It’s a day of summer skies and storm blues, a drift and shift from turquoise and white to cobalt and slate and back again, all in a seemingly endless spiral.
Here, we have high heat and too much sun, and a day that began with yet another power outage. Just on the other side of Pueblo Peak, southeast of us, the radar map shows torrential rains, the kind for whom even red is not enough: The storm north of Wagon Mound was centered with white on the map, apparently a new addition to the color meter when red is no longer sufficient to portray a collapsing climate’s sense of extremis.
We have also had a couple of short periods of rain, and by that, I mean a few dozen drops each time, nothing more. In fact, it’s just enough to turn the air steamy and increasingly uncomfortable, leaving us to pray with equally increasing urgency for a shift in the wind that will bring the storms over the ridgeline to us tonight.
I fear we are going to be gravely disappointed.
Not surprised; not at all. But disappointed all the same.
Storm blues, indeed.
Still, the heat drives us indoors to work on interior pursuits, and it’s bee a relatively productive day, despite its abysmal start. Wings has been hard at it in the studio, alternating between a commission that is now on, I believe, its fifth (and fortunately final) design iteration and the trio of works featured here today, his newest tribute gemstone-bead to the spirits of summer days here.
As always, it’s three works — necklace, pair of earrings, and coil bracelet — all designed explicitly to coordinate with and complement each other, but each equally capable of standing on its own, and thus offered for sale separately. And again, as [almost] always, we begin with the necklace, a short but powerful strand of absolutely phenomenal beads. From its description in The Beaded Hoop Collection in the Necklaces Gallery here on the site:
The Return of the Rain Necklace
Summer is the season of the return of the rain, arriving in a series of small but powerful storms. With this necklace, the first work in his new Midday Monsoon trio, Wings honors the traditional patterns of weather, climate, and season, and the gift of the First Medicine that the rain delivers to a hot and thirsty earth. The bead strand’s focal segment consists of four ultra-high-grade spheres of royal lapis lazuli, the finest material we’ve ever seen, each orb flanked by a tiny round heishi-style disc of rainbow moonstone. The central group is flanked in turn by ethereal rounds of translucent white agate marbled limned with faint golden traces, accented by more rainbow moonstone. Moving upward, the heishi-style discs embrace more ultra-high-grade royal lapis, these in the shape of doughnut rondels, which in turn hold twisted barrels of old, old glass in shimmering blue shades reminiscent of kyanite. At mid-strand, a gradient of Ellensburg blue agate, Labradorite, old natural turquoise so bright it can only be Persian, and brilliant white tridacna shell rounds are punctuated, bead by bead, by single rainbow moonstone discs. Necklace hangs just over 19″ long, excluding findings (dimensions approximate). Designed jointly by Wings and Aji. Another view shown at the link. Necklace coordinates with The First Raindrops earrings and Summer Storm, Gathering coil bracelet. From Wings’s new Midday Monsoon limited series (all pieces shown above and at the link).
Strand: Tri-ply foxtail plated with silver; sterling silver findings;
Beads: ultra-high-grade royal lapis lazuli; rainbow moonstone; white/yellow agate; old kyanite-blue glass;
Ellensburg blue agate; Labradorite; old natural turquoise (likely Persian); tridacna shell
$400 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It’s impossible to overemphasize how truly fine these royal lapis rounds are; we’ve never seen such quality (nor bought at such steep cost) before. The doughnut rondels are also spectacular, and qualify as ultra-high-grade too, but even they are not in the same sphere as the larger round beads are. The lapidary work has given them a finish resembling glass, and they are perfectly framed by the shimer of rainbow moonstone and the translucence of the agate rounds.
I should note here that the glass barrels are actually far brighter in color than they appear in the photo. After multiple tries, it was abundantly clear that the light was not going to cooperate today, and so I adjusted as much as possible. They are slightly muted, dusky shades of midnight and royal blue combined that resemble kyanite. They are also old beads, of uncertain origin, and I supposed it’s just possible that they might actually be stone (the blues certainly look like it), but my best assessment tells me they’re old glass, perhaps lampwork.
And it’s not only the dark blues that are given short shrift by the light here: the Ellensburg blue agate is an almost perfect cornflower shade; the Labradorite is icy, with plenty of blue flash; the turquoise, which is also old and I am positive is of Persian origin, is less green than it renders here. The result is as electric as our stormy summer skies, and as hauntingly beautiful.
