Every day is a dance.
Some days, it’s a solemn procession, a laborious circle. On others, it’s a celebration, steps animated by joy.
But some dances are more elemental.
On such days, the weather and winds set the beat of the drum, a fast, frenetic whirl of raw power and animating spirit. Autumn’s arrival this year is just such a dance, one that swings between temperature poles forty degrees apart and brings the rains upon the land and the snow upon the peaks to the accompanying thunder of the drum and a lightning song.
The world here is rimed in a thin film of ice this morning. It will melt rapidly — the mercury is expected to rise once again into the sixties — but yesterday’s whirling winds brought us our first taste of winter.
It is precisely these spirits, engaged in an elemental and furious dance, that today’s featured work summons into more tangible form. From its description in the Necklaces Gallery here on the site:
Dance of the Whirlwind Spirits Necklace
When the winds come from the Four Directions to meet at the center of all that is, they summon the spirit of the whirlwind to dance in the vortex of the storm. Wings summons all of the spirits in this work, a large, heavy talismanic medallion of solid sterling silver, hammered by hand and lightly domed in repoussé fashion. A symbol of the Four Sacred Direction in a flaring stylized cross shape rests atop the medallion as an overlay. Each spoke is marked with a single cabochon of cobalt-blue lapis lazuli, the color of the rain; they spin inward toward the vortex at the center, embodied in a large round onyx cabochon of mysteriously glossy depths. The hand-made bail is accented with tiny hand-stamped hoops, the shape of the spiraling wind itself. The pendant hangs from an alternating strand of round sterling silver and lapis lazuli beads, with small square lapis and round onyx beads stretching toward either end of the strand, each end terminating in two tiny Florentine-finish silver beads. Pendant is 2-1/8 inches long (including bail) by 2-1/4 inches across; beads are 19 inches long (dimensions approximate). Close-up views of the pendant shown below.
Sterling silver; onyx; lapis lazuli
$1,500 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It’s a work that functions simultaneously as talisman and as conjuring device: summoning into being the spirits of the Four Winds to meet at the center in a spiraling display of power, an at the same, invoking that power as protection. It is the spirits of the storm riding the light, brought together in the beauty of a whirlwind 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.
