A visit from a friend.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

A visit from a friend. Nope, not venomous, although I wouldn't want him to bite me; supposedly it hurts like indescribable hell. But it's a bullsnake, not a rattler, and he's doing a wonderful job of keeping the mice population down. Given how many cases of plague and hantavirus there have been around here this year (not to mention West Nile, a few other unpleasant things, and of course COVID all day every day), having their vectors kept to a minimum is a good thing. He also knows us, and while he's not going to sidewind up and hiss hello, he's not particularly afraid of us, either; he's already figured out that we welcome him here.

Also, per Wings, snakes are supposed to mean prosperity (yes, even the other kind), and we really, really need some help on that front. Most of the year has been without sales, so we're going into our so-called "busy season" already way down from where we need to be. Meanwhile, everything else is terrible, too — I fully expect Patreon's constant recent screwups to mean that my payout on Friday, already down more than $300 a month, will be down significantly more. Our expenses keep climbing, people keep needing help, and I have no income to counterbalance it, not even a break-even point. I'm canceling my medical appointment next week, because it's just not possible.

And I still need to make one more sale before month's end. Like TODAY. I've been saying that for days, but no luck, and I'm out of time. I will be so glad to see the back of this month, and this season, but of course, we're n for a weeks'-long heatwave, apparently. No rain of any sort, although we just had a few odd drops while the sun is out.

One sale should be doable, but it doesn't seem to be. Yesterday, I'll posted Wings's two new pairs of earrings, here. There's plenty of other new work in the site, too. But it's been a horrible summer (horrible year, mostly) on seemingly every front, and I am at my wits' end trying to keep everything going. We have to make up a LOT of ground financially over the next four months. A LOT. We're going to need to stock up on firewood very soon, to say nothing of all the rest, and I am so tired of trying to make the math work when there's absolutely no way. My health isn't helping; migraine today on top of all the lupus and RA flaring, and precious little in the way of sleep. I don't have the capacity to chase them, but we need sales NOW. All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (apparently the sponges are unavilable, but the other two things I need that I can't get here are the Bar Keeper's Friend coffeemaker cleaner and descaler; we're entirely out of both); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                  

#TBT: Blossoms as Sharp as the Changing Winds' Edge

Photo copyright Wings, 2023; all rights reserved.

It's #ThrowbackThursday at The NDN Silver Blog, with a #TBT work that dates back some seventeen years and more, to a time when our seasons followed more normal patterns. It's a pair of earrings created via multiple freehand smithing techniques to evoke the cactus flowers' spirits, blossoms as sharp as the changing winds' edge.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. As always, this work will never be duplicated, but if the general style speaks to your spirit, simply inquire via the site's Contact form; Wings can create a version uniquely your own. We will still need to make consistent sales in this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and we are facing enormous expenses in the middle of our worst sales year in a very long time, so shares are desperately needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.        

Here it is: two new pairs of earrings by Wings.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

All right, I said that I would have new work, and here it is:  two new pairs of earrings by Wings. First up is the pair shown above; even though both pairs are the same price, these are longer, dagger-like, and more dramatic, so I'm leading with them:

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

These are called Flames On Fall Winds, so named for their fabulous colors and shape. These are outsized, beveled dagger cabochons of Red Creek jasper, which manifests in these incredible autumn colors. These are not a perfect match but they're clearly pulled from the same deposit, and the colors range from scarlet and crimson to bronze and gold to olive and brown. They're set into bezels made entirely by hand, meticulous saw- and file-work, and they hang from French wires. You can read their full description here . . . and also, look at how spectacularly well they would go with this necklace.

The second pair is a more classic design, thanks to the elegant stones at their centers:

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

This pair is called Sherds of a Turquoise Sky [why, yes, I am nerd enough to spell it sherds and pronounce it shards, the original way; why do you ask?]. These are built around gorgeous one-inch-long tabs of natural Nevada turquoise, likely either Fox or Royston, trapezoidal and ever so slightly asymmetrical, and manifest in that flawless blue of the desert sky: 

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Again, the bezels are all hand-made, and you can see the extraordinary cutwork just above. You can also read their full description here.