Speaking of haunting, it’s a word that certainly fits the pair of earrings, too. From its description in The Standing Stones Collection of the Earrings Gallery:
The First Raindrops Earrings
The first raindrops bring the blues and grays of the stormy sky to earth, their medicine tangible and shimmering in the light. With these earrings, the second work in his new Midday Monsoon trio, Wings pays tribute to the rich hues of the thunderheads and the silvery gift that falls from them in summer. Each dangling drop consists of seven jewels: at center, a truly extraordinary sphere of ultra-high-grade royal lapis lazuli polished to a glassine finish, the finest such material we’ve ever found; above and below, icy spheres of ultra-high-grade Labradorite with plenty of blue flash in the light; and at either end, doughnut rondels of ultra-high-grade royal lapis immediately above and below tiny gray Labradorite rounds. All are strung on filament-thin sterling silver half-round wire, suspended from extended-length sterling silver coil-and-ball-bead earring wires. Earrings hang 2″ long, excluding wires (dimensions approximate). Designed jointly by Wings and Aji. Earrings coordinate with The Return of the Rain necklace and Summer Storm, Gathering coil bracelet. From Wings’s new Midday Monsoon limited series (all pieces shown above and at the link).
Sterling silver; ultra-high-grade royal lapis lazuli; ultra-high-grade Labradorite; small Labradorite rounds
$175 + shipping, handling, and insurance
These are shorter than some of their peers in this collection, but no less beautiful or valuable for that. Indeed, given the stones they comprise (as with the coordinating necklace and coil bracelet), I would not have been surprised to see him raise the price a bit to cover costs, but he’s elected to keep them the same as the rest.
Another reason these are shorter is the weight of the stones at their centers; to add additional beads to each would likely have made them too weighty for those with sensitive earlobes to wear comfortably. This arrangement, though, seems to be like that of Baby Bear in the old fairy tale: “Just right.”
The third and final work in this informal trio, of course, is the coil bracelet. As with the other two works, it’s not a perfect match, and was never intended to be; rather, it’s designed to illustrate another facet, another aspect, of the animating spirit of the series. From its description in The Coiled Power Collections of the Bracelets Gallery:
Summer Storm, Gathering Coil Bracelet
These are days of harsh extremes, of the haunting beauty of the summer storm, gathering, clouds coalescing above the horizon to deliver the season’s greatest gift. With this third work in his new Midday Monsoon trio, Wings evokes the contrasting beauty of clear blue skies, puffy white clouds, and the darkening blues of a storm rapidly gaining force and power. At the center of the spiral sit five giant orbs of naturally-textured white coral, each flanking its own trio of ultra-high-grade royal lapis lazuli, the latter formed of the finest spheres we’ve ever encountered in the embrace of a pair of smaller doughnut rondels. Moving outward toward either end, the royal lapis rondels punctuate rounds of glossy, ethereal white jade, leading to quartets of natural white howlite with beautiful bronze-hued veining separated by tiny orbs of Labradorite, thence to a similar arrangement of smaller Ellensburg blue agate rounds separated by the same small Labradorite beads. The anchor segments consist of a gradient of summer-sky shades: Labradorite in the embrace of sterling silver saucer beads, solitary white tridacna shell beads holding a quartet of old natural turquoise (likely Persian) in their embrace; the rich dusky blues of Dumortierite; and at each end, the smallest Labradorite orbs once more, like little drops of rain ready to fall. Bracelet consists of four full coils of beads strung on memory wire, which expands and contracts to fit nearly any wrist. Designed jointly by Wings and Aji. Another view shown at the link. Coil bracelet coordinates with The Return of the Rain necklace and The First Raindrops earrings. From Wings’s new Midday Monsoon limited series (all pieces shown above and at the link).
Memory wire; white coral; ultra-high-grade royal lapis lazuli; white jade; natural howlite; Ellensburg blue agate
sterling silver; Labradorite; tridacna shell; old natural turquoise (likely Persian); Dumortierite
$350 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Of the three, this work is perhaps the most accurate illustration of our summer skies in this place (or, rather, what they traditionally were, until climate collapse took that from us, too): the silvery-white shimmer of the dawn against the receding dusky blues of night; the brightest turquoise of the morning sky; the gathering dance of puffy white thunderheads and gray bases glowing deep blue in the sunlight just before the rain decides to fall.
It’s an extraordinary cycle, one that once played out here daily during the hot months, as sure and certain as the now-mostly-vanished winter snows were back then, as well. But on this day, we have had the appearance of it, at least, if not much of the reality to accompany it. And the forecast still insists that more usual patterns will return to us this week.
We can only hope and pray that they do, for this is a land where summer skies and storm blues are supposed to go hand in hand.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
