Today is hot and hazy, humid, too, and still there is virtually no chance of rain in the forecast. As recently as a day or two ago, rain was at least predicted for the weekend, but as of last night, meteorologists have reversed course.
The land is impossibly thirsty, grass and trees fast going brown.
We are watering as best we can, able to coax life in small patches here and there. In the garden, the corn and squash are thriving despite the drought’s best efforts; so, too, are several of the wildflower species found here. But they are plants native to a land in love with the sun, born of the very harsh extremes that lend this place its stark essential beauty.
Contemplating what survives, what thrives in times of hardship is an act of resistance now, an act of existence itself. It’s time well spent, such meditations, and it’s something we all need to practice if we are to save our world now — not the world as we know it, for as our peoples have always understood, that was always no more than a mirage, a hope and dream perhaps, but utterly without real-world substance. No, what we need is to build a better world, but we are running out of time, and we need to learn, to understand, what it is that makes for a life well lived in the face of extreme dangers.
It put me in a mind of today’s featured throwback work, one of a commission of several pieces by a dear friend from some three and a half years ago. It was a collection of four works for her family members, three concha-style pins for nieces and one Corn Maiden for their mother, the latter set with the same stones as the pin, plus one more to represent her son. Each of the concha pins were to be wrought in the same scalloped style and round shape, but with individualized stampwork and stones chosen explicitly to suit the personalities and talents of each wearer.
The one featured here today was set with an amber cabochon, the stampwork a mix of sunny skies and motifs representing growth and life and love. The execution began with the silver, but the stone was as fundamentally a part of the design as the precious metal.
Our friend already owned a pair of traditional concha-style earrings wrought in this fashion, and that was in fact what gave her the idea for the pieces in this commission: same general shape and style, the center cabochon ringed with concentric circles of stampwork leading to scalloped edges, but each a single piece rather than a pair, wrought larger, a bit bolder, and each with a pin assembly on the back and the front set with proportionally-sized stone.
Conchas are, by definition, domed slightly at the center to present a convex upper surface. It’s key to their identity; the very word, after all, is Spanish for shell. And so the stampwork represents a first step, rather than a stage somewhere in the middle, because uniformity and clarity are far, far more easily achieved on a flat surface than on a curved one.
In this instance, Wings marked off the area where he planned to set the focal cabochon, leaving sufficient room for both bezel and edging in twisted silver. Then he began working his way around it, beginning with a small flowering motif composed of three small lines, a straight center one flanked on either side by one curving gracefully outward. It’s a symbol he uses frequently when he wants to evoke the imagery of life and growth, of flowering and renewal. This circle he arranged perhaps 3/16″ of an inch from where the outer edge of the bezel’s twisted-silver trim would lie.
The second, per our friend’s description of her relative, was to represent love, and so Wings chose a small classically-shaped heart for this ring. He arranged the stampwork so that each heart would sit above and directly between the outer edges of the flowering motif in the inner ring. Once complete, however, he realized that the negative space between the hearts was disproportionate to the design, and so he linked each heart via a tiny round hoop, a symbol of life. In such circumstances, he treads carefully: Too large a symbol would have overwhelmed the overall pattern; nothing at all, and the negative space would have overwhelmed it in a different way. And so he selected one of the smallest, simplest stamps in his entire collection, and used to expand upon the theme of love flowering and radiating throughout life’s sacred hoop.
The final ring of stampwork would serve to highlight the scalloped edgework, and so he chose a motif that suited both shape and purpose. It’s a radiant sunrise symbol, one with a tiny sacred hoop at the base of each end of the arc. He aligned the hoops from one stamp to the next for uniformity, keeping the design even and clear. [It was also a motif that, per our friend’s description of her relative, suited her radiant personality perfectly.]
Once the stampwork was complete, Wings cut the brooch free of the surrounding silver freehand, using a tiny jeweler’s saw and loosely following the general lines of the edgework stamping. He then filed the edges smooth and turned the piece over to dome it gently from the reverse, repoussé-fashion, and solder the pin assembly securely into place. Then it was time to set the stone.
The other two stones in this commissioned series of pins were citrine and rainbow moonstone. This one was to be set with amber, to embody all the fire of the sun. Accordingly, this particular cabochon was hand-picked, to find one with a deep, intense, rich color and just enough inclusions to refract the light beautifully. He fashioned a plain, round low-profile bezel for it, then edged it with a slender strand of twisted silver, oxidized all of the stampwork and the joins between bezel and brooch, and buffed it to a medium-high polish.
The finished pin was extraordinary, a perfect tribute to young woman whose very life radiates light and love. And it seemed born of the land whence it came: a land in love with the sun.
~ Aji
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.
