Big if.

Photo copyright Aji, 2025; all rights reserved.

Two of the hearts currently in the works. What we're waiting for is to be able to get beads for them [and the Rosarita one not pictured, and for the lapis and ingot oval I posted a few days ago]. They don't re-open until Wednesday, so it has to wait until then, which means the pieces will be complete maybe Thursday/Friday, if all goes well. Big if.

These are both unique; you won't find anything like this just anywhere. The one on the left is. material called "Leland Blue" [sometimes called "Leelanau Blue"]; it's from my homelands. It's a type of slag that resulted from the refining process at the old Leland Blue Iron Works in Leelanau County, MI. Leelanau is both county and town, and people will try to tell you that it's "an old Indian name," but that's all bullshit. Henry Schoolcraft, curse his black colonizer soul in hell, made it up, deciding it sounded "Indian" [it doesn't], and spread the lie that it was.  That's probably the least of his sins, though. Anyway, back to the slag:  It's glass, essentially, and it. manifests in that teal shade, more green than blue but with both in it, and what looks very much like cherry blossoms scattered through it in shades of peach and pink and off-white.

The one on the right is an actual mineral, but not your usual kind: It's silicon. Yup, the exact same mineral that gets converted into the silicon wafers used in chips for computers, cell phones, etc. This, specifically, is what's known as "rejected silicon," meaning that it didn't pass whatever QC tests would have enabled it to be made into such chips. A lapidary artist whose work Wings uses frequently got hold of it, cabbed it into a heart, and left the ripply surface as it was. It's charcoal gray, but there's a silvery shimmer all through it.

At least Wings got some work done today. As usual, for me it's been all interruptions all the time, which is why I'm here doing what should've been done this morning so late at night now. It's been an awful weekend thus far, and I'm so frustrated, and in so much physical pain and with so much fatigue, that I just want to cry. I can't. But yesterday, I managed to aggravate my subluxed hip and both thumbs [a subluxation is a partial dislocation of the joint, and it's extremely painful], plus dislocating the joint on my right [dominant] hand and wrist where the radial and ulnar bones connect to the carpal joint, AND dislocating a couple of ribs on the left side, resulting in several pulled muscles. No, there's nothing I can do about it except ride it out until each goes back in place, and cope with the pain while I wait.

Meanwhile, all the usual issues continue apace. So does the work, our own and the vocational stuff that we have no choice but to do. And, of course, the world is still on fire, they're still coming for us all, and we still have to worry about our communities, about our relatives [both of whom are disproportionately affected by this illegal "funding suspension"], . . . and about us. Last year was indescribably bad on pretty much every single front, especially sales. This year, already a month into it, and it's not appreciably better. I have GOT to make some sales, since we've had only two so far in this new year, and we're already in the second month. It takes at least one sale a week [sometimes more] just for us to break even on the year, and last year? We didn't even do half that. We're going to have to replace the well pressure pump, without question. Taxes are coming. Now we have a potential security issue, and I think we're going to have to hire someone to install a camera system here [the distance is too great for the little cheap cameras; this will require something a lot more sophisticated (and a lot more costly, natch)]. My laptop apparently will have to wait yet another year [assuming I can keep this alive that long, which I can't assume for a moment, actually]. So now would still be a good time to buy. TONS of new and fabulous work on the site, and tons more on the way, too. But I've got to sell something, for the love of all that's holy. I can't live with this level of unrelenting stress on top of everything else.

Links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (Amazon cards are probably most useful at this point); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

After such a grim year, this one far worse than the last, we urgently need to begin 2025 on a better footing before taxes take every cent, so please share all of the links. 

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.