Earlier today, I had to step into the gallery for something. Today’s featured work sat directly in front of me as I entered the door, the light shining seemingly on, in, under, and through the stones.
It was like looking at the spirit of the piñon, the deep foresty blue-green of the branch, ending in new cones the shade of the golden autumn light.
It was also a bit like seeing the spirits of mountain and earth come together in a wedding dance of pure light.
I decided on this work days ago as the subject of today’s post, but sometimes, the spirits provide their own blessing and benediction upon such choices.
We are one day from the Night of All Souls, fewer than two from All Souls’ Day. The former is a time for them to walk; the latter, for us to honor them (and perhaps appease those who might otherwise decide on mischief). But as a practical matter, while those are the days when the threshold between the worlds is at its most porous, for several days on either side of that dividing line, our peoples know that to be wary is to be wise. It is an unsettled time, one in which neither weather nor season can quite settle on its purpose or destination, and if more elemental powers are thus ambivalent, how to expect the spirits of mere mortals to know their place?
It’s a time when we are all thankful for the light.
And that is, as it happens, the name of today’s featured work: The Light Spirit. This piece has seemed to come into its own in recent days, as the angle of the light grows longer and the day light hours ever shorter. From its description in the Necklaces Gallery here on the site:
The Light Spirit Necklace
Here, the light is a living thing, a spirit being all its own: one that dances through our days as a child of Father Sun, aided by the powers of the elements and the four directions. Wings gives life to this spirit being in an extraordinary figurative piece wrought in sterling silver and ethereal labradorite. The upper oval cabochon, which forms her head, is of the blue-green form of the stone, evoking air and water; her body is a teardrop lit with golden brown, the colors of earth and fire. She wears a tablita headdress in the traditional stair-stepped shape. At its center rests a stylized Morning Star formed of arrows pointed to the Four Sacred Directions; the star is flanked by a pair of flowering sun symbols, themselves reaching to the cardinal points. The reverse is excised in an ajouré geometric shape that hints at both the sacred directions and the guiding Eye of Spirit, also flanked by stylized freehand motifs of the cardinal points. The teardrop-shaped lower pendant similarly features an ajouré oval on its reverse, so that the stones may rest against the wearer’s skin. Both pendants are set into scalloped bezels trimmed with twisted silver, against a subtle outline of stampwork in sunrise symbols to emphasize the power and effect of the light. The two-piece pendant connects via an adjoining hinge, allowing the work to move and dance in the light; changes in background changes the hues of the stones slightly, allowing the figure to move along the spectrum. The entire piece hangs from a hand-made bail hand-stamped in matched thunderhead patterns that point to cardinal and ordinal points simultaneously, and is suspended from a necklace composed of graduated combinations of sterling silver rondel and round beads, tapering to lengths of round Florentine-finish silver beads, and ending in short segments of glossy gray hematite rondels. The whole pendant, including bail, hangs 5.75″ in length and measures 2-5/8″ across at the widest point; the upper cabochon is 1.75″ across by 1-5/8″ high; the lower cabochon is 1-7/8″ long by 1″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate). Reverse shown below. Second in Wings’s new series, The Light Collection; coordinates with the Light In the Storm cuff bracelet found in our Bracelets Gallery. Joint design by Wings and Aji, in honor of Griffin, who was our spirit and our light.
Sterling silver; labradorite; sterling silver beads; hematite beads
$2,800 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Due to size, weight, and value, extra shipping charges apply
In this instance, it’s also a work that Wings created, in part, to honor one of the spirits most integral to our own lives. If the light last just a little longer than perhaps is strictly mandated by position of earth to sun, if it shines just a little brighter, if it wards off the dangers of the night just a little more thoroughly over the next few days, it’s no doubt due to him.
For the next few days, we will have reason to give special thanks to the spirit of the light.
~ 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.