Selling either of these tonight would get us out of August and through the first of the month in one piece (which we currently cannot do); selling both would go a long way toward September expenses.

As always, Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We will still need to make consistent sales in this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and we are facing enormous expenses in the middle of our worst sales year in a very long time, so shares are desperately needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.    

It's going to be a hard one.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Bright blue skies. Fall skies. No rain in the foreseeable future, which means we now have to look to winter. 

It's going to be a hard one, but not for the reasons people think.

Most people think a "hard winter" is one with deep cold and heavy snow. Here? That used to be called "normal"; now it would be a gift. Based on what we're reading (and seeing), though, it's unlikely. A hard winter here, a terrible one, is one that's warm, with no real snow. We've had too many of those.

A hard winter is also one without sales. Most of the year has been that way, so we're going into our so-called "busy season" already way down from where we need to be. Meanwhile, everything else is terrible, too — I fully expect Patreon's constant recent screwups to mean that my payout on Friday, already down more than $300 a month, will be down significantly more. Our expenses keep climbing, people keep needing help, and I have no income to counterbalance it, not even a break-even point. I'm canceling my medical appointment next week, because it's just not possible.

And I still need to make one more sale before month's end. Like TODAY.

It should be doable, but it doesn't seem to be. Later on today, I'll have two new pairs of earrings on offer; Wings is setting the stones right now. There's plenty of other new work in the site, too. But it's been a horrible summer (horrible year, mostly) on seemingly every front, and I am at my wits' end trying to keep everything going. We have to make up a LOT of ground financially over the next four months. A LOT. We're going to need to stock up on firewood very soon, to say nothing of all the rest, and I am so tired of trying to make the math work when there's absolutely no way. My health isn't helping; migraine today on top of all the lupus and RA flaring, and precious little in the way of sleep. I don't have the capacity to chase them, but we need sales NOW. All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (apparently the sponges are unavilable, but the other two things I need that I can't get here are the Bar Keeper's Friend coffeemaker cleaner and descaler; we're entirely out of both); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                  

Petals of Rain, Leaves of Flame

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a work for the red flower rain of summer abundance, and for the fiery shades of incipient fall. It's a cuff, big, bold, and wrought in traditional style, one to honor recent petals of rain, leaves of flame newly manifest, and the memories of a healthy world we shall need to rebuild it.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We will still need to make consistent sales in this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and we are facing enormous expenses in the middle of our worst sales year in a very long time, so shares are desperately needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.    

Nothing else seems healthy, either.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

The first reds in the fire maple.

That's two months early; they don't normally start really changing until early October, and full red is closer to that month's end. But that assumes healthy trees and healthy soil, and now, thanks to all the damage of climate collapse, we have neither.

Nothing else seems healthy, either. Not the economy, not the country, not town or county, not what they're destroying with colonial overdevelopment and a refusal to do the bare minimum while COVID skyrockets yet again. Not my own health or our finances, either. I keep falling further and further behind, the pain so bad it keeps me awake endlessly, and then I'm too tired to focus properly in the daylight hours. I have two more weeks of this stupid protocol, the second half of it, and it's not going as well as the first half did, and I'm so discouraged. What works for other people always seems to have the opposite effect on me, and I'm afraid I'm undoing the good the first half did, despite the side effects. It hurts to sit, hurts to stand, hurts to walk, hurts to be.

I also need to make one more sale before month's end. Like, say, TODAY.

