Sixteen degrees at dawn; a reported low of eight. For tonight, they’re projecting a low a seven.
And yet, the air is slowly but surely warming again, reaching some fifty degrees yesterday. The snow is now only a veneer of a few inches. Everywhere else, it’s deep wet mud.
Still, the morning is icy, and warmth welcome. So for today, we return to the series we began on Wednesday, with the second piece in Wings’s Firebird Collection. From its description in the Necklaces Gallery here on the site:
RedWing Necklace
Second in Wings’s Firebird series: this one, evoking the colorful feathers of the red-winged blackbird native to this land. A single wing of brilliantly polished rosarita, bezel-set and trimmed in twisted silver, opens into “feathers” of two small sterling silver spacer beads flanked by a pair of larger ones. The pendant hangs from a strand of beads in the colors of the blackbird’s cloak: graduated glossy natural jet discs alternating with the crimson of old natural branch coral, terminating at either end in a segment of tiny olivella-shell heishi in the delicate ivory color of the bird’s wing bars. The pendant hangs 1-7/8″ in length (including bail) by 7/8″ across at the widest point (the silver beads at the bottom). The cabochon is 1-1/8″ long by 5/8″ across at the widest point. The strand of beads is just over 17.5″ (all dimensions approximate). Close-up view of pendant shown below.
Sterling silver; rosarita (gold slag); branch coral; jet; ivory olivella-shell heishi
$1,600 + shipping, handling, and insurance
We had fewer blackbirds here than usual this year, red-winged and otherwise — another casualty, no doubt, of climate change. They are mostly birds of summer, traveling in small dark flocks alit with small touches of flame. They gather at the feeder in ones and twos, spending a few months with us, sharing space and sustenance before journeying southward ahead of the snow.
This year, those that returned did so while winter was yet with us, flashes of jet and red fire against the thick white blanket that shrouded the land. A few, no more than a family or two, stayed with us through the summer, but they are gone now.
They are small birds, and skittish — unassuming save for the scarlet accents on the feathered black robes of the males. The females are far more subtle, cloaking themselves in striped and speckled shades of brown, the better to blend into their surroundings for safety’s sake. Both are known for their industriousness at gathering food and shiny things, too. Less well known is the beauty of their song, the sharp clear notes of a bell interspersed with complex burrs and trills.
Bells and feathers both find expression in this piece, a crimson wing-like pendant bejeweled with small silver beads, a tiny clapper in constant motion within a bell housing, singing a crystalline song. It’s a song as clear as the cold late-autumn air, but one that summons the sounds of summer.
Perhaps it’s mostly their association with the warmer months, but they make me feel similarly warm on cold wintry days: these small modest birds who hold the flames in a feathered grip, who carry the fire across the sky on compact yet powerful wings.
~ Aji
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