In recent weeks, I’ve been using our #ThrowbackThursday posts to bring you some of Wings’s past work, showpieces that sold long ago, or that were commissioned by clients and were never available as part of his regular inventory. For this edition, we’re not venturing back in time very far at all — only a couple of months, although we’ll make a short detour to a period four years ago — but we’re going to traveling, so to speak, between here and the opposite end of the country, and introducing you, ina sense, to some friends who not only do vital work, but live it.
These days, the phrase “social justice warrior” has been warped beyond all recognition, distorted into a sneering pejorative. But no amount of cynicism can obscure the essential truth that this world needs social justice warriors, people dedicated to protecting the most marginalized, to bringing them fully into the embrace of fundamental rights and liberties. This need is nowhere more obvious than in the #BlackLivesMatter movement, founded by three Black women who put themselves on the line to launch this new (and yet sadly not at all new) front in the ongoing battle for civil rights. Those women, by the way, are named Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi. Their names are too often erased from discussions of the movement and its creation.
Of course, folks have been laboring deep in these trenches for generations (and far longer). But the trajectory of what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., called “the arc of the moral” is punctuated by fits and starts and stalls and the occasional explosion that creates a brand new critical mass, fueling a new burst of speed and a jump in distance traveled on its path toward justice. We seem to be at one of those critical moments now, as the movement passes the threshold of mass-consumption novelty and enters a new stage marked by real traction and longevity.
In our work, we meet a great many people: some in person, others only at a distance, but with no less a touching of spirits for that. And once in a while, we’re fortunate enough to encounter clients who are kindred spirits, who become friends, who are modern-day heroes and role models: people who believe in justice and truth, in beauty and compassion, and who live their beliefs every day. Today’s featured piece was made expressly for one such client, one such friend, one such role model.
We first “met” the owner of this piece some four years ago. He contacted us out of the blue, wanting to commission a cuff bracelet. He had some ideas as to size and stones, but he wanted Wings to design something expressly for him, something that would protect him in his work. Back then, we didn’t know what his work was, but Wings turned to his old stones, and came up with something that filled the need. Late one night a couple of months ago, while searching for a photo of a different piece from the same period four years ago, I came across the photo of that cuff.
The very next day, the owner of that very piece contacted us, seeking help with a different need. Over the course of several conversations with Wings, he wound up also commissioning another cuff, one to “match” his first in the sense of creating a protective pair, but not one identical in design. We sent him photos of some of the large old stones in Wings’s inventory, and he chose the one that spoke most deeply to him — one that was featured, as a matter of fact, in our final edition of Turquoise Tuesday at the end of last year.
The stone is an exceptionally large cabochon of Number Eight turquoise: old, wholly natural, simultaneously very delicate and extraordinarily bold. It’s been in Wings’s collection for more years than he can remember, waiting for the right project. This was it.
Mindful of the important work our friends do, and of the inherent risks to them in doing it, Wings set about creating a piece that would contain symbols of Spirit’s protection. He said that the imagery came to him as of its own accord, and simply flowed, one stage into the next, throughout the creative process.
The name of the piece was Prayers On a Starburst Sky. It summoned images of the nurturing, life-sustaining blessings of the rain itself, coupled with the motif of the eagle feather that sends our prayers to Spirit, all wrapped in the invocation of the very sacred spaces where Spirit lives. I wrote, as I usually do, a description for the piece for Wings’s own records. from that description:
Eagle feathers carry our prayers to Spirit on smoke and winds and stardust. Here, two feathers overlay a heavy scalloped cuff, twisted-wire shafts leading downward to a repoussé starburst, its nova tossing up a stardust trail for the prayers to follow through a spiraled galaxy. The stars return the prayers to center, where they reach Spirit aloft in the heavens, ensconced in the blue of a very large, very old natural cabochon of Number Eight turquoise. Representations of the Sacred Directions coming together to create the sacred space trace the length of the inner band and rest against the skin.
Sterling silver; Number Eight turquoise $1,200
It’s a one-of-a-kind work, one that will not be replicated. The cabochon alone is unique, but it’s a personalized design, as well, one that Wings created specifically for the man who now wears it.
This was a piece that was a joy for Wings to make, a joy for me to watch take shape (and to have the privilege of putting its description into words thereafter). Part of the joy exists simply in watching something so beautiful, so perfect for tis intended purpose, evolve into a finished piece. Part of it exists in knowing where the piece went, in knowing the person who wears it, and in the hope that it will protect him as he goes about the essential work that fills his days.
And on this #ThrowbackThursday, it’s a joy finally to be able to write about it here.
~ 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 owner.
