And still, the work has to get done somehow.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Look at that sky. You'd never know that half the Southwest is in flames, and half is being flooded as I write (or will be very soon). We should get some of the rain, but I'm guessing it won't be anything nearly as heavy. On the other hand, it might be enough to put out the fire just west of us.

It's hot today, and yet, it still feels like fall: Indian summer, that point at the very end of September (and increasingly, into October) when the heat returns for one last suffocating round even as the air becomes impossibly arid and clear.

And to think that all of these disasters were preventable.

It's hard to feel like we're getting anywhere amid all the constant grief. The colonial world can invent all the polysyllabic words it wants, but what it comes down to, for us, is grief, raw and not in the least abstract.

And still, the work has to get done somehow.

I've managed to get two big things paid this week; we have to pay a third big one on Monday, two days from now. If I could make one more sale this weekend, I'd feel a lot better about all of it, because there are just too many demands on us, and not enough coming in to cover it, especially with my Patreon down by a few hundred a month. Worse, the platform's carelessness in switching to a new payment processor without notifying anyone has caused a lot of banks to label the whole platform as fraudulent, so I've been advised by patrons that I can probably expect a much lower payout yet on September first. I'm not going to mince words; I'm scared.

As I've been saying, there's a lot of new work on the site: The other day, 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, other work. The other night, I got the new cuff posted here, and it's incredible; selling that alone would do a lot right now. Sales have been terribly slow all year, and now we are quite literally at the point of not being able to make it, never mind the dental stuff (he's unilaterally decided to push that back yet again). I don't have any way to solve 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.