Midwinter, and the messengers are here.
In point of fact, they’ve been here for years now, sounding the alarm humanity mostly refuses to heed, even now. Even now, when Australia is burning, when sea level rise has already swamped some Indigenous communities and sent them on a forced migration to higher ground, when whole regions are flattened by storms and when the Antarctic just calved ice sheets in the largest-ever single-day melt in recorded history.
Here, it looks, to the outside gaze, like a normal winter. It’s anything but.
We have our own messengers this year to tell of what is and what’s to come. No dragonflies yet; it’s still far too cold for them to survive, much less birth new generations to relay the words of the spirits. But our messengers this winter are small and fragile, too, ones who have never before wintered here because they likewise cannot survive this cold.
Except that they are. An entire goldfinch clan has apparently settled in for the duration, making their home here despite semi-regular snows and actual lows that fall well below zero.
Goldfinches are migrant visitors here, usually appearing for a period of some three to four weeks only, over the latter half of May and/or into June, depending on temperatures. But this year, it would seem, they are in residence for the whole winter.
Messengers.
Goldfinch feathers are prized here for traditional purposes. Their brilliant yellow provides an exceptionally bright spot in the dull cold shades of the winter ceremonial season. But found feathers are usually the province of late spring, not the icy weeks leading up to such events. Their very presence here now is a message, and a grave one.
It’s at times such as these that the long view matters most — not merely a vision for the future, but our knowledge of the past and the wisdom of the ancestors that made our own survival possible.
It is just that view, looking back, knowing the history of people and place by way of an intimate symbiotic relationship with the land, that tells us to recognize the goldfinches’ presence for the warning that it is. And it reminds me now that there is much of value in the old ways of knowing and doing and being, even as we have had to adapt to changed circumstances and will surely have to adapt again, almost daily now.
Today’s featured work harks back to old ways in a history still recent. Unusually for Wings’s work, it’s two items, three pieces, sold as a set instead of individually. And animating its vintage-style form and shape are other emissary spirits, messengers of a new earth here well out of season, too, to underscore the intensity of the goldfinches’ warning. We begin with the two-item work, paired drops hammered from sterling silver ingot. From their description in the Earrings Gallery here on the site:
Dancing On the Light Ingot Earrings (and Necklace Set)
Dragonflies are messengers of love and joy, small spirits dancing on the light. Wings pays tribute to their outsized power and ethereal beauty, and to the old ways of silversmithing, with this necklace-and-earrings set wrought vintage-style in sterling silver ingot. The earrings, shown in close-up below, are crafted of ingot silver, molten, poured, and hammered by hand into roughly circular medallions, their flowing uneven edges evoking the traditional Native earrings of more than a century past. The surface of each is highly polished but left texturized with the ingot’s natural divots and lines. Centered upon each, Wings has evoked a dragonfly out of a collection of three separate stamped motifs: twelve tiny hoops for head and gracefully curving body, two gently swaying stalks for antennae, and two zigzagging pairs of symbols that represent, variously, lightning and flowing water to create the wings. Not quite abstract, Dragonfly here is nonetheless highly stylized and summoned out of simple geometric shapes to dance on the silvery surface of the light. The pendant is hand-drilled at the top and hangs suspended from by a sterling silver jump ring from sturdy sterling silver snake chain. Earrings hang roughly 1″ long by 7/8″ across at the widest point, excluding wires (dimensions approximate). Matching necklace is shown in close-up in the Necklaces Gallery; sold as a set.
Sterling silver ingot
$625 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Hammered ingot is one of the oldest styles of Indigenous silversmithing, and it carries its own natural beauty. The uneven circles, the tiny breaks at the edges . . . all are proof that fragility and strength not only coexist but work together in harmony. They remind us, too, of our own human foibles and frailty with their refusal to fall neatly into line or arc, a lesson that we all need to remember at one time or another, that perfection is the province only of Spirit.
The necklace that is the other part of this set holds the same reminders. It, too, is a shimmering work of exceptional beauty, simple spare lines and hoops evoking the tiny messenger spirit of water and light. From its description in the Necklaces Gallery:
Dancing On the Light Ingot Necklace (and Earrings Set)
Dragonflies are messengers of love and joy, small spirits dancing on the light. Wings pays tribute to their outsized power and ethereal beauty, and to the old ways of silversmithing, with this necklace-and-earrings set wrought vintage-style in sterling silver ingot. The necklace, shown in close-up below, is crafted of ingot silver, molten, poured, and hammered by hand into a roughly circular medallion, its flowing uneven edges evoking the traditional Native pendants of more than a century past. The surface is highly polished but left texturized with the ingot’s natural divots and lines. Centered upon it, Wings has evoked a dragonfly out of a collection of five separate stamped motifs: a single large hoop for the head, eight smaller hoops arcing below to form the body, two tiny waves for antennae, and two pairs of arrowhead symbols to create the wings. Not quite abstract, Dragonfly here is nonetheless highly stylized and summoned out of simple geometric shapes to dance on the silvery surface of the light. The pendant is hand-drilled at the top and hangs suspended from by a sterling silver jump ring from sturdy sterling silver snake chain. Pendant hangs roughly 1-1/8″ long by 1-1/8″ across at the widest point; chain is 20″ long (dimensions approximate). Matching earrings are shown in close-up in the Earrings Gallery; sold as a set.
Sterling silver ingot
$625 + shipping, handling, and insurance
If ever we needed messages of hope and help, it is now. If ever we needed both the wisdom of the ancestors and our own vision for the future, it is now.
This small vintage-style set reminds us that the message is within our grasp. The messengers of a new earth are already here, with more to follow. It is up to us to hear them.
~ 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.
