Today is, to me, the perfect October day: slate skies hanging low on a darkening gradient from gray to blue, trees shivering in the wind whispering and chattering through their leaves, trees aflame on all sides in shades of gold and copper and crimson; the scent of snow upon the wind. Indoors, a fire blazes in the woodstove while the muted sound of fall football comes from, and the mixed scents of woodsmoke and red chle and autumn spices drift through the house.
You can see the snow falling on a sharp diagonal along the west-facing slopes of El Salto now; it’s been drifting downward to envelope the peaks since shortly after dawn. From north to southwest, the skies are darkening by the moment, and the gold of the pear trees and scarlet of the maple and woodbine leap and dance before the storm, small sparks igniting into full flame.
Our whole small world here is dancing for the fire, both in honor of these last days of color and in anticipation of a deeper, darker cold hovering just out of reach but closing in rapidly now.
Today’s featured work embodies this celebratory act, a radical one in a colonial world that sees winter only as death and immediately turns its attention to how it best can profit from it. Here, we know that winter is a necessary time of rest, of renewal and rebirth too, and that this dance whirling outside the window is one that celebrates the last fire, and the first.
In that respect, it evokes the spirit (and invokes the language and truth) of prophecy, of the fires of my own people’s traditions, fires as markers of time and existence. At this moment, we stand at several thresholds, from the existential one of ancient prophecy to the very ordinary yet also always remarkable one that separates the seasons. Today’s work captures the spirit of that delicate dance, one that trips along the threshold even as the steps overlap it, and all the shades of the fires that protect the earth and warm body and spirit in the process. From its description in the Necklaces Gallery here on the site:
Dancing For the Fire Necklace
Beneath the brilliant flames of the sun, the spirit of the earth is dancing for the fire. With this necklace, Wings gives our mother form and shape and motion as she spirals from a radiant cascade of molten gems. The work begins with the pendant, two separate pieces to form head and body, stones bezel-set and trimmed with twisted silver, the two sections joined at the heart via three sterling silver jump rings that allow the lower half to dance. The head is formed of a fabulous trapezoid-shaped cabochon of print stone, background brick red and lines the color of blood, turned on its side to evoke the shape of a face in semi-profile. Body and legs are one, a long, elegant dagger-shaped teardrop of fiery Red Creek jasper, a webwork of crimson and rust, amber and ivory, forest and slate. The pendant hangs from s substantial bail hand-milled in a graceful feather pattern, then shaped by hand to form a loop. It’s threaded with a dazzling strand of jewels in shades and textures of earth and fire, alternating segments of red willow wood, matte Red Creek jasper, and glossy fossilized coral and dark red dolomite rounds alternating with smaller round separator beads of sterling silver, misty African jade, and crackling fire agate. Full pendant, including bail, hangs 5″ long; 4.5″ excluding .5″ bail; print stone cabochon is 1″ across at the widest point by 1-3/8″ long; Red Creek jasper cabochon is 2.5″ long by 5/8″ across at the widest point; bead strand is 18″ long (all dimensions approximate). Designed jointly by Wings and Aji. Close-up and full views shown below.
Pendant: Sterling silver; print stone; Red Creek jasper
Bead strand: Sterling silver; Red Creek jasper; red willow wooden beads; dolomite; fossilized coral; African jade; fire agate
$1,375 + shipping, handling, and insurance
This is one of my favorite works in Wings’s current inventory, both for the autumnal shades of its jeweled form and for the fiery spirit it represents. It’s unquestionably a work of autumn, always and forever my favorite season of the year, but it reminds us in beautifully brilliant form that fall is not a time for sadness, but rather one of great joy and hope.
All the shades of this piece are present in my view as a I look outside our kitchen window. It’s a place where I spend a great deal of time, no matter the season, but increasingly so at this time of year. There is work to be done, food to prepare and meals to create; the woodstove, ablaze now with fragrant piñon, sits in the corner of the dining room only a few short feet away from the kitchen counter. Outside the window above the sink, I can see the gilded border beyond the highway, a long stand of trees that bisects roadside from creekside, glowing in shades of gold and amber and rust; the nearer aspens on our own land still hold onto a fading green, just beginning to turn now. to the right, the tallest of the fire maples is visible, entirely crimson now, and the woodbine that climbs and cascades over the sections of latilla fencing has gone wholly scarlet — of the latter two, each leaf seems like an individual flame, adance in the whirl and eddy of the wind.
But in here, the wind holds no sway: We are warm; we are sheltered; we are safe. And we know that this dance that the outside world sees as the death throes of another year is actually the pangs of the new one’s birth. This is the season of the last fire, and the first, and we are blessed to be part of both.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2021; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
