It is snowing again.
The storm that was expected to end at midnight has decided to remain for a few more hours, at least. In these post-dawn hours, the entire world is white, some of it still aslumber beneath a blanket two feet deep. The mountains, ordinarily nearly close enough to touch, are invisible behind a a veil whose color shifts, like silk, from white to gray to blue at any given moment.
This is winter.
In the lands of my childhood, this was simply life in this season. Oh, the drifts were not always two feet deep, but the presence of the great lakes on all sides assured snow more days than not. In the intervening quarter century since I was last there of a winter, climate change has accelerated to the point where, even there, “winter” is no longer a sure thing.
Days like today make me feel like I’m five again, awestruck at the wonder the world has to offer.
It’s apt, then, that I should already have planned to highlight the cuff shown above for today’s entry in our Wednesday/Weekend series featuring Wings’s current body of work. Apt on more than one level, actually: The choice of stones, and indeed even the name of the piece, embody the very weather outside the window; and unlike the rest of our inventory, this is a work created expressly for a small child. It’s a baby bracelet. From its description in the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Snowflakes Child’s Cuff Bracelet
In traditional cultures, the children wear traditional dress, right down to the jewelry, designed and sized just for them, but made in the styles their elders wear. This little cuff is a perfect example, one that embodies the energy and spontaneity and excitement of childhood balanced and tempered by calming protective influences. Made of sterling silver half-round wire, the band neither given neither an aged patina nor a mirror finish, buffed just enough to make it smooth against the skin. At its center rest three small bezel-set stones: an oval cabochon of snowflake obsidian, where the extremes of hot and cold meet and meld, flanked on either side by tiny round stones of soothing lapis lazuli.
Sterling silver, snowflake obsidian, lapis lazuli
$135 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Even now, the soft blue of the northern sky is trying to find its way through the clouds with the help of Father Sun. Perhaps later today, but certainly by tomorrow, the world will be a much harsher place: sun hard and much too bright, snow turned into an instrument of blindness, temperatures plunging well below zero to transform the drifts into hard-packed ice.
But for just this morning, this moment after dawn, it’s possible to see this winter world perhaps more as it truly is: through a child’s eyes.
~ 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 owners.