As I said last Monday, I managed to get two big things paid the prior week, and we paid the third big one then (but it was over $100 more than I was expecting, thanks to rates raised drastically since last year). I thought we'd be okay though the end of the month, but I didn't realize that I would need to re-order Miika's meds last week. And with my Patreon down by a few hundred a month coupled with the platform's carelessness in switching to a new payment processor without notifying anyone (and thereby causing a lot of banks to label the whole platform as fraudulent), it seems that I can probably expect a much lower payout yet on September first, and we have autopay items that come out that day (the discounts are too much not to keep them on autopay). It's been a horrible summer (horrible year, mostly) on seemingly every front, and I am at my wits' end trying to keep everything going. We have to make up a LOT of ground financially over the next four months. A LOT. We're going to need to stock up on firewood very soon, and I have more medical stuff coming up next week, and I am so tired of trying to make the math work when there's absolutely no way. We need sales NOW. All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (apparently the sponges are unavilable, but the other two things I need that I can't get here are the Bar Keeper's Friend coffeemaker cleaner and descaler; we're entirely out of both); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                  

Red Willow Spirit: Summer Showers, Fall Flowers

Photo copyright Wings, 2023;
all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's an edition of Red Willow Spirit for a threshold season, when all the usual patterns no longer hold and we are left to find beauty in what survives, or can be remembered. It's three images linked by two works of wearable art, pairs of earrings both, all illustrating the medicine of summer showers, fall flowers, and what they nurture and create despite the wounds to earth, season, and climate now.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. As always, his photos are available in any of the usual three formats; simply inquire via the site's Contact form. We will still need to make consistent sales in this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and we are facing enormous expenses in the middle of our worst sales year in a very long time, so shares are desperately needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.        

Bypassing.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Another massive storm; another almost complete bypassing of us. We got a very brief shower an hour or so ago; nothing more. Now, the skies are clear and blue, the sun is bright and hot, and I'll be surprised if we get anything more, even overnight.

Today was shipping day, and that took up the whole morning and early afternoon, but if your work was complete, it went out today. I'll get tracking links to folks tonight or tomorrow. I am hoping not to have to leave for any reason for the rest of the week, because I have too much to get done here, and being on my feet even that long at one time is too much these days. 

I also need to make one more sale before month's end.

As I said last Monday, I managed to get two big things paid the prior week, and we paid the third big one then (but it was over $100 more than I was expecting, thanks to rates raised drastically since last year). I thought we'd be okay though the end of the month, but I didn't realize that I would need to re-order Miika's meds last week. And with my Patreon down by a few hundred a month coupled with the platform's carelessness in switching to a new payment processor without notifying anyone (and thereby causing a lot of banks to label the whole platform as fraudulent), it seems that I can probably expect a much lower payout yet on September first, and we have autopay items that come out then. It's been a horrible summer (horrible year, mostly) on seemingly every front, and I am at my wits' end trying to keep everything going. We have to make up a LOT of ground financially over the next four months. A LOT. We're going to need to stock up on firewood very soon, and I have more medical stuff coming up next week, and I am so tired of trying to make the math work when there's absolutely no way. We need sales NOW. All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (apparently the sponges are unavilable, but the other two things I need that I can't get here are the Bar Keeper's Friend coffeemaker cleaner and descaler; we're entirely out of both); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                  

Monday Photo Meditation: What Blooms At the Rainy Season's End

Photo copyright Wings, 2023;
all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a Monday Photo Meditation for the last days of meteorological summer, and for the ways life surprises us even as fall encroaches. It's a celebration of irony, too, in that a day after the first red leaves appeared two months too soon, what blooms at the rainy season's end now is nothing less than what we thought were lost to us for good.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. As always, his photos are available in any of the usual three formats; simply inquire via the site's Contact form. We will still need to make consistent sales in this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and we are facing enormous expenses in the middle of our worst sales year in a very long time, so shares are desperately needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.      

I don't have any margin left.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Clouds building. The forecast suggests a small but decent chance this evening, but who knows.

The problem with these up-and-down weather patterns is that it sends my pain levels all the way off the charts. I'm struggling today, and it's not just physically; when this kind of pain is this inescapable, it ruins my brain, as well. And I don't have time for that. I don't have any margin left, on any front.

