It is a bitter cold this morning: one that cuts as fast and deep as a scalpel’s blade and burns with the fire of a frozen sun. The forecast warned of a massive temperature inversion scheduled to arrive overnight, but it omitted any mention of the wind that would deliver it. Fortunately, we’ve been through this enough times to know that the wind was likely.
But being prepared doesn’t make it any less cold, especially when it’s driving in hard and horizontal from the north.
The air is perfectly clear and blindingly bright, and there is absolutely no doubt that winter is here, fully present and ready to rumble.
And so today’s featured work, a masterwork by any measure, might seem on odd choice for this day. In truth, it’s anything but; it’s unusually apt for this bitterly, dangerously cold weather at the end of a terrible year. It’s a work suffused with the fire and light of hope itself, from the shape of the silver to the substance of the stones to the the work’s very identity and name. From its description in the Belts Gallery here on the site:
Solstice Light Butterfly Concha Belt
The solstice light is a transcendent gift, as transformational as any chrysalis, as graceful and gentle as the butterfly’s wings. Wings brings together turning point, spirit, and light in a work of power and medicine that takes the form of a true butterfly concha belt: no metaphors here, but a work of genuine hand-cut butterflies floating along the length of the leather. Each concha, like the buckle, is cut freehand of sterling silver, body and antennae articulated, wings scalloped at their edges by hand via meticulous ajouré saw-work. The stampwork spreads gracefully across each wing, veins like gossamer branches embracing tiny hoops in a style that evokes the fine flowing lines of Art Nouveau, and each scalloped wing edge is accented with the hand-stamped rays of a rising sun. At the center of each concha sits an oval tiger’s eye cabochon, each hand-picked for its spectacular chatoyance to rest in a scalloped bezel. The focal point of the buckle, a larger butterfly wrought similarly freehand and set into a scalloped bezel trimmed with delicate twisted silver, is a large inverted teardrop of genuine Dominican blue amber, the surface naturally textured to refract the light, the interior full of equally natural inclusions that look like tiny strands of embedded jewels floating in the light. Conchas and buckle are all lightly domed, repoussé-fashion, and each butterfly hovers atop its own bouquet via the sterling silver loops on the reverse, each hand-cut, hand-shaped, and hand-milled in a wildflower design. Each silver piece is buffed to a soft polish slightly brighter than Florentine. The belt is made of heavy black leather, hand-cut and hand-beveled, with medicine motifs in the form of bear-paw prints hand-stamped down its entire length in a repeating pattern; keeper ties are slender but sturdy braided black leather. The leather belt is 11/16″ high; the conchas are 2.25″ across at the widest point by 2″ high at the highest point; tiger’s eye cabochons are 1/2″ high by 3/8″ across; buckle is 3.5″ across at the widest point by 2.5″ high at the highest point; visible portion of the Dominican blue amber cabochon is 15/16″ high by 5/8″ across at the widest point (all dimensions approximate). Other views shown below. Note: Not designed for jeans, trousers, or any apparel with belt loops; this particular work is designed to be worn externally over shirts, blouses, or dresses.
Sterling silver; Dominican blue amber; tiger’s eye; black leather
$5,500 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Notes: Requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply.
The leather belt is a standard length; a hand-made belt in a specialty size may be ordered
(either shorter or longer) for an additional $325 charge.
Yes, butterflies are spirits of warmer winds; yes, this was a work created in the spirit of the summer solstice. But their very being reminds us of the very promise of this solstice, too: that the bitter winds of these late-December days are only temporary, that we will again know warmth and light.
I wrote of Sunday’s featured work that it was a butterfly concha belt, and so it was: an old traditional style of Southwestern Indigenous silverwork that includes vertical spacers between the more traditional conchas, flared spacers that, turned sideways, resemble a butterfly with open wings. Today’s work takes the concept to literal levels, turning the very conchas themselves into actual representations of these small messenger spirits that embody all the gifts of summer. Each individual piece is cut by hand, and entirely freehand, using an impossibly slender blade in a jeweler’s saw, each pair of wings scalloped in one go, no hesitation marks and no reversals.
The stampwork that creates their vaguely monarch-like wing patterns is also rendered entirely freehand, and it seems to me to flow with all the flair and grace of old Art Nouveau designs of a century and more ago. It was a period when art was infused with a deliberately hauting quality one that depended upon flowing lines and the interplay of shadows and light, and if ever there were a style suited to the solstice spirit, this is it.
The larger butterfly that serves as the buckle is set with its own unique fire. All of the cabochons are lit from within, the glow of the tiger’s eyes in the individual smaller conchas rivaling the beauty of any winter sunset sky. But the buckle is centered around a truly extraordinary cabochon of Dominican blue amber, natural amber that, in the right light, refracts shades of indigo and turquoise. In this particular cabochon, it’s hard to find, but when the light turns, for that one moment, to magic and mystery and medicine, it catches that spark of blue fire within it.
That bit of blue fire in the flames of red and gold is where it burns the hottest. We see it in the flames blazing in our woodstoves now. It’s what allows the rest to warm our world, and us with it, allows the gold to illuminate our path. It is nothing less than the fire and light of hope, and in these cold, bitter, dangerous days post-solstice, it burns brightly for us now.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2020; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
