In Wings’s work, symbol is as much a part of it as substance. No matter the material, the matter the cost, it’s the spiritual meaning that he infuses into each piece that gives it a deeper value, one that exists beyond the reaches of production costs and market prices. It’s part of what distinguishes his work from that of his peers: He is a wholly traditional man who calls upon a long line of tradition in his work, yet he refuses to be boxed in by what the market casually labels “tradition,” insisting always upon the need for deeper meaning in everything he does.
Sometimes, the symbolism is very subtle, one recognizeable only upon close inspection, and then perhaps only to a select few for whom it has particular meaning.
Sometimes, it’s the work itself, shape and substance and spirit simultaneously.
In this broader culture, the concept of peace takes many symbolic forms: olive branches, doves, broken weapons. In all of them, there is a subtextual motif of flight: of the sense of freedom, of escape, of release that comes with the cessation of violence in any of its myriad forms. Perhaps it has to do with the lifting of a deadly weight form one’s shoulders, this sudden sensation of feeling as light as the air itself, of being able to rise upon it to travel and play, carefree upon the currents.
In early Christianity, it was a dove, aloft on alabaster wings, that represented notions of “peace.” It’s a motif that finds resonance yet today, all over the world, and I have no doubt that there were other cultures of the day, as well as those before and since, that have also independently associated peace with a bird in flight. More recently, in the aftermath of World War II, cranes have become a popular symbol, particularly those created by way of the Japanese art of origami. The crane was traditionally a symbol of good fortune, but became a sign of escape from the horrors visited upon the country via the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In more modern times, as the planet grows ever smaller, symbols have become more universally recognized. In early 20th-Century Europe, an image of a pair of hands snapping a rifle in half became a sign of peace, or, more specifically, or resistance to war. It’s astonishing to me how alike the geometry of these symbols is: If you look at the sketch here, you will see an image set at angles very like the contemporary peace sign. For us, it evokes the imagery of broken arrows, an overt and wholly Native expression of a truce, a declaration of a willingness to abandon war in favor of peace.
For us, however, perhaps, the greatest, most significant symbol of peace is one that means much, much more: a circle in the form of the sacred hoop. It’s an image that finds expression in what is now perhaps the single most recognizeable image of peace worldwide: the so-called “peace symbol.”
Most people who wear the symbol today probably have no idea of its origins, which date back to the United Kingdom in the years following World War II. It was, in large part, a reaction to American acts at the end of the war — specifically, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was the symbol and logo created by and for the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and the design was very specific: the image’s four internal spokes represent the semaphore signals for the letters “N” and “D,” standing for “Nuclear Disarmament.” You can see sketches of the semaphore signs here.
To me, the peace symbol looks like a bird in flight, soaring upward within a sacred hoop. The lines resembles those of our Water Bird, head facing up, tailfeathers straight down, wings seeming to point downward as they are spread in flight. Placing it within a circle evokes for me the Sacred Hoop, a life lived in a good way, the proper way, in balance and harmony, as Spirit has given us to do. It’s a Native peace, one that does not depend on external influences to survive. From the description of today’s featured work in the Earrings Gallery here on the site:
A Native Peace Earrings
The iconic peace symbol emerges with an indigenous twist in these bold yet simple earrings. Each earring is a bead unto itself, albeit of extraordinary size, each composed of two paper-thin slices of robin’s-egg blue turquoise touched here and there by an earthy host-rock matrix. Each slice of turquoise has been placed, veneer-fashion, upon a sturdy backing, the two halves affixed together to give them solid, three-dimensional form, then cut carefully into the contemporary and immediately recognizeable symbol of world peace. Sterling silver jump rings hold wires securely via tiny holes drilled through the top center. Earrings are 1.25 inches across (dimensions approximate).
Stabilized turquoise veneers; composite backing; sterling silver findings
$125 + shipping, handling, and insurance
SOLD
A few words about the material: Wings no longer remembers how or when he came into possession of these two “cabs,” for lack of a better descriptor, nor do I. He came across them again a few months ago, and decided that it was time to do something with them. As a matched pair, their final form was fairly obvious; it made no sense to separate them into two more complex works. But it took some work to figure out exactly what they were.
I’ve said in the past that Wings does not knowingly use stabilized turquoise if he can help it, except in very rare instances where a client wants a specific cabochon that happens to be treated, or when the setting requires the extra strength and durability that stabilization provides. For example, occasionally a client who works in an environment that can be risky for fragile jewelry will want a piece that possesses great personal symbolism, something the client wishes to wear daily. In such a case, with the client’s consent, he might use stabilized stone to guard against damage. Once in a great while, however, he’ll acquire stones that were already stabilized, and occasionally, he puts them to use rather than simply letting them go to waste.
These pieces must necessarily be stabilized turquoise, considering what we believe to be their method of creation as bead “cabochons.” They are not, of course, “cabochons” in the usual sense. After close examination, we believe them to be veneers of what is most likely Kingman turquoise, probably from a vein that was neither particularly high in quality nor possessed of any depth whatsoever — a paper thin surface of turquoise atop host rock. You can see the bits of matrix here and there across the face of each earring, surface irregularities and smoky, wispy traces throughout the stone. As is clear from our discussions of the many ways in which turquoise manifests, particular in its boulder and ribbon form, the depth of a given vein varies widely: some go deep into the host rock; others are nothing more than a veil atop it. Here, it appears that the turquoise was the latter form, spectacularly thin and no doubt very fragile. To keep it from going to waste, to use it in any way, the cutter would no doubt have been forced to stabilize it to work with it at all.
Once extracted and treated, the thin veneers were bonded to a composite backing, giving it depth and weight, but also serving as another form of stabilization, this time mechanical rather than chemical, a way of strengthening each slice of stone. Once the veneers were solid, the two halves were bonded together to create turquoise faces on each side. Then, the peace symbol was cut out of the larger circle of stone and backing, the edges smoothed, and the surfaces polished.
It is not, as turquoise goes, especially inherently valuable. The limited amount of actual stone in the two pieces and the fact that they must necessarily have been treated to survive the cutting and cabbing process lower their values substantially, hence the significantly lower price compared to what Wings would normally charge for earrings of this size, of any stone.
The symbolism, however, was too significant to ignore. As always, Wings imbues them with his own indigenous spirit, taking a symbol of the dominant culture and adapting it (and in so doing, also subverting it) to create a new way of looking at the motif: He creates a manifestation, at a very personal level, of a Native peace.
~ 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.