As I said last Monday, I managed to get two big things paid the prior week, and we paid the third big one then (but it was over $100 more than I was expecting, thanks to rates raised drastically since last year). I thought we'd be okay though the end of the month, but I didn't realize that I would need to re-order Miika's meds the other day. And with my Patreon down by a few hundred a month coupled with the platform's carelessness in switching to a new payment processor without notifying anyone (and thereby causing a lot of banks to label the whole platform as fraudulent), it seems that I can probably expect a much lower payout yet on September first. We have to make up a LOT of ground financially over the next four months. A LOT. I really need to make another sale this weekend. If I could just sell Friday's featured work, that would take care of the rest of this month, and most, probably all, of next month too.

As I've also been saying, there's a lot of new work on the site: Last week, I posted Wings's six new works (2 rings; 4 pairs of earrings [one of which is sold]); all items share the same price point, $425 each. And, of course, there are the new gemstone bead trios, one completed just the other day and featured here. The other night, I got the new cuff posted here, and it's incredible (and it's last Wednesday's feature, too); selling that alone would do a lot right now. He also has several new pairs of earrings in the design and early creation stages, probably a half-dozen or so. Sales have been terribly slow all year, and now we are quite literally at the point of not being able to make it if we can't keep pace weekly with steady sales (never mind the dental stuff; he's unilaterally decided to push that back yet again). Given the Patreon mess and my health issues, I don't have any way to solve any of that outside of making sales, so I'm begging folks, please: All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (apparently the sponges are unavilable, but the other two things I need that I can't get here are the Bar Keeper's Friend coffeemaker cleaner and descaler; we're entirely out of both); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                  

The Late Petals of Summer

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a work that was the very first in its category, one of Wings's signature series of gemstone bead necklaces. It's one wrought in the soft shades and foxfire glow of the late petals of summer, here for some weeks yet before the first hard frost of fall.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We will still need to make consistent sales in this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and we are facing enormous expenses in the middle of our worst sales year in a very long time, so shares are desperately needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.    

The land is wounded everywhere here.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

The clouds are already gathering. We're not supposed to see anything from it until after 5 PM, which tracks what happened yesterday. But Mora County is already under a flash-flood warning (not watch; warning) until after 5 PM, and what's going to get hit are the burn scars again.

The land is wounded everywhere here.

Here, rain helps it breathe a little again, but the damage is already done. We're both afraid of what this winter will bring (or, more accurately, will not bring), and the "experts" are already projecting next year to be worse. And still this colonial system is determined to make it worse, doing exactly the worst things and none of the right ones.

And it doesn't matter; the work still has to get done. Survival gets harder, but we have to keep going; we can't leave the world in the hands of those determined to kill it. As I said on Monday, I managed to get two big things paid last week, and we paid the third big one then (but over $100 more than I was expecting, thanks to rates raised drastically since last year). I thought we'd be okay though the end of the month, but I didn't realize that I would need to re-order Miika's meds the other day. And with my Patreon down by a few hundred a month coupled with the platform's carelessness in switching to a new payment processor without notifying anyone (and thereby causing a lot of banks to label the whole platform as fraudulent), it seems that I can probably expect a much lower payout yet on September first. We have to make up a LOT of ground financially over the next four months. A LOT. I really need to make another sale this weekend. If I could just sell yesterday's featured work, that would take care of the rest of this month, and most, probably all, of next month too.

As I've been saying, there's a lot of new work on the site: Last week, I posted Wings's six new works (2 rings; 4 pairs of earrings [one of which is sold]); all items share the same price point, $425 each. And, of course, there are the new gemstone bead trios, one completed just the other day and featured here. The other night, I got the new cuff posted here, and it's incredible (and it's Wednesday's feature, too); selling that alone would do a lot right now. He also has several new pairs of earrings in the design stages, probably a half-dozen or so. Sales have been terribly slow all year, and now we are quite literally at the point of not being able to make it if we can't keep pace weekly with steady sales (never mind the dental stuff; he's unilaterally decided to push that back yet again). Given the Patreon mess and my health issues, I don't have any way to solve any of that outside of making sales, so I'm begging folks, please: All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (apparently the sponges are unavilable, but the other two things I need that I can't get here are the Bar Keeper's Friend coffeemaker cleaner and descaler; we're entirely out of both); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                  

The Sacred Blues of the Season

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a work perfect for this particular work, one named for the drops from the sacred lake. It's a pendant, at once gentle and bold, a reminder of the power of the union of the waters of earth and sky, and the sacred blues of the season.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We will still need to make consistent sales in this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and we are facing enormous expenses in the middle of our worst sales year in a very long time, so shares are desperately needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.     

