My predictions for yesterday’s weather turned out to be far more accurate than those of the so-called weather service: At day’s end, we were granted a powerful storm, enough to fill the rain barrels, and an hour’s worth of rainbow light thereafter.
While the spectrum shone to east and south, the setting sun in the northwest delivered a gorgeous gradient sky in shades of rose and violet. this is the best of summer twilight: at once threshold and liminal space aglow with the embers of the day, the sparks of the summer night.
And there were plenty of those sparks, diamond dust across the black velvet sky and the late fire of an amber moon rising at what is roughly its most northerly point of the year.
Collectively, it’s a phenomenon found in today’s featured work, one of Wings’s newest. It’s at once a manifestation of that same liminal space and the tangible embodiment of its two sources of light, the reflected violet glow of a setting sun still wrapped in the robes of the storm and the amethyst shimmer of the moon’s dark side, facing each other one last time before the former rests and the latter goes to work. From its description in the Rings Gallery here on the site:
Summer Twilight Ring
As summer twilight descends, remnant thunderheads limned by the silvery light of the setting sun turn the western sky shades of amethyst and violet. With this ring, Wings brings the stormclouds to our level, pairing off domed round cabochons of deepest amethyst atop a sterling silver bad. A length of sterling silver half-round wire forms the band, its convex surface stamped freehand in a layered traditional motif of directional arrows pointing inward toward each other at the base of the hoop. At the top, two large domed cabochons of deep purple amethyst are set opposite each other in saw-toothed bezels, violet depths catching passing rays of light. The ring is wrought in a self-adjusting “wrap” style that permits the wearer to tighten it until the stones pass each other, or wear it as shown, with gems seated opposite. Band is 3/16″ across; cabochons are 3/8″ across (dimensions approximate). As shown here, the open band is sized at roughly 8.5, and can be tightened to a smaller size (or opened wider for a larger size, with stones set further apart). Other views shown below.
Sterling silver; amethyst
$350 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It’s a beautiful, and beautifully simple, arc of silver and stone, one whose spare old-style stampwork hints at the unity of the hoop, directing one’s focus inward where the paths meet at the center.
It’s a powerful combination, these simple ancient motifs set beneath the light of overlapping moments between day and night.
Today, the skies are clear. The air is hot but not quite still; as midday approaches, the first of the clouds are only just starting to coalesce above the south horizon.
And yet, they are thunderheads already, great puffy masses of white climbing, spreading, powerful towers set upon bases already a dark violet.
We may not be granted another storm like yesterday’s, but all signs point to at least a small amount of rain before the day is done. And if it occurs before those threshold moments of evening, the embers of the day and the sparks of the summer night may produce another rainbow to adorn the fading light.
~ 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.
