The last two mornings have been so cold that we have needed a fire once again.
The storms of two days ago, although they mostly passed us by , left a dusting a snow on the peaks. Temperatures are once again descending into the forties overnight, a product of scattered showers and early cloud cover. Now, in the sun-washed light of late morning, the mercury climbs steadily and the air hangs heavy and damp. There will, in all likelihood, be rain later, but whether any measurable amount actually falls here remains to be seen.
The lilacs are long gone. Brown-eyed Susans have begun to open, as well as a few other yellow blossoms in the daisy and aster families, but the wild sunflowers remain only green stalks for now, and the crimson-eyed blanketflowers remain stubbornly absent. Our first raspberries appeared three days go, bright buds not yet wholly ripe. No buds have appeared on the older rosebush yet, the one whose flowers are pink tinged with gold. The single red rosebush has bloomed, all its buds now empty, a few stray scarlet petals dusting the ground around it.
There are no red wildflowers now, precious few of the usual fruits of summer. The only red petals are the ones that blossom across the sky, crimson rays driven by the storm and drifting on the light.
Today’s featured work is one that embodies the rain and the light and the petals all in one, a magnificent cabochon of red flower jasper blossoming atop a wide band of thunderheads, accented on one side by the light of the setting sun. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Red Flower Rain Cuff Bracelet
A monumental cabochon of red flower jasper serves as the focal point of this magnificent unisex cuff. The stone, a warm, earthy rose shade with a mulberry and charcoal matrix of dendritic wildflower blossoms, is set into an elevated scalloped bezel, trimmed with twisted silver, and accented with a tiny chatoyant tiger’s eye cabochon at one side. The cuff, wide and weighty, features a hand-stamped row of matched thunderhead symbols chased along the center of the band, flanked at either edge by a single row of thunderheads. The band itself tapers slightly at either end for a comfortable fit. In the inner band, morning stars and other celestial symbols are scattered like constellations tossed across the pre-dawn sky. Band is 1-11/16″ across, narrowing to 1-3/8″ at either end; the bezel is slightly wider, 1-7/8″ long by 1.25″ wide; the visible portion of the stone is 1.5″ long by 1-1/8″ wide (dimensions approximate). Other views shown below.
Sterling silver; red flower jasper
$1,550 + shipping, handling, and insurance
This is one of those works that is unmistakably Native: big and bold, a traditional style reconceived with new details and a contemporary spirit. It’s also one whose imagery is as traditional as it is powerful, repeating bands of thunderheads, two of which meet at the center to form whole worlds of abundance.
And that is, of course, the point of summer here, and of the rains, too: In a hard climate, an often harsh and unforgiving one where winter can last half the year, season, storm, and sun conspire to deliver us a world flowering with abundance — enough, should we be willing to put in the work, to see us through the long cold depths of winter.
Even now, what was not long ago only a distant haze of gray to the west has built itself into a towering wall of violet, a bank animated by thunder and pregnant with rain. Should it deliver itself of its burden here, we shall have another chance for crops, for wildflowers, for medicine.
Any one of which — rain and growth alike — may be the one that ensures another year of survival.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2019; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