The rain can't get where it needs to go.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

That thunderhead? An hour ago. Now, an hour later, it's a wall the color of that dark gray at the base.

The trouble is, it's over the burn scars from last year's megafire, rather than here, where it's needed. There's already a flash-flood warning out for those areas for today. Meanwhile, the soil here is the consistency of ash.

The rain can't get where it needs to go.

Seems to be true of the other kind of rain this year. I was talking to the woman who runs the bead store where we get our stock, and she said their year has been the same: promising in March, then dropped off drastically to absolutely nothing. The billionaires are raking in money hand over fist here, though:  real estate, putting locals out of their homes; cannabis dispensaries (17 at last count, and growing), putting local businesses out of their locations; and that stupid ski valley and airport expansion, both stealing water, land, and every other resource imaginable.

While the rest of the population dies, or the next thing to it.

And it doesn't matter; the work still has to get done. As I said on Monday, I managed to get two big things paid last week, and we paid the third big one then (but over $100 more than I was expecting, thanks to rates raised drastically since last year). I thought we'd be okay though the end of the month, but I didn't realize that I would need to re-order Miika's meds yesterday. And with my Patreon down by a few hundred a month coupled with the platform's carelessness in switching to a new payment processor without notifying anyone (and thereby causing a lot of banks to label the whole platform as fraudulent), it seems that I can probably expect a much lower payout yet on September first. We have to make up a LOT of ground financially over the next four months. A LOT. I really need to make another sale this weekend. If I could just sell today's featured work, that would take care of the rest of this month, and most, probably all, of next month too.

As I've been saying, there's a lot of new work on the site: Last week, I posted Wings's six new works (2 rings; 4 pairs of earrings [one of which is sold]); all items share the same price point, $425 each. And, of course, there are the new gemstone bead trios, one completed just the other day and featured here. The other night, I got the new cuff posted here, and it's incredible (and it's Wednesday's feature, too); selling that alone would do a lot right now. He also has several new pairs of earrings in the design stages, probably a half-dozen or so. Sales have been terribly slow all year, and now we are quite literally at the point of not being able to make it if we can't keep pace weekly with steady sales (never mind the dental stuff; he's unilaterally decided to push that back yet again). Given the Patreon mess and my health issues, I don't have any way to solve any of that outside of making sales, so I'm begging folks, please: All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (apparently the sponges are unavilable, but the other two things I need that I can't get here are the Bar Keeper's Friend coffeemaker cleaner and descaler; we're entirely out of both); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                  

Friday Feature: The Stormy Blues of a Buffalo Sky

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

It's our Friday Feature at The NDN Silver Blog, with a masterwork for a day when rain seems possible, and there is space for hope. It's a necklace wrought by Wings in an old traditional style, five separate pendants set into silver frames and strung from dazzling jewels, in the form and shape and spirit of the stormy blues of a buffalo sky.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We will still need to make consistent sales in this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and we are facing enormous expenses in the middle of our worst sales year in a very long time, so shares are desperately needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.         

A constant state of grief.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

All those beautiful clouds this morning, and this is what's left: much too much blue for what we need. Every day, they say we'll get rain, and every day, it turns into a suffocatingly hot dry mess. It leaves us in a constant state of grief, watching the land dying around us. And that's not helped by other markers of grief invading my thoughts every time I turn around.

