Some days, it’s feels like nothing goes right.
This has been one such, up to and including the ridiculously high temperatures today, topping out over fifty degrees, and a dangerous dearth of anything in the skies that could produce any sort of precipitation. There have been lesser irritations, too — lesser in the sense of existential impact, not in the immediate grief they cause — but this unrelieved drought holds dangers far beyond mere inconvenience. And if current patterns hold, we will find ourselves in wildfire season even before official winter is done with us.
But for tonight, the only fire is the one in the western sky, a band of flame-colored coral beneath the descending dark blues of night. It’s a reminder that this is truly an elemental season in every sense, and we need both to appreciate and to be ready to contend with all of its forces and spirits.
For Wings, that means, aside from the work we do daily with the land, honoring these spirits with his art. It’s why he launched this series back in the months of autumn, one he’ll continue through the spring and summer to come. But for now, we are in the throes of the winter elementals, and they have lent their power to his latest collection in this limited signature series.
Each of these subseries consists of three works crafted of ultra-high-grade gemstone beads: a necklace, a pair of earrings, and a coil bracelet. This is his newest, completed only late this afternoon, called The Winter Elementals: Fire, and its three component works embody all the ways in which our small wintry world manages to manifest fire in the cold and the snow.
The full collection is shown above, and as should be clear from the image, each is directly related to the others, but also independent, capable of standing entirely on its own. We begin with the necklace, named for a phenomenon of winter here that we will see in the imagery of the posts in the days to come. From its description in The Beaded Hoop Collection of the Necklaces Gallery here on the site:
Snowfire Necklace
Snowfire is a phenomenon of the coldest winter twilight, when the departing storm’s snowfall is set aflame in the fading sunset light. With this necklace, Wings calls a snow-spangled sunset fire down to earth to create one final blaze before night. At the center sits a single puffy doughnut rondel of perfectly translucent smoky quartz, flanked by giant orbs of crackling fire agate interspersed with single doughnut rondels of ancient amber. Sun’s fire and dark of night dance with the last of the day in the polished sardonyx that extends upward toward lengths of smaller crackling fire agate and sunstone rounds, each segment separated by faceted rainbow moonstones around plump freeform amber. Toward either end, faceted Indonesian silver barrels alternate with glowing rounds of iron pyrite, culminating in shimmering anchors of faceted black moonstone cubes, the first sherds of falling night. Necklace hangs 23″ long, excluding findings (dimensions approximate). Designed jointly by Wings and Aji. Another view shown at the link. Necklace coordinates with A Cold Crackling Light earrings and Sun Dog Sky coil bracelet. From the Fire series in Wings’s new collection, The Winter Elementals (all pieces shown at top and at the link).
Strand: Tri-ply foxtail plated with silver; sterling silver findings;
Beads: Smoky quartz; fire agate; sardonyx; rainbow moonstone; amber;
sunstone; Indonesian silver; iron pyrite; black moonstone
$400 + shipping, handling, and insurance
As noted above, we will see examples of sunfire, captured photographically, here over the next couple of days. It’s a relatively rare event, but a fantastically beautiful, otherworldly one, and this piece embodies it perfectly, all the colors of flame touched here and there by shimmering snowflakes still falling from the sky.
It’s not only sunset here that produces a natural winter’s fire, though. Those moments of the dawn when the light of the new-risen sun first touches the snow produce crackling golden flames all their own. It’s a moment captured in the second of today’s featured works, a pair of earrings in the shades of sun and ice adance. From their description in The Standing Stones Collection of the Earrings Gallery:
A Cold Crackling Light Earrings
In the depths of winter, the flames of morning sun and the hard-frozen ice together create a cold crackling light. With these earrings, Wings calls the golden glow of the sun down to dance with the cold fire of the snow. At the top, deep golden orbs of faceted citrine embrace tiny diamond-cut sterling silver miniatures before flowing into focal segments formed of single giant yellow quartz barrels flanked by faceted rondels of rainbow moonstone. Beneath the focal segment, more faceted citrine alternates with single spheres of chatoyant gray moonstone and ethereally translucent selenite. Beads are strung on sterling silver round wire. Earrings hang 2-1/2″ long, excluding wires (dimensions approximate). Designed jointly by Wings and Aji. Earrings coordinate with Snowfire necklace and Sun Dog Sky coil bracelet. From the Fire series in Wings’s new collection, The Winter Elementals (all pieces shown at top and at the link).
Sterling silver; faceted citrine; diamond-cut sterling silver; rainbow moonstone;
yellow quartz; gray moonstone; selenite
$175 + shipping, handling, and insurance
But perhaps my favorite form of winter fire is the one in the sky itself. It, too, is a rare phenomenon, most often manifest only partially and only for a few moments. But one memorable New Year’s Day, in 2016, if memory serves, we were granted the extraordinary display of sun dogs in the southwestern sky from dawn to dusk. It was a perfect hoop of rainbow colored light connected orb and pillars at the sides, an iridescent fire.
The third of today’s featured works is manifest as this hoop, this vortex of overhead color and flame. From its description in The Coiled Power Collections of the Bracelets Gallery:
Sun Dog Sky Coil Bracelet
On the coldest days of winter, the brightest fire burns overhead in the arc of a sun dog sky. With this coil bracelet, Wings calls to the circle all the iridescent flames birthed by altitude, water, and light that the world knows as the magic of the sun dog. At the center sit four giant spheres of rutilated white quartz of rare quality, included with a few sharp needles black as night, their round surfaces translucent and as iridescent as the rainbow. They are flanked on either side by equally large rounds of shimmering lilac-hued lepidolite, aswirl with all the pinks of blues of the winter clouds. Toward either end, segments of chatoyant gray moonstone, solitary barrels of translucent yellow quartz, and smaller rounds of faceted citrine, sunstone, and selenite are each set off by combinations of giant ultra-high-grade aquamarine rondels flanked by faceted rainbow moonstone rondels or by freeform rainbow moonstone nuggets in the embrace of more faceted rondels of the same material. Near each end, a single freeform nugget of natural blue kyanite sits nestles in rays of refracted light from the cold winter sky. Bracelet consists of four full coils of beads strung on memory wire, which expands and contracts to fit nearly any wrist. Designed jointly by Wings and Aji. Another view shown at the link. Coil bracelet coordinates with Snowfire necklace and A Cold Crackling Light earrings. From the Fire series in Wings’s new collection, The Winter Elementals (all pieces shown at top and at the link).
Memory wire; rutilated quartz (clear white with black schorl); rainbow moonstone; aquamarine;
lepidolite; gray moonstone; yellow quartz; faceted citrine; sunstone; selenite; kyanite
$350 + shipping, handling, and insurance
As I write, the last of the fire fades from the western sky; the dark has descended upon our small world. But there will be the cold fire of the stars, and soon, that of the waning half-moon as well. And it will be only a few hours until the dawn, with its newly birthed flames.
There is precious little snow left on the ground — only a few drifts here and there in spaces that rarely see the sun. But their icy edges still dance with the fire spirits of winter, and in the last few hours, the long-range forecast has changed.
We may have snow on Tuesday after all.
~ 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.
