We saw no stars last night, even though the snow, light as it was, ended well before midnight. There will likely be no stars tonight, either, but it looks as though the chance for an early return of the snow is growing.
This day broke across a world of icy cold, but the sun warmed the air well before midday. Now, the wind has risen just enough for the cold to make a sudden stark return, and as the clouds encroach, playing hide-and-seek with a silvery sun, snow seems increasingly likely.
This is closer to what these first days of the new calendar year should be here — deep cold amid deep snow, with winter in full icy flow: New worlds are born, like the stars, in the cold.
Today’s featured work embodies these new worlds, sidereal and terrestrial alike. It’s a pair of old-style, traditional concha earrings, wrought in the shapes and animating spirit of the nebular, that which gives birth to the newest of stars amid cosmic clouds of icy water vapor. This pair was created using multiple traditional techniques, deceptively simple in appearance, in a spare and elegant design. From its description in the Earrings Gallery here on the site:
Nebula Earrings
Right at this moment, in a nebula older and more distant than time itself, a new star is being born, ready to add its light to the cosmos. With the latest in Wings’s informal series of classic concha earrings, he evokes the shimmer and honors the ancient stardust of which our celestial lights are born. Each dangling drop is formed of a single sterling silver medallion, hand-punched and perfectly round, lightly domed in the old traditional way. At the center, the four steep spokes of a guiding star backlight the emergence of its newest face, a starburst made by hand of sterling silver ingot, rising in three fully textured dimensions from each earring’s surface. Around the spoked, a ring of radiant stardust, the detritus of the birthing process, limns the core within its own shimmering light. Each concha hangs via sterling silver jump rings from sterling silver ball-bead and coil French wires. Before doming, medallions are 1″ across; domed, 7/8″ across; cabochons are 3/16″ across (all dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver
$350 + shipping, handling, and insurance
The perfectly round medallions that form the base of this pair are only lightly domed — just enough to add perceptible dimension and depth and subtle sense of motion. More depth is created by the starburst overlays at the center of each: tiny round repoussé forms wrought by hand of sterling silver ingot, the stampwork from the reverse allowing the rays to rise in sharp relief, each whole a perfect little dome overlaid atop the concha’s center. It evokes the feel of the central spirit of a newborn star, fainter rays emanating to the four directions, a radiant corona surrounding both.
As I’ve been writing, the forecast has altered yet again: Now there are explicit warnings of heavy weather, with predictions of six inches of snow to come at an elevation just below our own. Whether it actually materializes remains an open question unless and until it does, but it’s enough for hope.
And at the beginning of a new calendar year, hope is essential.
We have had precious little of winter here, in this place where we know so well that new worlds are born, like the stars, in the cold. Perhaps our own small world is in the process of rebirthing itself now.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2024; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