I'm glad yesterday's done for another year. There'll be more to come, but that one's in the rearview mirror for now. Of course, reminders are everywhere, especially with this society's murderous, genocidal refusal to deal with the pandemic in even the slightest way. In addition to skyrocketing reported COVID cases [never mind the thousands more that go untested and unreported daily], we now also have a record West Nile virus season on our hands, the largest single number of cases concentrated here, in the local hospital. That's the virus that took our nephew from his family three years ago. It's apparently also a booming year for both hantavirus and plague, and of course wildfire, and people won't even mask for that.

Yesterday was my first time venturing out in over three weeks. Probably the last time for another three (or at least two; I have a doctor's appointment in early September). It's literally taking your life into your hands to be out in public anymore. Besides, for me, having to run errands (run, ha, that's very funny) leaves me completely lame the next several days, and this time was no exception. I have dislocations in one knee, the opposite hip, both feet, and my right thumb, and yesterday aggravated them all.

But the work still has to get done. As I said on Monday, I managed to get two big things paid last week, and we paid the third big one then (but over $100 more than I was expecting, thanks to rates raised drastically since last year). I think  we'll be okay though the end of the month, but with my Patreon down by a few hundred a month coupled with the platform's carelessness in switching to a new payment processor without notifying anyone (and thereby causing a lot of banks to label the whole platform as fraudulent), it seems that I can probably expect a much lower payout yet on September first. We have to make up a LOT of ground financially over the next four months. A LOT.

As I've been saying, there's a lot of new work on the site: Last week, I posted Wings's six new works (2 rings; 4 pairs of earrings [one of which is sold]); all items share the same price point, $425 each. And, of course, there are the new gemstone bead trios, one completed just the other day and featured here. The other night, I got the new cuff posted here, and it's incredible (and it's today's feature, too); selling that alone would do a lot right now. He also has several new pairs of earrings in the design stages, probably a half-dozen or so. Sales have been terribly slow all year, and now we are quite literally at the point of not being able to make it if we can't keep pace weekly with steady sales (never mind the dental stuff; he's unilaterally decided to push that back yet again). Given the Patreon mess and my health issues, I don't have any way to solve any of that outside of making sales, so I'm begging folks, please: All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (apparently the sponges are unavilable, but the other two things I need that I can't get here are the Bar Keeper's Friend coffeemaker cleaner and descaler; we're entirely out of both); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                  

#ThrowbackThursday: The Last Healing Blues of Summer

Photo copyright Wings, 2023; all rights reserved.

It's #TBT at The NDN Silver Blog, with a #ThrowbackThursday work that dates back some thirteen yers, to one of Wings's small and informal signature series of pendants with a healing hand motif. This was, if memory serves, the only one set with a lapis stone, one that looked like a wild blueberry, and a stormcloud, too — the last healing blues of summer.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. As always, this work will never be duplicated, but if the general style speaks to your spirit, simply inquire via the site's Contact form; Wings can create a version uniquely your own. We will still need to make consistent sales in this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and we are facing enormous expenses in the middle of our worst sales year in a very long time, so shares are desperately needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.        

So everything's late.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

You might have thought all those clouds would have brought us something. Two dozen raindrops at a push; nothing more. It's dispiriting. The forecast for rain the rest of the week? yeah, that's what they originally said about every day since last Friday or so.

Faith is one thing; foolishness is another entirely.

And today's been a day, anyway. Yesterday was a marker; today had two (or three, if you count the one that involves the woman who stalked me with the aim of chasing me out of my life here, so that's always a fun reminder in addition to all the grief and loss). And today became, inadvertently, errand day (and also my first time leaving the house in more than three weeks, thanks to this medical protocol I've been on), and it tore apart the whole day.

So everything's late.  And I'm exhausted and sore all over.

But the work still has to get done. As I said on Monday, I managed to get two big things paid last week, and we paid the third big one then (but over $100 more than I was expecting, thanks to rates raised drastically since last year). I think  we'll be okay though the end of the month, but with my Patreon down by a few hundred a month coupled with the platform's carelessness in switching to a new payment processor without notifying anyone (and thereby causing a lot of banks to label the whole platform as fraudulent), it seems that I can probably expect a much lower payout yet on September first. We have to make up a LOT of ground financially over the next four months. A LOT.

