After another long day of gray skies and chill winds, today has dawned warm and bright. Clouds drift around the horizon and even dance overhead, but the sky is still visibly blue behind them. Today, it’s possible to believe in the promise of summer’s arrival.
The wild creatures feel it, too. The hummingbirds have already been setting the deck abuzz, diving in and out of the balcony shadows to extract the sweetness hiding in the red glass bottles. We have yet to see dragonflies today, but with water at long last in the pond, their naiads may already be thriving beneath the surface.
And the butterflies carry the day on their wings.
Today’s featured work is not one, but three — Wings’s newest earrings, completed only a few days ago. There were, originally, four pairs, one for each stage of day and night: dawn (amber), day (lapis), twilight (amethyst), and night (moonstone). The twilight pair were the first to sell; the other three remain available, silvery wings to carry the hours to us.
We begin with my favorite of the three, not only for their symbolism but for their inherent fire. From their description in the Earrings Gallery here on the site:
Chrysalis Sun Earrings
Dawn takes flight on silver wings, bearing the orb of a chrysalis sun. Wings summons the sun and the transformative spirit of the day with these butterfly earrings, newly emerged from the cocoon of night. Each drop drifts gently from side to side, its flared top and bottom adance in sharp relief. At the center of the wings sits a tiny amber orb, each cabochon as timeless as the light and glowing with its own cosmic fire, each set in the cool, secure embrace of a plain, low-profile bezel. Earrings hang 1-3/8″ long by 1″ across at the widest point; amber cabochons are 3/16″ across (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; amber
$525 + shipping, handling, and insurance
In this place, it’s a phenomenon we are blessed to witness each morning: watching the day unfold between the peaks as the sun emerges from the cocoon of night. It makes each day truly a gift, in the most literal of terms.
The second pair of earrings holds the blue of the day, the cornflower-turned-cobalt of the high-desert sky. From their description:
Floating Azure Earrings
Our world soars on warm silver winds and floating azure skies. Wings gives form and life to wind and sky and the small spirits that inhabit them with these butterfly earrings, all graceful silver wings holding at their heart perfect blues of summer skies. Each dangling drop flares elegantly at top and bottom, winglines articulated, repoussé-fashion, with shimmering depth. At the center of each earring, a tiny round cabochon of bright blue lapis lazuli rests in the embrace of a plain, low-profile bezel. Earrings hang 1-3/8″ long by 1″ across at the widest point; lapis cabochons are 3/16″ across (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; lapis lazuli
$525 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Even on stormy days here, our skies are blue, thunderheads towering high upon bases of blue-violet. But most days unfold in shades of blue, azure in the middle bookended by turquoise at either end.
With darkfall, the desert sky trades the glow of a golden sun for the shimmering white of moon and stars.
From their description:
Moondrift Earrings
Warm nights are lit by moondrift, a soft cool glow floating gently overhead on wings of silvered stardust. With these butterfly earrings, Wings invokes the illuminating light of a translucent moon, set across the sky on the crystalline arc of night. Each earring dances in place, three-dimensional wings flared and defined to refract the silvery light. At the center of each sits a small round rainbow moonstone, surface domed and center infused with faint shades of blue and gray, resting serenely in the embrace of a plain low-profile bezel. Earrings hang 1-3/8″ long by 1″ across at the widest point; moonstone cabochons are 3/16″ across (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; rainbow moonstone
$525 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Moon and stars seem held aloft on gentle wings of night —hovering just out of reach, yet near enough to illuminate our path.
It’s fitting, perhaps, this notion of metamorphosis: a new world emergent from winter’s cocoon, the hours of the day carried on wings as light as the air on which they dance. They remind us of the inevitability of change, but hold out the promise of transformation, the hope of transcendence.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2019; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
