We’ve spent the week looking at messages and messengers, at dreams and visions and the beings who carry them. This weekend, we bring you two works by Wings that embody these themes, recasting them in a form that brings together spirit and symbol in new ways.
Both are rings; we’ll bring you the second one here tomorrow. Both are a bit of a departure from most of his rings: Each is solid sterling silver, with no gemstone accent, but with a very definite “setting” atop a band; and each appears, at first glance, to be a men’s ring, but — as is customary with bold Native styles — can actually be worn by anyone, irrespective of gender.
Today’s ring is highly stylized and breathtakingly simple. It’s a single Four Sacred Directions design, hand-cut in a cross-like shape consisting of four equal spokes. No, they don’t look equal, when you’re staring at the ring from the top; that’s because the two side spokes are bent gently downward to curve atop the surface of the band. It’s a trick of the human eye, like one of those puzzles demonstrating two lines of equal length, where on clearly seems to be longer than the other, although it isn’t.
It’s a shape and form the echoes the pattern atop its face: a Morning Star consisting of four equal spokes placed at the ordinal points around a center hoop. This pattern, by the way, was stamped by hand via five separate strikes of the hammer; it’s not a single large die in that shape. It’s testament to Wings’s eye and sureness of hand that he was able to create the pattern, freehand, so evenly.
The band is another matter, made of solid sterling dual half-round wire, which means that the same shank of wire has been formed into two equal half-round formations that are conjoined at the bottom. The twin curvatures provides form and flow to the length of wire, without the instability that might result from trying to solder together two separate pieces, or from trying to split the shank on the surface and then shape each side. It’s tricky to work with, though; very rarely will you see half-round wire (single or dual) featuring stampwork, because of the meticulous and labor-intensive work required to transfer die patterns onto a surface that slopes downward on either side of a narrow center. Here, Wings has managed to chase each line of the band with not one stamped pattern, but two, alternating each symbol along the each side of the band’s length.
But this piece is much more than the sum of its technical aspects. From its description in the Rings Gallery here on the site:
Butterflies are messengers of the spirits, spreading life and love through pollination; the stars are spirit guides, the dust of their light directing our path. Here, Wings has brought the two together, sowing seeds of stardust in this spare and simple ring. The top of the ring is hand-cut in a pattern evoking the Four Sacred Directions, imagery reflected in the Morning Star’s four silvery spokes of light. It curves elegantly along the top of a band made of solid dual half-round wire, each half-round hand-stamped in alternating butterfly and blossom symbols. It’s large and bold and substantive enough to be worn by a man with the largest of hands, yet delicate enough in execution to look at home on the most slender of female fingers. Four Directions design is 1-1/8 inches high by 1-1/8 inches across; band is 5/16″ across (dimensions approximate). Sizeable. Side view with band shown below.
Sterling silver
$275 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It’s a beautiful work, one that melds the imagery of spirit’s messengers with a message made of stardust. It’s pollination by way of the heavens: guidance and wisdom, protection and medicine, all carried from sky to earth by beings who embody love, then spread among the world’s inhabitants to create life.
It’s sowing the seeds of the stars.
~ 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.
