A day that began beneath a webwork of clouds is now, nearing midday, almost wholly clear — skies a hard, sharp blue behind gilded leaves, only the faintest wisps of white remaining here and there behind the peaks.
The clouds of this morning seemed almost map-like, as though they had been drawn overhead to guide the migratory creatures on their way. But the truth of the matter is that their maps are innate, inherent, immanent, and more, those here have decided to stop and rest a while for as long as the unseasonal warmth lasts.
In other words, through tomorrow.
By Tuesday, the rains pummeling the western coast are expected to reach us, and with them, the predictable drop in temperatures. From that point forward, even if we experience another unseasonal warm-up, the freeze will have already done its work, and there will be no blossoms left, no leaves, no greenery to shelter small and dilatory summer spirits.
For today, though, they are here, and they are happy.
Not quite two weeks ago, we got our first snow of the season, a good four inches-plus. Compared to years with more usual patterns, that’s not much, but compared to the last four or five years? It’s a lot, and it was welcome. It also, just as predictably, dulled the turned leaves early and downed no small number of them, while shriveling and withering most of the wildflower petals that remained.
Including a small but abundant stand of asters just beyond the fence that shelters a stack of firewood. The day after the snowfall, the petals had all shrunk inward, and stems bowed and bent and closed in upon themselves. A day later, they had reopened themselves to the light, and since then, have added new blooms seemingly by the day. This morning, they stood tall and bright and abundant, and a solitary indigenous bee, the first bee here in almost three weeks, had returned to them to do their collaborative work.
The butterflies are here, too, mostly smaller ones, but a few of their larger cousins as well. They recognize sanctuary in this place, but like the bees, they also have work to do for their own future generations, and they are taking advantage of such silver linings as the ravages of climate change present to forge migratory paths to better worlds than this — migratory paths of the spirit as much as the body and mind.
We could learn much from them. Migration of the body is not what should be required of us, but we need to find new paths of the spirit to create a better word that will not require our future generations to move. And the occasional delay or detour along the way sometimes shows us ways forward that an unthinking and blinkered approach would miss.
Today’s featured work embodies this dynamic in extraordinary style — a phenomenon of Indigenous silversmithing that forges paths and weaves new worlds in the process. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Migratory Paths Cuff Bracelet
Butterflies, small messengers who travel migratory paths, teach us that there are many ways open to us on our journey, and that change can be a gift. With this new and powerful masterwork of multiple silversmithing techniques, Wings has summoned the spirit of Butterfly and the messages she carries upon her wings to show us the dazzling array of paths available and the endless possibilities they hold. The cuff is wrought of heavy, solid sixteen-gauge sterling silver, with a classic wide, hand-cut band; it’s edged with slender borders scored freehand and chased with a repeating diamond motif. In between the borders, more graceful arcs are hand-scored using Wings’s own hand-made stamps; each enclosed space is then stamped freehand in a distinctive repeating pattern of rows and roads, collectively representing hundreds of strikes of the heavy jeweler’s hammer, every path different from every other. At the very center of the band’s outer surface sits Butterfly as you’ve never seen her before, cut and stamped entirely freehand, overlaid securely onto the surface with scalloped wings that rise to flutter freely in the space above the band. Her antennae are individually articulated; her head, an old oval cabochon of sky-blue Kingman turquoise; her body formed from four hand-made sunbursts formed of sterling silver ingot. The band is 6″ long by 2.25″ wide; the butterfly overlay is 2″ high from highest to lowest points and 2.25″ across at the widest points; her wings rise 3/8″ above the surface of the band at the highest point; turquoise cabochon is 3/8″ long by 1/4″ across; ingot sunbursts are 1/4″ across (all dimensions approximate). Other views shown above, below, and at the link.
Sterling silver; Kingman turquoise
$2,500 + shipping, handling, and insurance
This is a work of stunning skill and talent, one that shows the value of experience and attention to detail, not merely in the execution, but in the spirit that infuses and animates it. The borders are all scored freehand, as are the arcing trails that criss-cross the center of the band, using stamps that Wings made by hand. The finely detailed stampwork that covers the space within each sweeping arc is likewise created freehand, as are the chased patterns that edge each border. each grouping representative of another aspect of the hoop that makes our path around it one of spiritual prosperity and abundance, of a life well lived.
And then there is Butterfly.
These are her final days with us year, although her spirit and gifts remain with us year-round. Here, Wings has given her spectacular form and style: cut freehand with a filament-thin blade in a jeweler’s saw, head and antennae and wings all fully articulated, the wings edged and stamped freehand to create “veins” of traditional motifs. Four hand-made sterling silver ingot sunbursts are overlaid atop her body at the center to create segmented effect; her head is created via an old, old oval of sky-blue Kingman turquoise set into a saw-toothed bezel. And then this overlay focal becomes a dual overlay, set atop the very center of the band and soldered securely at the center, the wings lifted to rise above it, as though she hovers, ready to take flight on the next stage of her journey.
And we have a long journey ahead of us now. One part of it is a path brought to us by time and season, with winter just around the corner. The other is a path sought by colonialism and delivered to our doors over our objections and resistance, and that will be the harder one to navigate by far.
But we have to find a way; there is no option, and no alternative. There is also no alternative to the charge to build a better world for generations yet unborn. It will require us to be as vulnerable as butterfly, and as strong, too; as adaptable, and as resilient. The journey is a long one, made harder by circumstances created from without. Navigating it begins with forging new migratory paths of the spirit to guide us on our way.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2021; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
