In theory, we’re in for a storm.
It’s a day early, and not part of the monsoonal pattern forecast to arrive tomorrow afternoon; our winds, fast-rising now despite the brilliant sun, are coming from the east, a phenomenon that generally occurs here only once every so many years. That’s because it’s usually tied to one particular type of weather event: a Gulf hurricane or tropical storm, and one is making landfall in southeast Texas right now. These are the winds spinning off from its spiraling fringe, the leading edge of what the weather service advises is a “marginal” but real chance of extreme weather later today.
In other words, what we are likely to experience throughout the course of the day are the atmospheric version of orbital resonances, the movement of stars and celestial bodies that spiral and spin in the farthest sky.
Today’s featured masterwork, an extraordinary specimen of traditional Indigenous silverwork, is named for this animating spirit and embodies this form of motion and the cosmos it maintains. From its description in the Accessories Gallery here on the site:
Orbital Resonances Bolo
Objects in space, from sun and stars to moon and earth itself, move by the work of orbital resonances, the gravitational pull between them setting their paths through the infinite. With this extraordinary old-style bolo, Wings honors the motion of celestial bodies, of the orbital paths and rotational forces that influence their mysterious journeys through whole worlds and planes of existence. This classic concha bolo is saw-cut, scalloped, scored, and stamped entirely freehand, shaped from the reverse using repoussé techniques to achieve the perfect doming, and set with an old Skystone of atmospheric power and beauty. Two concentric circles are scored at intervals around the concha, each layer defining a section of the domed shape. The scalloped edges are adorned with radiant arcs over growing-medicine motifs, the pair of symbols signifying the path and purpose of the light. The central ring of stampwork consists of some sixty stylized points, each nested within the next, all aimed in a single unifying direction, imparting a tightly coiled and orderly, yet utterly powerful sense of motion. Within the central ring are two nested circles of stampwork: inner bars on the vertical ending in outer points, all rendered impossibly deeply and evenly, like the feathers of a great cosmic Spirit Bird. Those “feathers” emanate from beneath the extraordinary focal at the very center, an old, round, highly domed cabochon of natural spiderweb turquoise from Wings’s collection, its color a soft and gentle layering of blues and greens finely webbed by red-black veins — too old, by now, to identify provenance, but the classic colors of Montezuma, with the floating layers characteristic of Royston — set into an ultra-fine hand-wrought bezel, each segment individually saw-cut, filed, and shaped to the stone by hand. The concha hangs from a lighter-weight cord of rich braided black leather, its tips ending in a molded combination shaped as fluted saucer and round beads. Bolo concha is 2-1/4″ across; cabochon is 38″ across; cord is 44″ long; tips are 2-1/4″ long by 1/2″ across at the widest point of the saucers at the ends (dimensions approximate). Other views shown above, below, and at the link.
Sterling silver; old blue-green spiderweb turquoise, likely Montezuma or Royston
$1,500 + shipping, handling, and insurance
This is all freehand work: saw-cutting, scalloping, scoring, stamping . . . and, of course, the shaping of the concha as a whole. The pattern consists of five concentric hops of stampwork, each layered beyond the last, with two independently-scored circles delineating the nested orbital patterns that give it a sense and feeling of motion.
The stampwork is all chased, repeatedly, cleanly, deeply incised, with twinned radiant patterns emergent from beneath the focal stone, and flowering-medicine motifs reaching for radiant arcs of light at the edges.
And then there is that focal itself. It’s an old cabochon fromWings’s personal collection, so old that he no longer recalls when or how he acquired it. If memory serves, it’s not backed, and it’s not calibrated, either; it’s slightly outside the standard sizes that are produced commercially in bulk for sale by size and shape. Here, Wings has wrought the bezel entirely by hand of a heavier-gauge silver: each segment saw-cut individually, filed smooth, and shaped directly to the stone itself, highly domed, rising boldly from its small setting, the color the rich blue of a robin’s egg, of the alpine desert sky, with a layer of green drifting over its surface and a fine webbing of coppery red and black chert matrix.
It’s set off beautifully by the sterling silver tips, subtle and elegant. They’re molded in an old-style design, fluted saucer beads ending in a single smaller round bead, all of a piece.
Both concha and tips are buffed to a rich Florentine finish, aged and glowing, the perfect backdrop for the stone’s own blue-green glow, and just as perfect a contrast to the braided black leather of the cord.
The cord is narrow, making it lightweight and unobtrusive around the neck, set substantial, the strands woven tightly together. The leather’s finish is neither dull nor shiny, but warm and just bright enough to make the silver pop.
And the whole seems to draw down the spirits of the skies, of lower atmosphere and deepest space simultaneously, to an earth in need of their gifts, their connection now.
As I write, the wind has grown in force; the aspens are not quaking but waving their limbs frantically, as though trying to get the attention of the human population to warn of what’s to come. Puffy white clouds drift here, form into webs there, leaving the blue bright overhead as they gather into darkening banks around the horizon. If such patterns hold, we may not see moonrise tonight, nor the stars in the farthest sky.
But the rain, should it arrive, will be compensation enough for their veiling. After all, they still remain even if we cannot see them . . . and our world still holds it place in a cosmos in constant motion.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2024; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
