The ancients have much to teach us; this our peoples have always known. Elders; ancestor spirits; beings less susceptible to description, older than time — all hold places of honor in our ways of seeing the world, of putting its collective wisdom to work for us in our daily lives.
On this morning, as we stand poised, perhaps teetering slightly, at the threshold between old year and new. it seems a fitting moment to revisit one of Wings’s works that embodies truly ancient spirits.
The work shown in the photo above was a commissioned piece. He had created one hat was very similar: a freeform cabochon of rich red fossilized dinosaur bone, brick-colored and mottled with inky black, set into a simple open bezel and suspended from a bail accented by a tiny glint of amber. [You can find an image of that piece, rather ellipse-like in shape, in the third and photos here.] Shortly after it sold, a client who is a friend noticed its image on the old site, and asked whether he could make another version for her. He had me assure her that he could, subject, of course, to the variation in color and shape in available cabochons of dinosaur bone. She wanted him to proceed, so we began searching for the perfect “stone.”
We found a wonderful supplier, a dealer who does his own cutting and cabbing of a truly huge selection of stones and stone-like materials. Dinosaur bone is not rare, perhaps, in the same way that, say, Lander Blue turquoise is rare, and certainly nowhere near as costly, but finding cabochons at any given moment, particularly of outstanding such color and quality, is no sure thing. As it happened, he had a few available, none in the ellipse shape of the original necklace, of course, but comparable in size. This triangular cabochon, however, stood out from the rest.
It was a similar brick red in color, but where the old cab was mottled throughout, a delicate black webbed matrix perhaps resembling less a spiderweb than a snakeskin, this one was marked by a more random, slightly orbicular pattern, stretched in vertical wisps toward the bottom of the stone. The original cabochon was also matte in finish, slightly coarse in texture, with very little polish and a seemingly perfect opacity of surface. This stone, on the other hand, had been agatized, bits of chalcedony flowing into chinks and crevices in the porous old bone over time on a geologic scale, then hardening into a clear quartz-like finish that rendered the rich red bone nearly opalescent. The top was marked by bits of crimson, like brush strokes the color of blood; more drops of “blood” appeared near the bottom, aswirl in a vortex of contrasting reds and deep dark brown and silvery white.
Wings instructed me to purchase the cabochon, and when it arrived a few days later, he was not disappointed. Indeed, the photo had not done it justice; it was far more beautiful in real life. But however breathtaking its appearance, holding the stone in one’s hand was something that truly touched the soul.
It’s hard to believe that something so tangibly beautiful can be so old, an extant piece of something that exists beyond the reaches of history, that hails from the time before time. It feels like a message: a cautionary tale, a warning, a word of encouragement, a tale of reassurance and hope. It also feels like a responsibility: a charge, a calling, a mission, a sacred trust.
Such a jewel needed to speak on its own, no distractions to prevent its voice being heard. And so, Wings created a simple scalloped bezel, just enough shape to augment the glow of the agatized surface, without in any way encroaching upon it. He formed a plain silver bail, upon which he placed another ancient cabochon of a stone that likewise isn’t really a stone at all: a tiny round drop of amber in a deep and fiery burnt orange shade. He attached pendant to bail with a slender silver jump ring, and threaded it onto a strand of sterling silver snake chain.
It was such a simple piece, and such a powerful one, the a timeless and ancient wisdom emanating from it. On this day, as we bid farewell to another year past and proceed perforce into a future reckoned by tomorrow’s new year’s dawn, wisdom is perhaps what we most need on our journey. We could do far worse than to heed the voices and lessons of spirits as ancient as these.
~ Aji
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