Today dawned cold and clear, not a single cloud in the sky as far as the eye could see. The sky is the hard bright blue of early spring, the one that assures us that no precipitation will be forthcoming, and should an errant cloud happen to stray into view, the winds will drive it out forthwith.

In truth, the winds are not as bad today as they have been much of the last couple fo weeks, but they’re brisk enough to. make a temperature currently registering around sixty degrees feel very much colder indeed. It’s the paradox of spring here, a time when we should be feeling the air and earth warming around us, but the constant gale-force winds give us a dust-bowl discount winter instead.

Of course, it’s also far too early for spring here now. At this point in the year, we should be talking about preparing for the next big snowstorm, not wondering when or if we’ll be able to wander around outside in shirtsleeves.

Just afternoon, a single cloud appeared in the southern sky, one tiny curling puff of white just above the horizon. Even that is gone now, blown apart by the winds, as though they are determined to reinforce the truth that no snow will be granted us now. When the sky sheds a single tear, we call it the rain, but there must first be the woven webwork of clouds to make it possible, what holds and releases the waters of life.

Out the window, the sky is uncompromising: a hard, relentless blue that admits of nothing but more drought.

Today’s featured work, one of Wings’s newer pendants, is emblematic of the gift that the clouds deliver to and from these alpine desert skies — a gift the earth below needs so desperately now. It’s built around a jewel that we call the Skystone for that very reason, because it seems a piece of the sky itself, shed like a tear, like the rain, fallen to earth and hardened by its heat into a gem of talismanic power. From its description in the Pendants Gallery here on the site:

The Sky Sheds a Single Tear Pendant

The sky sheds a single tear, and it becomes the rain. With this pendant built around an extraordinary Skystone, Wings evokes the shape and spirit of the First Medicine in beautifully spare and elegant form. The focal is formed of a large freeform cabochon of ultra-high-grade black-web Kingman turquoise with faint water webbing, a teardrop of electric sky blue with a fine matrix of tightly woven black chert, a raindrop reflecting clouds and lightning together as it falls to Earth. Wings has set this phenomenal artwork of Earth and Sky in a low-profile scalloped bezel edged with a fine, slender strand of twisted silver. The bail, small, subtle, and lightly flared, is stamped freehand along its center with paired ancient motifs that signify the thunderheads that deliver the rain to a land that survives because of its gifts. Threaded through the bail is a slender strand of sterling silver snake chain. Pendant including bail hangs some 2″ long by roughly 1″ across at its widest point; the bail is 1/2″ long by 1/2″ across at the widest point; the bezel alone is just shy of 1-5/8″ long; the cabochon is 1-3/8″ long by 3/4″ across at the widest point; the chain is a substantial 3mm size, 18″ long, excluding findings [all dimensions approximate]. A view of the pendant with the chain is shown above and at the link.

Sterling silver; ultra-high-grade black-web Kingman turquoise
$1,600 + shipping, handling, and insurance

This is a truly extraordinary stone, with ultra-fine, tight, delicate webbing throughout that diffuses into faint water-webbing near the bottom. the blue is clear and bright, the exact shade of the desert sky. And the slightly irregular shape, part oval, part teardrop, gives it a talismanic feel, as though wearing it will serve the same protective purpose as its ancestors did when our own braided them into their horses’ manes, attached them to weapons and tools, or tied them around their own necks.

The scalloped edging of the bezel shows it off to fabulous effect, too, revealing as much of its striking surface as possible while still holding it securely. Leaving the sole adornments to the slender strand of twisted silver and the simple stampwork of the bail was inspired, because a stone of this beauty and value deserves to speak entirely on its own terms.

And, of course, we need to listen. Here, this serves as reminder of the gifts our world provides, gifts of the First Medicine that sustain the earth beneath our feet, that which grows from it, and all of us who live and move upon it. It’s the breathteaking blue of the sky and the dark-webbed clouds of the storm in one glorious gem: a wearable manifestation of that which holds and releases the waters of life.

And there is nothing more valuable in these lands than that, especially now.

~ Aji

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2025; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.