After forecasting a small but decent chance of snow for today, the weather “experts” retracted it, instead predicting clouds for the morning and clearing for the afternoon.
Some of that has come to pass, but this morning also brought us a small but steady flurry, and the peaks received a decent dusting, as well. And although the morning’s hurriedly-issued special weather statement remains in effect for scattered locales at higher elevations, the sun is shining through dove-gray clouds slowly but steadily breaking apart now.
For this week leading up to the colonial world day of love and romance, the weather spirits have apparently agreed upon a steady warming trend with precious little chance of more precipitation. It may sound like good news for certain segments of the human population, but for Mother Earth herself, it’s less welcome — yet one more sign that this twelve-hundred-year drought still holds her in its death grip, with no real relief in sight.
But if one truth still holds, for her and for other forces that conspire to keep our world alive, it is the courageous love of feminine spirits.
Today’s trio of featured works embody this courage, this love, and these same spirits. These are latest entries in one of Wings’s long-running signature series, The Warrior Woman, completed only within the last few weeks. And while it’s true that Wings mostly tends not to gender his work explicitly, this series is an exception, for a very specific reason: He created the very first Warrior Woman more than two decades ago, as a gift for his mother, to honor her courage and strength and immanent feminine power and her great loving heart. It was so well-received that he began to create more of them, each unique, but each made first in her honor, then in her memory, and always to honor the power of women.
These three straddle the lines between seasons: the first set with the icy white of rainbow moonstone and evoking the imagery of the skies; the second with a stone that suits any season or weather, but whose stampwork motifs evoke the spirits of spring and summer; and the third set with the color of fire, but adorned explicitly with the motifs of a warming earth and winds. All are also accented with those signifiers of love we call hearts, and in truth, Groundhog Day and Mardi Gras notwithstsanding, next Monday’s red-letter day devoted to love seems to serve more effectively as a seasonal psychic marker, a mental dividing line between the depths of winter and the point at which the world begins overtly to look toward spring.
All three works are found in the Pins Gallery here on the site. We begin with the one shown at top, one that channels the winter moon’s icy beauty; from its description:
The Turning of the Moon Warrior Woman Pin
We find guidance in the turning of the moon, and in the light of the stars that direct our path in the dark hours. With this latest entry in his signature Warrior Woman series, Wings welcomes our Grandmother’s glow and the illuminating light of other guiding spirits. Cut freehand of sterling silver, this Warrior Woman wears a dress accented with eleven stylized arrowhead motifs, ten of them paired to form a cascade line of Eyes of Spirit. The same symbol traces a counterclockwise route around the crescent moon in her left hand, following that night orb’s natural path. Over her right shoulder coils a serpent, a motif of abundance, scales formed of flowers pollinated by a kaleidoscope of butterflies at the end, busy following their own prescribed path. In her right hand, she holds a miniature of the moon itself: glowing rainbow moonstone refracting radiant blues and icy translucent white. Pin stands 2.75″ high by 2 inches across at the widest point; the rainbow moonstone cabochon is 3/16″ across (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; rainbow moonstone
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Like so many of the other works featured throughout the week just ended, her regalia evokes signifier of power and wisdom known as the Eye of Spirit, a motif of guidance and protection for numerous Indigenous cultures the world the over. Her other regalia calls to mind aspects of illumination and direction, but also the power of rotation and revolution, of orbit and tides, of the icy, light-filled gift of winter weather and the medicine it midwifes into being as the year unfolds.
The second of today’s featured works is cut similarly freehand in the same form and shape, but she bears distinctive gifts all her own. From its description:
Flowers and Flight Warrior Woman Pin
The powerful free beauty of our world is manifest in the spirits of flowers and flight. With this newest entry in his signature Warrior Woman series, Wings calls the spirits of air and sky and those rooted deeply in the earth to share the path and the medicine of the dance. Cut freehand of sterling silver, this Warrior Woman wears a dress adorned with a pair of eagle-feather fans linking three hearts: a repoussé heart rising from chest in sharp relief, inscribed with the stamped image of a heart, this stamped one replicated at the base of the feathers. In her left hand she holds a crescent moon adorned with flowering medicine motifs and a pollinating pair of air spirits in the form of Butterfly. Over her right shoulder, more flowers cascade down her body, forming the textured scales of the serpent that represents abundance. In her right hand rests a single amethyst cabochon, its color so deep and intense that it evokes the violet blue of the storm. Pin stands 2.75″ high by 2 inches across at the widest point; the amethyst cabochon is 3/16″ across (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; amethyst
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
The feather-fan design of her traditional dress is positively radiant, but the element that I love most about this one is the jewel in her right hand. It’s amethyst, but of such an extraordinary shade of violet that it looks like iolite — more blue underlying the purple than I’ve ever seen in even the finest, most costly amethyst gems. t’s a shade for every season: the indigo hours of winter, the new flowering colors of spring, the thunderstorm skies of summer, and the aster sunsets of fall.
The third of today’s featured works seems, at a glance, to be all summer wind and fire, but it’s an elemental work that suits every season, too. From its description:
Through a Wildflower Wind Warrior Woman Pin
Sometimes the path given to us to walk leads through a wildflower wind, reminding us to acknowledge and honor the gifts of this world and her spirits. With this latest entry in his signature Warrior Woman series, Wings welcomes the wildflower petals and the wind that makes them dance, that they might show us a more beautiful way. Cut freehand of sterling silver, this Warrior Woman wears a dress adorned with blossoms that point to the sacred directions, one still and unmoving, the other already a blur of petals animated by the wind. Above, her great heart is manifest in three-dimensional repoussé form, incised with a single stamped heart already adance. More flowers form the scales of the serpent coiled over her right shoulder to symbolize abundance, and her right hand holds a round coral cabochon, the brilliant crimson shade of local Indian paintbrush. In her left, a crescent moon bears the imprint of human travel, reminding us that the path we walk is filled with beauty and light. Pin stands 2.75″ high by 2 inches across at the widest point; the coral cabochon is 3/16″ across (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; coral
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
The red of the coral gem in her right hand is the color of flame; the wildflowers on her dress double as guiding stars and pointers to the sacred directions. And the footprints on the moon in her left hand remind us that we walk this earth through all seasons and weather, and that in hard conditions like those we face now, it is given to us to do so with courage and with love.
In our cultures, these are so often the examples set by the women of our families: to be brave, even in the face of existential threat; to be strong, even when the winds would bend us double; to be generous, even when we have little in the way of material possessions; to love, in a way that lifts us all and keeps us alive even in a colonial world that seeks our extermination.
It’s an example set by our elders, by our ancestors near and distant, and by the courageous love of feminine spirits. And in a time when we face these same dangers, it’s one for us to follow now.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2022; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
