The days just past winter’s end hang on still to the cold, but they embrace a new warmth and light. At Red Willow, this is Spring: at dawn, first thaw, all crackling ice and pale light and hope from all directions, with the waters and the first new green. With this necklace, Wings summons the promise of spring to dance with the last faint spirits of winter, all textured silver and the rose of the dawn surrounding a greening center. The pendant is cut entirely freehand of sterling silver, bezel-set with nine extraordinary cabochons, the pendant’s surface between and around each stone stamped freehand with hundreds of tiny individual divots to create a crackling textured surface like ice’s first fracture in the new warmth. The stones are a marvel of soft, subtle color, all set into scalloped bezels: at the cardinal directions, large domed ovals of rose quartz manifest in the palest of pinks; at the ordinal points, four smaller domed ovals of rose quartz in a warmer, deeper shade; and at the center, a round cabochon of moss agate like a landscape of winter into spring, a snow-capped range at the center surrounded by translucent waters, ringed at the edges with trees leafed in a new and vibrant green. The slider-style bail rises organically from the top of the pendant, curving forward to display conjoined thunderhead motifs. The graduated beads of the necklace were chosen individually to pick up the colors in the cabochons, beginning with large old hand-cut rose quartz rounds alternating with smaller sterling silver-plate rounds at the center, flowing upward into old fluorite rounds in pale shades of pink, white, yellow, and green, all alternating with chatoyant gray moonstones. From the midpoint upward, the scale grows smaller and more intense in hue, with moonstone and Madagascar Labradorite alternating with green garnet and tiny ocean jasper, terminating in a single oval of brilliant abalone on either side. Beads are strung over extra-sturdy tri-ply foxtail made of heavy nylon specially treated and encased in metal, then silver-plated for color matching; findings are sturdy hook-and-eye assemblies in sterling silver, oversized for ease of use. Pendant, including organic bail, is 5″ long by 4-1/8″ across at the widest point; bail is 7/8″ across at its widest point; moss agate focal cabochon is 1″ across (7/8″ of visible surface); larger rose quartz cabochons are 1″ long by 11/16″ across; smaller rose quartz cabochons are 3/4″ long by 1/4 across; bead strand hangs 21″ excluding findings. [All dimensions approximate.] Designed jointly by Wings and Aji; second in The Four Seasons Series. Additional close-up views of pendant and strand shown below.
Sterling silver (setting and findings);
rose quartz, moss agate (pendant cabochons); tri-ply silver-plated foxtail (to hold beads);
rose quartz; silver-plate; moonstone; pink, white, yellow, and green fluorite; green garnet;
Madagascar Labradorite; ocean jasper; abalone (beads)
$2,000 plus shipping, handling, and insurance
SOLD
Close-up of pendant with beads:
Full necklace showing bead color variation:
Necklace with strand shown at full length:
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2020; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
