Yesterday, we covered the first item in this collection in miniature that I think of as Sacred Blues, the cuff bracelet entitled “Sacred Space.” I promised that today’s post would feature the remainder of the collection: The solitaire ring and the earrings.
The connections and associations for the titles and descriptions of the pieces in this small collection grew out of an entry in the photography component of Wings’s recent one-man show, Taos Pueblo: Ancestral Places, Sacred Spaces. The photo showed the arch in the wall of the church at the old village, seen from inside the courtyard, gazing east- and southward: beyond the church, beyond the wall, to the mountain peaks that are a part of the larger tribal holdings that make up some of the the Pueblo’s sacred lands:
From Wings’s interpretive text that accompanied the photo:
THE REAL SACRED SPACE
I originally titled this Hope Lives Beyond.
My focus then was on the colonizing of our lands, our soil, our spirits, the taking of our sacred red earth and using it to build a temple to a god that was not ours. Under the guise of an entryway, forcing us behind a wall that trapped us with a vengeful spirit from a distant continent and kept our own spirits outside, outcast. And all of it, whitewashed, literally and metaphorically, covering the red of our earth, like the red of our skins, with the white of a colonizing force.
Then, I was focused on the prospect that hope for our future lay beyond that whitewashed wall.
Today, that still holds true, but now, my focus lies further beyond: beyond the dusty tracks of the plaza where our people gather; beyond the red-earth walls and roofs of Hlaukwima, our South House; beyond to one of the real sacred spaces of our people. To the mountain: to the wild game and plant medicine it nourishes; to the forest that provides wood for our homes, our safety, our traditional needs; and to the sky that holds the thunderheads of summer, bringing the rain that sustains us.
Signed on white matting; brown wooden frame.
Size including frame: 17.75″ by 20.25″.
$625 + $100 shipping, handling, and insurance.
As the narrative makes clear, water is never far from the minds of desert peoples: Water is sacred; water is life. It is a blessing and gift, and is to be honored and respected accordingly. It’s also a marker of the people’s most sacred natural site. So it’s no surprise that water should be a regular motif in Wings’s work, nor that the sacred blues of stones yet darker even than the Skystone should evoke images of water in his creative vision.
Water also a role in the symbolism and traditions of the Native American Church, another set of old ways and sacred spaces honored by many traditionals in this part of Indian Country. Wings is no exception: Both his father and uncle were road men in the NAC, and he grew up immersed in its traditions and symbolism, melded and merged with those of the Pueblo’s own, much older yet.
The ring is entitled Blue Vortex, and what is not visible in the photo above is the band. which ties the imagery all together in one simple, understated piece that is simultaneously weighted symbolically:
The real sacred space of tradition manifests in multiple identities and ways; one such way is in a spiritual space, where the Water Bird flies. Here, a magical stone, a cobalt-blue cabochon of lapis lazuli, creates its own vortex atop a sterling silver band chased with mystical representations of the Water Bird. The stone is bezel set and trimmed with twisted silver.
Sterling silver; lapis lazuli
$375 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Like the cuff featured yesterday, the ring — and the earrings shown below — rest in identical settings: simple scalloped bezels; twisted silver wire. Each cabochon is from the same source, a brilliant cobalt blue with a dappled roan-like matrix of a yet deeper indigo hue. From their own entry here on the site, the earrings:
Some symbols bridge the gap between everyday life and the sacred. Sometimes, as here, it exists in the intangible space between earth and water and sky and all the blessings of the spirits in between.Brilliant and mysterious lapis lazuli cabochons, the color of storm clouds and deep waters, suspend from delicate sterling silver squash blossom flutes. Each stone is bezel-set and trimmed in twisted silver.
Sterling silver; lapis lazuli
$375 + shipping, handling, and insurance
As I said yesterday:
Today’s title may speak to different people in different ways. The French exclamation of exasperation. The divinity of musical expression, of its ability to capture emotions in a way that other media cannot. The emotions themselves, of the role of melancholia in life. The symbolism associated with the color in cultures the world over.
It’s all of those things, and none of them.
It’s a cultural manifestation of the sacred, given form and shape on the anvil, brought to life and infused with the breath of spirit in its expression of Wings’s understanding and experience.
Sometimes, materials will sit for years, unused, even untouched. And then he happens across them again, and suddenly the image begins to form in his mind. Sometimes the image arrives whole and complete; more often, it appears in stages, and even then, its outline may be hazy, not fully realized until it appears in the finished piece.
And so it was with this collection, one I’ve taken to calling his “Sacred Blues.” Wings created it as part of his recent exhibition, but it was always also its own collection in miniature, as well: a series of four deep blue lapis cabochons, each stone cut into the same domed rectangular shape, all clearly pulled from the same vein in the earth, and all clearly meant to be used together.
. . .
And it is indeed an exclamation, music, emotion, symbol.
For the wearer, this set ties together all the symbolism and power associated with sacred water and sacred space, at head, at heart, at hands.
There is a reason our jewelry is more than simple adornment: Each wearing is protection, honor, a blessing, a prayer. It’s a daily reminder of reasons for thanksgiving. It is a piece of the sacred, worn like a blanket, as part of our daily journey.
~ 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 owners.
