For the fourth or fifth day in a row, the mercury has shot past the forecast high before noon. It’s not a matter f a degree or two, either; our highs in recent days have beaten predictions mostly by double digits.
At the beginning of. last week, our small world here was newly green, alive; it was almost possible to feel the earth breathe beneath us.
Now, it’s browning rapidly once more, air impossibly dry and earth, too, soil the consistency of ash and old bones while trees yellow and smaller plants turn dangerously sharp. In an ordinary year, August here would be the green heart of summer . . . but here, there is no such thing as an ordinary year anymore.
It doesn’t stop us from trying to ameliorate the harm, but it’s difficult when those in authority, with the ability to do such work on a global scale, instead continue to undermine such small progress as individuals may make. We do what we do for love of the Earth, of her children and all of our relatives, for future generations, but we know that to whatever degree we succeed, it is in spite of such sabotage, not because of it.
And yet, we persist. We have no choice in the matter; in every generation, some must stand against the tide of violence and harm and destruction, in ways big and small. Ours may be very small indeed, but it’s what is within our power to do, and we will not abandon our obligations.
It’s a commitment that runs through Wings’s entire body of work, in ways clear and tangible and in others more symbolic. Today’s featured work, one of Wings’s newer cuffs, is a perfect example of both approaches, distilling such work into the beauty of silver and stone, infusing and animating it with the spirit of such love and significance in meaningful ways. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
For Love of the Earth Cuff Bracelet
For love of the Earth are we held in the cosmos’ embrace, on axis and in orbit, lit by sun and moon, land and waters green and flowering with medicine. With this cuff, Wings honors the rich and verdant lands and of our planet, the silvered orbs and crescents of light, and orbital resonances of the our place in the universe and the medicines that are at the our world’s very heart. The band is formed of three separate strands of heavy-gauge sterling silver pattern wire, molded into a convex half-round surface with flowing vines in full flower rising in relief from it. The strands are fused together at either end, then spread gently apart at the top center to hold the focal, while two shimmering hearts saw-cut and hammered by hand are overlaid across the sides of the band. The focal consists of a flanged bezel, its extended backing saw-cut freehand of heavy silver in a graceful oval, then stamped along the extended sides in a pattern of nested crescents that imply a sense of forward, orbital motion. Small radiant suns bookend either end, punctuated by paired sterling silver hand-made ingot ball beads; two more such ingot beads, stamped in sunburst motifs, accent the ends of the band. At the center, in a low-profile bezel saw-cut and filed entirely by hand rests an extraordinary domed oval of South African verdite, sometimes known colloquially as “African jade.” It’s not jade, nor even a mineral; it’s a rock included with minerals, generally fuchsite and/or forms of chromite, that lend it its mysteriously marbled color, a rich deep forest green with hints of other shades aswirl in its depths. Due to the thickness of the strands that form the band, the inner band is measurably smaller than its outer surface, and fits a slightly smaller wrist. Band is 6-1/2″ long on the outer surface; 5-1/2″ long on the inside. Each strand is 1/4″ wide; fused at the end, collectively 1/2″ wide; spread apart at the center, collectively 1-1/16″ wide. The setting is 1-5/8″ long by 1-7/16″ across at the widest point; the stone is 1-1/8″ long by 13/16″ across at the widest point; heart overlays are 3/4″ long by 3/4″ across at the widest point; ingot bead overlays are 3/16″ across (all dimensions approximate). Other views shown above, below, and at the link.
Sterling silver; verdite
$1,600 + shipping, handling, and insurance
I love the fusing of the three strands, so seamless and with such depth. The tiny ingot ball beads, each hand-made and hand-stamped with tiny classic stars, add another layer of dimensionality and depth, and a bit of light-catching adornment.
The heart overlays, too, are seamlessly fused to the steep arc of the band. Their simple hammered surfaces, like the rippling of the waters, form a perfect counterpoint to the flowing, flowering vine motif that rises in sharp relief from the three thick strands of molded sterling silver pattern wire.
The focal, too, is a throwback to older styles, with an extended backing that Wings has chased in his hallmark orbital design, one of small rays nested within each other that, so arrayed, imply an active sense of motion. At each end of the backing, the radiant stampwork, reminiscent of old Art Deco representations of the sun, are framed by four tiny sterling silver ball beads, each hand-wrought entirely by hand of melted ingot.
And then, of course, there is the stone. That alone feels like magic.
It feels like magic for multiple reasons, actually: for its own inherent beauty, lushly green; for the fact that, unlike most gems, it’s not a mineral but a rock, one into which other minerals have included to help lend it its glorious rich color.
And, of course, for the fact that it was not part of Wings’s original plan for this cuff, yet it became the one that belonged to it. Wings had intended to set it with a domed oval cabochon of natural Fox turquoise, beautifully webbed in clouds of matrix that looked like stardust. But as is occasionally the case with natural turquoise, when he went to set it into the bezel, one narrow end fractured along those plentiful matrix lines. It’s reparable for future use, but not for this use.
He was looking at the prospect — unhappily, I might add — of having to remove the focal setting and take it apart, building an entirely new bezel upon it. But as it turns out, he had a parcel of verdite, acquired while in the process of searching for a different kind of stone, and as it turned out, they were a perfect fit for the bezel as it already existed. And once he set the stone, it was clear that the turquoise was never meant to be a part of it; the rich greens marbled with faint reds and golds were far more striking than the pale blue of the original cabochons for such a substantial cuff.
And there is a lesson in that, too.
Particularly when times are bad, it becomes so very, very easy to become too focused on whatever we have decided will “fix” it. That’s true of our more global circumstances now, particularly with regard to climate collapse. It would be all too easy to become stuck in our memories of what was when this land was healthy, trying fruitlessly to return it to such a state when it’s already become more than clear that, even with all the will and all the work in the world, such a result is unlikely to be possible in our. lifetimes. That doesn’t mean we stop working for such a goal for future generations, of course. But it does mean that we need to accustom our minds and hearts and spirits to the truth that we may never live to see it . . . and to continue the work in the ways best placed to save it now, while planting seeds, metaphorical and literal both, for a better future.
This is what we do, for love of the Earth, of her children, of our relatives, of the future. And this is what the green heart of summer teaches us now: that there is abundance to be found in resilience, in adaptability, in commitment, and above all, in the love that drives it all.
~ 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.
