Our days of flawlessly clear mornings are already over. Clouds moved in at sunset last night, just enough for a beautiful western sky to contrast with the moonrise, and by mid-eclipse this morning, sheer gray bands were already veiling the nascent blue.
Even so, it’s a beautifully sunny day, a rich cornflower expanse above the banding that encircles our small world at the horizon now. The breeze has set leaves and lilacs adance in the light, and while the alpine dandelions remain the only wildflowers blooming yet, there are already the scents and spirits of summer on the wind.
Some of my people refer to this moon as the Budding Moon, and with good reason. This the time of petals opening, of medicine in new and full flower.
It’s a time for our spiritual petals to open, too, a time for our bodies and spirits to flower in the warmth and the light. Todays’ featured masterwork honors that process, and the weeks and months when it occurs. The third in Wings’s limited signature series of necklaces, The Four Seasons, this one is a tribute to the gifts of summer, by the calendar not yet here, but clearly present in the breeze and the light now. From its description in the Necklaces Gallery here on the site:
Summer: Wildflower Meadow Under a Midday Sky Necklace
The most vibrant spirits of the warm winds dance all season long. This is the best of the high-country Summer: wildflower meadow under a midday sky, an emerald earth and a turquoise expanse alive in the silver light. With this necklace, Wings calls the flowers to dance once more, from the earliest days of spring to the very end of Indian summer, robed and shawled in their finest dress. The oversized pendant is cut entirely freehand of solid sterling silver, shaped into the graceful looping arcs of a giant prairie blossom. Each of its eight outstanding “petal” cabochons, each an oval of high-grade malachite spectacularly agatized and scalloped in extraordinary patterns, is ringed with a flowering, radiant sun motif. Single wildflowers swaying atop graceful stalks are stamped freehand in a random pattern all across the pendant’s face, twining around the square center cabochon of intensely-hued chrysocolla in malachite and fluttering between the petals. Each cabochon is set into a scalloped bezel and trimmed with twisted silver; the pendant backing is buffed to a rich, velvety Florentine finish, as soft as the summer breeze. Small matched blossoms trace the simple, lightly-flared bail, through which are strung a phenomenal mix of graduated beads: ultra-high-grade chrysocolla, solid and heavy, alternating with malachite cube beads and silver-plated large rounds, extending upward on either side into more malachite cubes interspersed with deep blue turquoise orbs and small but solid sterling silver rounds and tiny indigo apatite spheres. Beads are strung over extra-sturdy tri-ply foxtail made of heavy nylon specially treated and encased in metal, then silver-plated for color matching; findings are sturdy sterling silver assemblies. Pendant including bail hangs 5″, 4.25″ excluding bail, and is 4.25″ across at the widest point; the bail is 3/4″ long by 9/16″ across at the widest point; center cabochon is 11/16″ square; cardinal cabochons are 1″ long by 1/2″ across; ordinal cabochons are 3/4″-7/8″ long by 7/16″ across; bead strand is 22″ long, excluding findings. [All dimensions approximate.] Designed jointly by Wings and Aji; third in The Four Seasons Series. Additional views of pendant and strand shown above and below.
Sterling silver (setting and findings);
malachite; chrysocolla in malachite (pendant cabochons); tri-ply silver-plated foxtail (to hold beads);
chrysocolla; silver-plate; malachite; sterling silver; turquoise; apatite (beads)
$2,000 plus shipping, handling, and insurance
All four of the entries in this series are among my personal favorites: big, bold, colorful, and imbued with the spirits of their respective seasons, and with the powers and medicine that attend them all. This one is manifest in an extraordinary combination of lush greens touched briefly with the blues of the summer sky: eight extraordinary oval cabochons of malachite banded in a lace-like pattern of layers; at the center, a square of chrysocolla in malachite, more lacy banding across the blues of sky and water. The beads, too, are a wonder, shimmering silver alternating with glossy malachite cubes and rounds, interspersed with large orbs of frankly amazing old chrysocolla, the greens the shade of emerald and the blues as deep as indigo.
But what makes this piece the masterwork that it is, to my mind, is the truly phenomenal silverwork of the setting. The pendant itself is a marvel of solid sterling silver, cut freehand into a flower that evokes an eight-petaled medicine shield, each of the nine cabochons centered in. place, bezel-set, and trimmed with twisted silver. The scalloped, petaled edges are all cut entirely freehand, and the stampwork is freehand, too: radiant suns surrounding each of the malachite ovals, dancing long-stemmed wildflowers wending their way around the center and in between. It is a work of summer medicine, bold, bright, and powerful, one that feels as protective as its shield-like presence would suggest.
Outside, the wind is rising, but the lilacs are in full flower. We shall have a beautiful sunset and moonrise tonight, and four ays from now, if the forecast holds, a return to the season’s monsoonal patterns. This is the time of petals opening, of medicine in new and full flower, and our spirits are flowering, too.
It’s beautiful.
~ 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.