As I've been saying, there's a lot of new work on the site: Last week, I posted Wings's six new works (2 rings; 4 pairs of earrings [one of which is sold]); all items share the same price point, $425 each. And, of course, there are the new gemstone bead trios, one completed just the other day and featured here. The other night, I got the new cuff posted here, and it's incredible (and it's today's feature, too); selling that alone would do a lot right now. He also has several new pairs of earrings in the design stages, probably a half-dozen or so. Sales have been terribly slow all year, and now we are quite literally at the point of not being able to make it if we can't keep pace weekly with steady sales (never mind the dental stuff; he's unilaterally decided to push that back yet again). Given the Patreon mess and my health issues, I don't have any way to solve any of that outside of making sales, so I'm begging folks, please: All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (apparently the sponges are unavilable, but the other two things I need that I can't get here are the Bar Keeper's Friend coffeemaker cleaner and descaler; we're entirely out of both); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                 

The Cooling Blues of a Kaleidoscope Sky

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's Wings's newest masterwork, an extraordinary cuff wrought freehand in a spectacular tribute to Indigenous silverwork's Art Deco heyday, and to the animating spirits of this threshold season now. It's a work of bold lines and great power for the end of a very hot season, a cuff wrought in the cooling blues of a kaleidoscope sky, like that gift of fall at this elevation.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We will still need to make consistent sales in this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and we are facing enormous expenses in the middle of our worst sales year in a very long time, so shares are desperately needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.     

Hot, windy, dusty, smoky.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Shot on the fly, which is why it's crooked. But that's how fast the dust devils kick up now. What the hell — what's a little more haze, given all the smoke we've had here today.

I've barely been outside, though, as a result: three, maybe four times all day, and I'm still sneezing and coughing from all the smog. Hot, windy, dusty, smoky. What else? Oh, and the leaves are turning yellow fast now, and this is another week of markers: today, IIRC, for one; tomorrow for two others. My spirit is tired.

And I'm full, full autoimmune flare today. Mostly it's the result of pushing myself beyond my illness's limits for far too many weeks straight, and that's really ramped up over the last week or so. I made it through yesterday's chimney cleanings, and now my body has shut down. It's all pain, everywhere, all the time, and it's just refusing to cooperate on any front. Meanwhile, I've been putting it through the stress of this new protocol, meds and supplements both, and I had to add a new one into the mix today. It's no wonder my whole body's on strike.

I managed to get two big things paid last week, and we paid the third big one yesterday (over $100 more than I was expecting, thanks to rates raised drastically since last year). I think  we'll be okay though the end of the month, but with my Patreon down by a few hundred a month coupled with the platform's carelessness in switching to a new payment processor without notifying anyone (and thereby causing a lot of banks to label the whole platform as fraudulent), it seems that I can probably expect a much lower payout yet on September first. We have to make up a LOT of ground financially over the next four months.

As I've been saying, there's a lot of new work on the site: Last week, I posted Wings's six new works (2 rings; 4 pairs of earrings [one of which is sold]); all items share the same price point, $425 each. And, of course, there are the new gemstone bead trios, one completed just the other day and featured here. The other night, I got the new cuff posted here, and it's incredible; selling that alone would do a lot right now. He also has several new pairs of earrings in the design stages, probably a half-dozen or so. Sales have been terribly slow all year, and now we are quite literally at the point of not being able to make it if we can't keep pace weekly with steady sales (never mind the dental stuff; he's unilaterally decided to push that back yet again). Given the Patreon mess and my health issues, I don't have any way to solve any of that outside of making sales, so I'm begging folks, please: All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (apparently the sponges are unavilable, but the other two things I need that I can't get here are the Bar Keeper's Friend coffeemaker cleaner and descaler; we're entirely out of both); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.