It’s a terrible day outside.
This morning was beautiful, at least in its early hours: bright sun, blue skies, only a few puffy white clouds, and winds that were frankly little more than a brisk breeze, save for the occasional high-velocity gust.
Not anymore.
But late morning, the sky was cloudy without, as it happens, actually having any real cloud cover to speak of — although now, in early afternoon, even that has changed. The turquoise expanse of morning is almost entirely gone now, replaced with stormy slate, the shift driven on winds that are no longer gusts, but sustained at speeds around fifty miles an hour.
In a home that’s virtually soundproof, the unremitting shriek filtering the microscopic gap between front doors and frame threatens to drown out everything else. Concentration is near-impossible; hearing, too. Worse, the entire feel of the day — what can be seen of it, anyway, between fast-moving walls of dirt and dust — is unspeakably eerie, as though we are living through the world’s end, already haunted without even knowing it.
And we know that over the ridgeline, there are hot spots still — remnants of the wildfire that ignited two nights ago — and they will not remain mere spots for long in these winds.
As if all that were not enough, the local schools and a place of business (as well, apparently, as schools throughout the state) were once again the object this morning of terroristic threats, bomb and shooting both, and while those in authority have presumed it all a giant hoax, it adds to the apocalyptic feeling of this day, somehow fitting for a world now robed entirely in brown dirt and gray smoke.
And yet, the forecast for tomorrow — indeed, now for the overnight hours — suggests respite: rain showers, even snow.
It’s a reminder of just how transient hardships can sometimes be, provided that we keep faith with what sustains us.
In this place, that’s not church, or government, or politics, or entertainment. Those are all colonial institutions, systems, structures, all part of what keeps its evils firmly in place. It’s what has driven our world to the brink of collapse on so very many fronts, not least of which is climatic survival. No, for us there is no lodestar there, no cornerstone, no roots to hold us in place or walls to hold us upright.
What shows us our place in the world, what keeps us centered, grounded, strong is that world itself: earth and sky, fire and water, wind and light. And right now, that world is in desperate need of less wind and more water — neither circumstance within our personal control, but not entirely outside our ability to affect, either. Much of requires outside help from us: watering the trees and the red willows in place of the rains that fail to materialize; trimming and pruning and mulching and otherwise cultivating so that such water as we do have can do its best work. We cannot alter the sky itself, nor summon the rains to fall from it, but we can help make an earth ready to receive what it does deliver.
Today’s featured work is the very embodiment of such a powerful sky, one that shifts effortlessly between sunlit clarity and the medicine of the storm. It’s a tribute to its protective qualities, like those of our elder brother whose countenance sits at its center — Buffalo, powerful enough to keep our peoples alive, yet commanding the kind of respect that keeps us from putting ourself in the path of his horns or hooves, and thus safely out of harm’s way. It’s a metaphor for how we engage with the elemental forces that hold our world in place, with honor, but also humility; with respect, but also with gratitude. From its description in the Necklaces Gallery here on the site:
Buffalo Sky Necklace
We live beneath a Buffalo sky, mane made of dawn, a cloud-webbed blue and a gathering storm riding Thunderbird’s wings in his wake. With this extraordinary old-style collar necklace, Wings pays tribute to our beautiful elder brother, to the skies and the water and the wingéd spirits that drive it to the earth. The necklace consists of no fewer than five separate pendants, three of royal lapis and two of natural Fox turquoise, all set into hand-made bezels saw-cut and stamped entirely freehand, and strung on a cascading strand of coordinating gemstone beads of truly phenomenal quality. The focal pendant is formed of a shield cabochon of royal lapis lazuli in a perfect cobalt blue shot through with the stardust shimmer of iron pyrite, set into aa hand-made scalloped bezel edged with twisted silver, the bezel backing extending beyond in a scalloped pattern reminiscent of Buffalo’s mane, each curl stamped with a single sunrise motif to frame the deep blue of the dawn. Flanking the focal are a pair of gorgeous large ovals of natural Fox turquoise, the stones the shade of the western sky at morning, stippled with “clouds” of off-white host-rock and unusually red patches of iron pyrite matrix. Each is set into its own scalloped bezel edged in twisted silver, the saw-cut bezel backing extending into the same scalloped sunrise motif on all sides. Finally, at either end of the string of pendants, two more incredible square cabochons of royal blue lapis lazuli sit on a bed of dried cedar shavings, framed in scalloped bezels edged in twisted silver, the extended backings rounded with freehand cut-work on all four sides, each tab stamped in old-style feather-fan motifs. Each pendant hangs from a hand-cut, flared bail stamped with a single four-directions motif reminiscent of the famed Zia symbol, the spokes extending around a central heart. Every pendant is framed on the bead strand by a pair of outsized spheres of natural lapis lazuli in chrysocolla, with alternating segments of sterling silver doughnut rondels and either iron pyrite (beneath the lapis) or high-grade turquoise rounds (beneath the turquoise), to allow the bails to sit properly. Connecting each pendant are segments of extraordinary ultra-high-grade royal lapis lazuli orbs, polished so perfectly that their surfaces are nearly translucent, alternating with tiny sterling silver doughnut rondels. Moving upward, the beads form gradients of size and color, consisting of more of the royal lapis alternating with iron pyrite and more of the turquoise (likely Persian, based on color, pattern, and value), with the silver rondels serving as spacers; The whole strand is anchored at either end by sterling silver round beads. The buffalo pendant with bail is 2-3/4″ long; without, 2-1/4″ long by 1-5/8″ across at the widest point; all five bails are 3/4″ long by 5/8″ across at the widest point; the lapis shield cabochon is 1-5/8″ long by 1-1/8″ across at the widest point; the turquoise pendants with bails are 2-3/8″ long; without bails, 1/3/4″ long by 1-5/8″ across at the widest point; cabochons are 1-1/4″ long by 7/8″ across at the widest point; square lapis pendants with bails are 2-1/8″ long; without bails, 1-9/16″ long by 1/3/4″ across; square cabochons are 15/16″ square; bead strand is 26″ long excluding findings, but hangs shorter because of the horizontal space taken up by the pendant arrangement (all dimensions approximate). Other views, including close-ups of each pendant, are shown at the link.
Pendants: Sterling silver; royal lapis lazuli; natural Fox turquoise; dried cedar shavings
Strand: Tri-ply foxtail plated with silver; sterling silver findings
Beads: High-grade old lapis lazuli in chrysocolla; ultra-high-grade royal lapis lazuli;
high-grade blue turquoise (likely Persian); iron pyrite; sterling silver
$4,000 + shipping, handling, and insurance
This is truly a masterwork: of traditional Indigenous silversmithing, and of Mother Earth’s own art. The pendants seem to blossom, like the newest flowers or the sky opening to deliver the rain. The stones are their own artistry, marbled and veined and ashimmer with an earthy stardust. the beads are extraordinary specimens of their kind, intense in color and with a beautifully silky texture.
And what it represents . . . in this place? These are the waters that fall from a medicine sky, cooling the earth, tamping down the dust, stilling the winds.
Extinguishing such fires as may already be burning.
We can only hope they arrive as forecast now.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
