We have spent the week just ended in communion with some of the fiery spirits of our peoples: the horse, and the elemental earth across which they love to run. We are now solidly into their season — August, a time of high heat and sudden storms, when their hay stands tall and lush in the fields, dotted with bright purple alfalfa blossoms and the white and pink and red of the clover they so dearly love. Then, too, we are approaching the period when many of the horses of this area will be pressed into service, their task to carry those on pilgrimage up into the mountains and safely back home again.
All of these markers of time and place combined today to put me in mind of one specific work: one that manages simultaneously to embody the soft beauty of the summer blossoms and the power of the thunderstorm, of the earthy and ethereal imagery of the elements and the symbolism of the sacred space. It’s a work from a few months ago, one that is big and bold and traditional, but with an exotic stone as its focal point. From its description in 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 above and at the link.
Sterling silver; red flower jasper
$1,550 + shipping, handling, and insurance
The stone in this piece reminds me of our red earth here: dry and dusky and dusty, glowing with the red-gold warmth of an inner fire, and yet sufficiently fed by the rains to nurture abundant life, from lush foliage and a rainbow of wildflowers to the game that thrives on them. We are entering the period when the wildflowers run riot over the landscape, a burst of brilliant yellows and reds and purples and even blues that dance in defiance of the autumn days that are no longer so far off.
When Wings designed the band, he chose wisely: a single repeating motif, whole at the center, matching halves at the edges — enough to support the stone and set it off without needing to compete with its natural pattern. And the stampwork is powerful, combined thunderhead symbols and what has become known, especially among Pueblo potters, as a kiva steps design. Conjoined, they create an image of the storm, a vortex that emanates from all directions . . . an simultaneously, an image of directions bounding the most sacred of spaces.
In a land where water is life in very literal terms, and where the people’s survival has always depended as much upon cultivating spiritual well-being as tangible abundance, it’s a motif that nurtures land and spirit alike.
Taken together, this is one of his most powerful works, aesthetically and spiritually: a wedding of soft blossoms and summer storms, of elemental spirits and sacred spaces.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
