In the first two entries in this week’s Wednesday/weekend series featuring some of the outstanding selections among Wings’s work currently in inventory, we’ve been looking at themes of hearts and healing, coalesced and crystallized in green turquoise. We talk of turquoise as the Skystone, which it is, but that only speaks to one aspect of its identity, manifest in blues. Turquoise manifests a whole other spirit in its green form, one that evokes the other half of the action, the reaction, that creates the Skystone itself: It embodies less the spirits of sky and rain and more that of the earth below, the other partner to the wedding of elements that, in the old story, births it in the first place.
In many cultures, the earth is a distinctly feminine body in ways both metaphorical and literal. That conceptualization (and, indeed conception) appears in lexical and imaginative ways, in the words we use to describe our world and in the symbolism that arises out of that imagining, that way of seeing and experiencing. It finds expression often in holistic, unifying imagery, in ways of explaining life that evoke and invoke the mortal creative process. It’s a dynamic reflected, for example, in some cultures’ notions of male and female rains, of the sun as male and the moon as female, of Father Sky and Mother Earth.
And, indeed, conceiving of the Earth as our Mother has fully entered the mainstream of the dominant culture, part of its own lexicon now. But for us, it goes deeper, as origin stories summon the ancient world(s), calling forth the parentage of sky and earth and water, where appearance and existence flow directly from emergence, with all of the associations of impregnation, of fertilization and conception, of gestation and labor and birth that that entails.
It should be no surprise, then, that earth imagery evokes both the greens of fertility and the imagery of the body, not merely of wombs but of hearts, of health, of healing, of the lifeblood of the world and the very organ that pumps it throughout our collective body.
Neither should it be any surprise that such earth imagery finds expression in Wings’s work.
He talks regularly of the role that feminine motifs play in his work; indeed, some of his signature series are based entirely on them. He likewise speaks consistently of the primacy of the natural world among his artistic influences and guiding spirits, of the beauty and blessings of our earth, and of the need to protect it.
Often, these motifs are very subtle, mere hints in a design or its execution; sometimes, they’re known only to him.
Sometimes, they’re explicit, unmistakably manifest in the design itself.
Such si the case with today’s featured piece, a piece that combines beautiful stampwork with a truly stunning stone. From its description in the Rings Gallery here on the site:
“Mother Earth” Solitaire Ring
Like a parent, she nourishes and nurtures us, setting us the path of our daily lives, providing for our needs. Here, our Mother Earth is embodied in a rich green turquoise cabochon, sky and plant spirits melded together, mapped by her own paths of rich brown soil. Directional arrows alternating with symbols of love trace either side of the scored band. Cabochon is 5/8″ square (dimensions approximate); band is sizeable. Other views shown above and below.
Sterling silver; natural Royston turquoise
$350 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It’s a design especially well-suited to the season, as the sun warms the soil and the green spreads rapidly across the rich brown earth.
It’s also, as I have written before, a reminder to honor our mother, that our days may be long upon the earth —and that the days of the earth herself may be long, giving life to our children’s children, unto the seventh generation and far beyond.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
