We have spent the week thus far amidst the flowers, witnessing their final dance before the snow flies. In Wings’s hands, some of those flowers are implied, but manifest mostly as symbol. Others, however . . . others are the flowers themselves.
This week’s #ThrowThursday feature is one of the latter.
I mentioned on Tuesday that a few years ago, he created a small series of earrings in the form of blossoms: larger single turquoise cabochons at the center, ringed by smaller “petals” of a variety of gemstones. Sometimes the petals were also formed of turquoise; other times, turquoise in combination with other stones, such as garnet and rose quartz; other combinations entirely, including mother of pearl and onyx; and earrings with petals out of a single like stone, be it moonstone or jade or coral.
My favorites were the ones shown above.
Part of it was the materials of which they were made: valuable old Orvil Jack turquoise cabochons in the color of the leaves as they just begin to turn, set in the embrace of equally valuable (and equally old) blood-red coral cabochons. Part of it was the colors themselves, Indian Summer green and autumn crimson set in opposition to each other . . . and yet complementing each other so perfectly. And given what the market has done with both Orvil Jack and natural coral in recent years, the cost of these would be significantly higher today.
The design was deceptively simple. All that was needed, initially, was to draw two roughly oval concha-like shapes on silver, cut them out, and begin setting them with bezels. At the center of each, he placed the two larger oval bezels that would hold the turquoise stones. Once they were soldered into place, he formed twenty small oval bezels, ten for each earring, and arranged them in around the edge of each county in a radiating pattern. Then they, too, were soldered securely into place.
Once each earring was set with the requisite eleven bezels (an unusually high number, incidentally, since most blossom earrings featured seven or eight “petals,” and only occasionally as many as nine), he then took a jeweler’s saw to each earring once again in a reverse-scalloped pattern at the edge, so that each earring extended outward to the edge of each bezel, then flowed back inward toward the center and outward again toward the next. It made for a distinctly floral pattern, reflecting the way in blossoms fan out in layers with the petals narrowing toward the center.
Once the cutwork and filing were complete, he attached a small jump ring to the back of each at the top to serve as a bail, from which the wires would hang. He then turned them over and set each of the stones, producing a pair of earrings for all seasons: spring buds, summer flowers, autumn leaves, and winter holidays.
Wings’s blossom collection was limited to probably no more than two dozen works over the years; the most recent entries, which included this one, numbered fewer than a dozen. All of them were extraordinarily beautiful, each with their own unique identities, each their own bright flowers. But the green and red cactus blossoms, the old tricolor turquoise and the ancient gift of the waters, were the ones that, even now in the two-dimensional form of a photograph, still speak to me most insistently. They were always the flowers’ final dance.
~ 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.
