Today, we continue with themes of earth and water and even sky, as Wings has conceived them in his newest work.
It’s a piece whose focus is another outstanding cabochon of turquoise from Arizona’s Turquoise Mountain Mine, a stone from the same collection as the one in the work we featured here on Wednesday. These are highly unusual Skystones, ones that assume color and pattern more apt to be found among deposits in Nevada and Colorado — stones in which the sky itself is less embodiment than reflection, the blue a mere hint on the surface of the brilliant green water- and landscapes of the earth from they are delivered.
It’s fitting, the fact that a stone of such significance to the peoples to whom this land was given should embody not only sky but earth and waters, too. For many such peoples, all across Turtle Island, our origins and those of our world are inextricably intertwined, both arising quite literally out of emergence stories that evoke images of birth.
So it is with today’s featured work, a deceptively simple solitaire that manages to be both delicate and bold, earthily feminine and solidly masculine. As with most of Wings’s rings (and much of his other work), it’s not identified by the prospective wearer’s gender; instead, it’s created solely to fit the body and soul, wants and needs, of the person for whom Spirit intends it. From its description in the Rings Gallery:
Flowering Earth Ring
The earth was born out of the center, opening like a flower meeting the sun, arising onto the shell of Grandmother Turtle to form Turtle Island. Earth’s emergence into being finds expression in this ring, reenacting its birth in a size and shape and form small enough to hold in your hand — and to wear upon it. A large, bold Skystone cabochon from Turquoise Mountain, just slightly off round, emerges from a scalloped sterling silver bezel in a subtle blossom setting, new petals extending just beyond the cradle of the cabochon itself. The stone ebbs and flows in brilliant greens, seafoam, jade, and emerald, touched with the faintest hint of the sky’s reflected blue; earthy brown blocks of matrix arise out of its surface, creating a topography of the earth in miniature. The setting sits atop a band of heavy dual half-round wire, 1/4″ wide; the setting is one inch long by 3/4″ wide (dimensions approximate). Sizeable. Other views shown at the link.
Sterling silver; Turquoise Mountain turquoise
$525 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It is a ring of striking subtlety and spectacular substance, in terms both tangible and metaphorical: a heavy band of spare and solid sterling silver that flowers into a cradle of tiny, unobtrusive petals that embrace a large bold stone awash in a brilliant intensity of color, yet aswirl with form and line that only hint at its hidden depths.
It’s a stunning piece, one meant to be worn by someone with an appreciation of bold imagery and complex layers of meaning, and the ability to carry it off.
For the right person, it’s the powers of the earth and water and sky at the moment of birth, all readily at hand.
~ 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.
