in recent days. From its description in the Bracelets Gallery:
Snowflakes Child’s Cuff Bracelet
In traditional cultures, the children wear traditional dress, right down to the jewelry, designed and sized just for them, but made in the styles their elders wear. This little cuff is a perfect example, one that embodies the energy and spontaneity and excitement of childhood balanced and tempered by calming protective influences. Made of sterling silver half-round wire, the band neither given neither an aged patina nor a mirror finish, buffed just enough to make it smooth against the skin. At its center rest three small bezel-set stones: an oval cabochon of snowflake obsidian, where the extremes of hot and cold meet and meld, flanked on either side by tiny round stones of soothing lapis lazuli.
Sterling silver, snowflake obsidian, lapis lazuli
$135 + shipping, handling, and insurance
The cuff’s very being symbolizes this motif of thresholds, its size and substance straddling, as they do, childhood and adulthood. It also does so in more metaphorical sense, the gemstones used embodying the fierce dichotomies of childhood and the needs that accompany them.
It’s a beautiful little piece, one fitting for a child for special occasions and/or special recognition, one to mark her own crossing of a threshold of life.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
