Not in its finished form.

Photo copyright Aji, 2022; all rights reserved.

One of about four new pieces that I may be able to post yet tonight. That one is not in its finished form, however much it appears to be; at the moment, Wings's is out in the studio hard at work on this and two others, plus a ring.

Speaking of not in its finished form, neither is anything else these days. Yesterday was demoralizing, finding out the hoops of money, time, and battle with the crooks at the lab corp just to get this new treatment, and that assumes that the labs don't wind up excluding me on a genetic deficiency, and also that it has a hope in hell of working. Because by last night, the pain and fatigue were completely out of control, and it's only gotten worse today. 

I can't do this. There's too much breathing down my neck, and there's no help from any quarter, and I am at my wits' fucking end right now. The rest is cut-and-paste, because no, I don't have the spoons (and I hate that fucking infantile term, but it's what everyone knows), and I also know tht most folks haven't even bothered to read it the first time around. I am staring down the barrel of a very deadly fall and winter, and dealing with all the practicalities of it falls to me and me alone, and if I do not bring in some decent sales this weekend and next week, we are well and truly fucked. Mostly me, because, agian, I'm the one who deals with it, and also, I'm the one with several ridiculously expensive medical appointments in the offing over the next two weeks, and if nothing changes this weekend, every last one of them is getting canceled. All of it. I am so fucking tired; people have no idea.

Last Thursday set us back the $350+ that we have to come up with every 8 weeks to cover the farrier and horse vet for Miika. The animals come first, because this was done to them (by someone else) and they depend on us to fix it. But that puts me in a bind for other stuff. And there's a lot coming down the pike in the next few weeks for us, on a lot of fronts. There's the current tax bill, the regular installment payment for '21 taxes, due more or less now; there's the quarterly '22 payment due by mid-September. There's all the outlay last week on the last of the monthly bills and on medical stuff, and four figures' worth of medical stuff between now and the first week of September just for me, plus the cost of injections for Wings's shoulder next week. It all has to be paid in full at the time. In cash.

And I hope very soon I'll have the fundraiser info to promote for Wings's son, because he needs all the help we can give him with this.

But I need help to bring in sales to cover it all. Going off the lupus meds has immediately and drastically worsened my connective tissue problems, and now it's not the meds keeping me awake, but the pain. It's hard to function, especially since the effects won't be clear of my system before the end of the year, probably, and that means I'm still dealing with intermittently dangerously low blood glucose levels, too, on top of the way my pain has insnttly been jacked along with my mobility also dropping through the floor. But I have to chase sales, and I can't do this alone. I really, really need some help.

Meanwhile, as you can see, Wings is still cranking out new inventory when he can, but he's suddenly having to be much more mindful of what he creates, given the crisis-level spike in silver prices. As I said earlier, we just learned that both silver suppliers in this state have more than tripled their silver prices (for some types of silver, much more), which has left me pretty badly shaken. And it's across the board; even small things, like findings and earring wires and backs, have gone way, way up. He's got enough for now to do what he needs to do, but nothing's going to change anytime soon, given that the justifications for it will be "supply-chain issues," "fuel prices," "war in Ukraine," and "inflation"; these prices are here for the foreseeable future. It's going to put a lot of Native smiths and jewelers completely out of business, and to make sure that Wings does not become one of them, I have GOT to make some sales. That's especially true with the holidays coming; these silver spikes are going to make this fall a crisis point for a lot of jewelers. Unfortunately, I'm being hobbled by everything else. All the links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priority is first and foremost, the other ladder; also sheets);
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

We're still hoping to put aside enough for a new well when the ground thaws enough to drill in the spring, too, Nah, we've given up on the well. No one's available to drill before late next year at the earliest, and this year's tax burden means we would never be able to afford it anyway. But it's even more of a good time to make a purchase, because Uncle Sam is a vindictive colonizer, and my current stress levels about paying it all are off the charts. And there's lots of fabulous work, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2022; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.