This short winter season of love is over, Lent is in full swing, and here, at least, the wind appears ready to usher in the newest storm.
The mercury reads fifty-three, but it feels 20 degrees colder; the forecast predicts the possibility of gusts in excess of fifty miles per hour.
It also predicts snow for tonight and tomorrow.
Thermometer notwithstanding, the air is cold and harsh. It is not a day to be alone, without the comfort of warmth, light, and love.
Today’s featured work is actually two: a pair of items crafted at this time last year, the last of the series within a series to which they belong. Each embodies, in its own way, the themes of this week, of the warmth of the fire, the illumination of the light, and love’s nurturing embrace. It’s fitting, too that each should function, on a physical level, as a small embrace of sorts, jeweled coils that wrap delicately yet securely around the wrist.
They appear here inverted from their original order. The first can be interpreted in two ways, as talisman or charm to secure the object of one’s love, or as the sense of healing and harmony that true love brings with it. Perhaps it manages to be both at once. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Love Medicine Coil Bracelet
In some cultures, it’s a charm; in others, more literal medicine; in still others, something more elemental yet. It’s love medicine, an aid in the seeking of love, sought for its talismanic power and ability to inspire love in the object of one’s affections, or at least in one’s confidence to approach him or her. Here, Wings brings together elemental medicine motifs in a charm that assumes a spiraling shape and power. The coil is anchored at either end with earthy round onyx beads that flow into larger round beads of sardonyx, red and orange and brown and black and white marbled together like the elements and the winds all melding in a powerful storm. Bright orange carnelian in polished nuggety chips lead toward a second length of sardonyx, all leading to a center segment of seven large round beads of deep red jasper, each highly polished and aswirl in mysterious wisps of color. Beads are strung on memory wire, which expands and contracts to fit virtually any wrist. Jointly designed by Wings and Aji.
Memory wire; red jasper; carnelian; sardonyx; onyx
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Of this entire series, The Love Collection, this has always been one of my favorites. It’s as elemental as passion itself, fire dancing in the path of the storm.
The second of today’s paired works is one that symbolizes the hope and promise of love, the acts of its early stages when all is new and nothing assured. From its description in the same section of the same gallery:
The Courting Flute Coil Bracelet
The courting flute is a traditional Native red cedar flute, carved and painted at the end in the form and shape of a bird’s head. A young man who wishes to court a young woman will announce his attentions publicly by serenading her from outside her lodge, giving her an opportunity to respond, but from a respectful distance. Here, Wings pays homage to the cranes and woodpeckers and other birds whose song the courting flute borrows with a spiraling melody of coppery reds. At the center are faceted round orbs of smoky quartz flanked by fiery amber that flows, lava-like, into segments of round blood-red jasper beads. Each length of jasper ends in more smoky quartz, flanked at either end by amber. Toward either end, tiny nuggets of soft red branch coral terminate in old-style faceted copper barrel beads. Beads are strung on memory wire, which expands and contracts to fit virtually any wrist. Jointly designed by Wings and Aji.
Memory wire; red jasper; smoky quartz; amber; branch coral; copper
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
In our way, the courting flute is a longstanding tradition in many cultures. Even among those for whom it has not always been a traditional practice, some have adopted it as a testament to its timeless beauty — and, perhaps, to its effectiveness.
Today feels like a day when medicine is in short supply, but there is indeed a flute at play upon the currents: the song of the wind presaging the storm. It is not, to our ears, a particularly romantic melody, but who’s to say that it is not romantic among the spirits who sing it? In its way, it is, after all, the wind’s courting of the snow, a precursor to their union in the vortex of the storm.
As we settle into the long downward slope of winter, looking toward the calendar’s early days of a spring already long since mostly here, we can expect more storms, and certainly a great deal more wind. Such elemental spirits may enjoy their freedom, but for mere mortals it is a sign that we are entering the most difficult time of the year.
In these early and still-bitter days, it’s worth seeking warming fires of passion, an illuminating glow of love.
~ Aji
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