This week’s primary motif has been that phenomenon of spring: the spiderweb. Thus far, our only small weavers have set up housekeeping indoors, but as the air warms, we will begin to see them display the work in the sunlight, too. The wire front of the chicken coop and the space between vines and ladder on the sections of latilla fencing are both popular outdoor spots for these small spirits: exposed to the warmth of the sun, yet mostly sheltered from the winds, and well placed to attract tiny prey to their ensnaring beauty. The webs are a testament to patience, but their stunning geometry, like line drawings of the crystal structure of snowflakes, is the stuff of dreams and visions.
And, of course, that is Grandmother Spider’s role, too: to weave a web that will protect the people’s dreams. On this #ThrowbackThursday, we’re going back in time only six weeks, to a recent work that embodies a pair of such webs in the rich blue of the sky, paired with smoky, shimmering signifiers of dreams and visions and the wisdom that Spirit bestows thereby.
The earrings above were a commission from a dear friend on the other end of the country. She had only a couple of specifications: Knowing of the high-grade spiderweb Kingman turquoise cabochons that Wings had in his inventory of stones, she wanted the earrings built around a pair of them; and she also wanted them to be long and dangling. Beyond that, she said that she was happy to leave the design in Wings’s hands entirely. This pair, entitled Dream Web, was the result.
Of the high-grade Kingman stones in Wings’s supply, none constituted a matched pair. Each was purchased individually, some similar in shape or size, but none cut to serve as earrings pairs. We initially thought that he might have to order a pair, but a close examination of his stones turned up two of like size and roughly similar shape, slightly free-form ovals, that were clearly from the same deposit — both a deep rich sky blue, both with extraordinarily fine, tight black spiderwebbing throughout the stones. A little finessing with hand-made bezels, and Wings was able to turn them into more closely matched ovals.
Speaking of bezels, he left them plain, save for the scalloped toplines and a slender band of twisted silver around the base edges. He intended to save ornamentation for other purposes.
In deciding how to create the dangling pendants for the pair of spiderweb cabochons, Wings experimented with a shape he’d recently contemplated using in another work. It looks a bit like an hourglass, a flowing, sinuous shape that, by itself, evokes the look and feel of a human-like figure, perhaps a spirit being, already transformed and transcendent. It’s a design the evokes the edges of signature concha design, elegantly scalloped, implying a sense of gentle, graceful motion.
He had originally, played with the idea of a overlay on the front of the pendants, perhaps a heart or an Eye of Spirit, incorporating symbols of love and wisdom. Ultimately, he included both, but in an unusual manner.
He put them on the back, the earrings own small secret to be shared solely with the wearer. Both pairs of overlays were made entirely freehand, cut from sheet silver with a tiny jeweler’s saw. He left the hearts flat, deciding to use them as a means to hold his hallmark without needing to stamp it into the thin silver of the pendants. The diamond patterns, Eyes of Spirit, he created using a domed stamp, one that creates an automatic repoussé effect. It summons the symbol into our three-dimensional world and gives it form and shape.
At this point, the pendants were almost ready to attach to the tiny silver jump rings that would suspend them from the bezels holding the turquoise cabochons.
Almost, but not quite.
At the time our friend commissioned these, Wings had just acquired a selection of square cabochons in a variety of sizes and types of stones: lime jade, malachite, turquoise, lapis, garnet . . . and black-lip mother-of-pearl shell. Most mother-of-pearl used in Southwestern Native jewelry tends to be the usual white color, but it’s possible to find it in two other hues: one with a golden cast, known as gold-lip; and one with a hint of charcoal, known as black-lip. Both provide unusual, ethereal accents, and these black-lip cabochons were no exception.
When we took the black-lip shell out of its case and placed it below the spiderwebbed Kingman turquoise, the effect was dramatic: It picked up the fine black spiderweb matrix and brought it into sharp relief, while the contrasting blue of the stones deepened the hint of black color in the smoky mother-of-pearl cabochons. The fact that the shell cabs were square made it seem like synchronicity — all that be required for the cabs to echo the Eye of Spirit overlay on the reverse would be to turn them to a slight angle, rendering the square a diamond shape.
Because of the length of the pendants, Wings chose to use two shell cabs on each one. It effectively created an image of a pair of Eyes of Spirit, gazing down out of the sky, as though imparting guidance and wisdom in its preferred medium, the world of visions and dreams. Coupled with the spiderweb matrix and the near-round hoop-like effect of the turquoise stones anchoring each earring, it transformed each one into its own stylized, inspirited dreamcatcher, Grandmother Spider’s own gift of spinning visions and weaving dreams.
They are relatively heavy earrings, undeniably. But, so, too, are the weight of visions and dreams. Our friend tells us she has already become accustomed to their substance. Perhaps it’s just enough, like the imagery of a good dream, to remind her, subconsciously, that she travels her own daily hoop within Spirit’s protection.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
