As has been the case so often in recent months and years, the colonial forecasts for a storm have fizzled badly. For all the early morning hours that were supposed to be dusted with white, not a single flake fell before eight o’clock this morning. Of course, that didn’t stop the local power utility’s grid from trying to fail, with five brownouts in the hour prior, before the first hint of precipitation appeared.
The small shower were granted ceased after an hour or two, then reappeared as rain. And while the rain is not as useful to us as the snow now, we’ll take it, and be grateful for it.
At this moment, the sky here is almost unrelievedly white, only a hint of gray in the clouds that hang low enough to hide the mountain slopes from view. Toward town, though, a strip of land is visible, bathed in a band of sunlight — a break in the clouds, perhaps a line of clarity between storms.
And that is so often how it happens here, rain and snow alike: The First Medicine comes from the storm that falls from the light.
It’s one of the great gifts of this place, that elemental forces seemingly so diametrically opposed can instead collaborate and conspire, and they do. Together, snow and sun, storm and light create scapes and land and sky of otherworldly beauty and healing power. And as that band of light to the south glows, we are awaiting the next wave of weather, awaiting the winter medicine of melded snow and sun.
Today’s featured masterwork embodies both of these forces and the gifts they bestow. From its description in the Necklaces Gallery here on the site:
The Storm That Falls From the Light Necklace
It’s the Eye of Spirit on the Thunderbird’s wings, the storm that falls from the light. With this pendant cascading from a strand of jewels in violet blues and translucent white, Wings summons all the power of storm and clouds and veiled sun into a single spirit-infused tribute to the medicine of water and light. The pendant comprises three —extraordinary matched cabochons of ultra-high-grade Afghanistan lapis lazuli, the larger center cab cut in an elongated kite shape, the side cabs extended versions of what geometry terms degenerate triangles, collectively body and wings with the head just visible above. All are set into scalloped bezels and edged with twisted silver, the better to set off the stormy, electric blue-violet stone marbled with dove-gray calcite matrix and shot through with shimmering pyrite, like the electrical flash of a thousand bolts of lightning. The three lapis jewels fall and flare like rain from a single light source: a highly domed Labradorite cabochon, channeling the sun in the storm and refracting the same deep blues.All are set into a single backing, itself a diamond-like shape that evokes the Eye of Spirit, scalloped freehand on all four edges and stamped in a repeating pattern of a radiant sunrise, each arcing over a tiny hoop. The pendant hangs from a simple, elegantly flared bail, stamped along either edge with the image of the thunderhead, the two rows coalescing at the top. Strung through the bail is a strand of equally ultra-high-grade beads in matching blues and grays. At the center sit large and medium-sized dumortierite rounds bisected by three-bead groupings of single Labradorite orbs with plenty of blue flash, each flanked by faceted moonstone rondels. Moving upward, with the rondels as spacers, the dumortierite morphs into a gradient of Labradorite, rainbow moonstone, and lapis lazuli spheres, accented by single sterling silver rounds and a final segment of dumortierite anchors. Pendant including bail hangs 4″ long; without bail, 3-1/4″ long by 3″ across at the widest point; bail is 3/4″ long by 3/4″ across at the widest point; center cabochon is 2-1/2″ long by 1-1/4″ across at the widest point; side cabochons are 1-7/8″ long by 3/4″ across at the widest point; round cabochon is 3/8″ across; bead strand is 23″ long excluding findings (all dimensions approximate). Full views of pendant and beads shown above, below, and at the link.
Pendant: Sterling silver; ultra-high-grade Afghanistan lapis lazuli; Labradorite
Bead Strand: Dumortierite; moonstone; Labradorite; rainbow moonstone; lapis lazuli; sterling silver
$2,000 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It’s an extraordinary piece, the silver and stampwork kept simple and spare, the better to highlight the incredible beauty of the stones. As is clear from their cuts, the lapidarist intended them for something very different a single simple pendant and a coordinating pair of drop earrings. But Wings viewed the three cabochons together and saw something else: as the description says, the Eye of Spirit on the Thunderbird’s wings, and all the elemental power and beauty and medicine that their collaboration creates. And the beads were all hand-selected specifically to magnify that power.
It’s a phenomenal work of wearable art, one manifest as traditional signifiers of guidance and protection and forces to be reckoned with — forces far greater than anything we can contrive on our own, but absolutely essential to the world’s survival, and ours.
As I write, even the rain has stopped. Most of the band of light that has hovered over the town below us is now also gone, subsumed into the next procession of heavy gray-white clouds. There is no snow yet, although where the cloud cover lifts its hem above the slopes, new patches of white are visible, if small and a bit threadbare still. And the radar promises more to come this afternoon . . . if only it can be believed, of course.
For now, we await the winter medicine of melded snow and sun, and for the healing that is the work of this season. For whatever we are granted now, we are grateful.
~ 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.
