Christmas Day.
It doesn’t look much like Christmas, at least not the way Wings and I think of it. On this day, there should be snow falling from low dark clouds onto an earth already blanketed by several inches of white.
Instead, the land here is the wan gold of grasses dormant and dying, as dry and broken in appearance as the brecciated mix of sandstone and ironstone in the focal cabochons of today’s feature work. The bare branches and chill wind assure us that it is winter, but that seems to be the weather’s only concession to the season this day.
By midweek, the forecast looks very different, although the prediction is for no more than a couple of inches, followed by a week of intermittent snow showers here and there. It’s still nowhere near what the land needs, but with everything so painfully dry now, we’ll be grateful for what we can get.
Which is, as it happens, one of the teachings of this day, at least as we understand it. One of those teachings is gratitude; another is generosity. Both are in short supply in the colonial world, which will argue incessantly over the meaning of or reason for this day, even as it gleefully violates every principle those meanings and reasons are said to signify. For us, it’s a little different, because while we both grew up immersed in the imagery and pageantry of Christmas, we realized in adulthood how far removed most of it is from our traditional ways. it might be said off us that we celebrate and simultaneously do not celebrate: We exchange modest gifts; we have a nice evening meal; we even put up a tree. And we can find common cause with the best of the Christmas season’s spirit, but it’s a far cry from the structured “celebration” of it, religious and secular alike, that we knew as children.
For us, our greatest gifts are our love and our life together. Beyond that, the most welcome gift overall would be the medicine of the snow, because we know that living our lives well depends in no small part upon a healthy world in which to do so.
It’s a gift that will not arrive on this day, but if we are granted what the coming forecast suggests, it will be reason enough for gratitude.
Today’s featured work, one of Wings’s newer pieces composed of gifts of the earth from all of its distant, far-flung corners, is manifest in the spirit of such medicine — in these days of deep midwinter, of storm as snow and the fire of the light. From its description in the Necklaces Gallery here on the site:
A Medicine of Storm and Light Necklace
In extreme lands and climates and seasons, earth and sky conspire to create a medicine of storm and light. With this necklace, Wings honors them all, weaving jewels of other Indigenous cultures with those of our own to create an extraordinary whole. The pendant, a show-stopper in its own right, is built around a giant focal teardrop of incredible Koroit opal matrix, small blue flashes refracting from the brecciated ironstone and sandstone boulder host rock that embraces them. [*Note: There is a fracture in the host rock that Wings has repaired; this is common with natural brecciated material.] The boulder opal cabochon is set into a scalloped bezel on an extended backing, on one side enlarged and scalloped freehand to accommodate the cascade of jewels, all set into saw-toothed bezels and all chosen to pick up all the colors of opal and host rock alike: chatoyant tiger’s eye and cobalt-blue lapis lazuli, smaller golden rutilated quartz and periwinkle iolite, and smaller still, a tin citrine and another, slightly more violet iolite — raindrops in the storm alternating with drops of pure sunlight. All around the edges of all seven stones, radiant motifs are stamped freehand at the very edge. The lightly flared slider-style bail is stamped with the imagery of medicine’s wingéd spirits, Thunderbird and Water Bird. The beads that hold it were also all hand-selected to pick up the shades and spirits of the gems: four tiny round smoky quartz to hold the bail and thence to serve as separators; finely-faceted citrine rondels that catch and refract the light; ultra-high-grade royal lapis doughnut rondels, the richest of blues, so flawless as to be virtually devoid of any matrix at all; gemmy freeform golden carnelian nuggets to add texture and the glow of many suns; lapis lazuli rounds in a slightly lighter shade of blue, marbled with bits of calcite and shimmering pyrite; an alternating anchors of translucent iolite rounds and diamond-cut sterling silver accent beads. The whole pendant, including bail, hangs 2-5/8″ long by 1-3/8″ across at the widest point; pendant only hangs 2/18″ long; bail is 5/8″ long by 1/2″ across at the widest point; boulder opal matrix cabochon is 2″ high by 7/8″ across at the widest point; tiger’s eye and lapis lazuli cabochons are 5/16″ across; golden rutilated quartz and larger iolite cabochons are 1/4″ across; citrine and smaller iolite cabochons are 3/16″ across; bead strand is 24″ long, excluding findings (all dimensions approximate). Other views shown above, below, and at the link.
Pendant: Sterling silver; Koroit blue opal matrix in brecciated ironstone/sandstone boulder;
tiger’s eye; lapis lazuli; golden rutilated quartz; iolite; citrine
Strand: Tri-ply foxtail plated with silver; sterling silver findings
Beads: Smoky quartz; faceted citrine; royal lapis lazuli; golden carnelian;
lapis lazuli; iolite; diamond-cut sterling silver
$1,500 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Mid-post now, I have had to leave the fire-warm comfort of our living room to help with an outdoor task. The wind is hardly more than a breeze, but it is brisk and cold, and the clouds are gathering in elongated bands once more. The truly significant change is in the air itself: There is the feel, and the scent, of snow upon the wind, and we can tell that the forecast change is indeed coming.
Perhaps even earlier than predicted.
For now, the pale gold and brown of the dry ground still contrast with the blues of the sky, but the light has become silvery, wintry, a harbinger now. Earth and sky are of course no more bound by the Christmas date on the calendar than are season and storm. But it appears that all are feeling generous, and intend to bestow upon us the most badly needed of gifts.
The medicine of the snow is certainly cause for gratitude now.
~ 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.
