The Stars' Icy Alchemical Flame

Photo copyright Aji, 2025;
all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a pair of works for magic autumn nights, for the mystical flames of falling stars, weaving snow and fire across the darkened skies. It's a gemstone-bead built around extraordinary old vintage green glass and snowflake obsidian, and a spare, elegant scuff set with the latter material, together embodying the stars' icy alchemical flame that is part of fall's mystery and medicine here.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. Our expenses this year have been enormous in both senses of the word, and we officially entered the holiday creative season as of October first, which will require its annual huge investment of resources and time [and last week brought us another ~$1K in unexpected cash expense, repairs, scrips, medical]. We need to bring in consistent sales each and every week to make sure that everything is covered in time.

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.         

Alive like this.

Photo copyright Aji, 2025; all rights reserved.

Look at this glorious color; no, really, just look at it. It's extraordinary. It also might be the last we really have this year, if the forecast for regular rains over the next two weeks, starting tomorrow, holds true. That's because any rain now has the potential to turn to snow, the overnight lows are guaranteed to hit the freezing mark, and wet leaves don't survive that.

But this particular bit of color is a gift in another way, too. That's the smaller fire maple tree, the one Wings planted for me in late '17 or early '18, when I had nearly died more than once and was mostly confined to the couch, recovering. He put it right where I could always see it. and it's been one of my touchstones ever since. And this year, the drought almost killed it.

We really thought it might not make it. But he refused to give up, and while yes, there are some dead branches, the rest are alive like this. [And so am I.] We're both grateful.

This week just flew by; it really feels, as I said elsewhere this morning, that it should be no later than Tuesday. And I've still got work from Tuesday to do, too. But this is the season where we stretched to the limit now, and it's going to be nonstop between now and the end of the year.

In the meantime, I've GOT to bring in sales, and I've got to do it regularly, at least, if not actually daily. We were incredibly blessed to make three sales this week, which helps get us back on track a bit, but we'll need to bring in substantially more if we're going to bring the guys back to finish the repairs next week. [If I'm honest, there's a part of me that likes that idea, because it's so exhausting, but it needs to be done before winter, and we're already supposed to be getting rain most of next week.]

And that holiday creative season effectively began yesterday, and we're both already running 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. And it'll be that way until the end of the year. He also has to finish the last half-dozen or so commissions that are in the works [all of which are in various stages of completion] before he can turn his attention to cranking out holiday inventory in any real way. And we need to bring in sales now, both to cover his work building new inventory and simply to meet all the costs of this stupidly expensive year [on top of last year being the same; hell, last week, set us back about $1K in cash, between the repair and the guys and scrips and medical stuff]. If we could just continue to make regular weekly sales, we'd be fine . . . but we need to make those sales now, and so far, that's not happening. There's a lot of gorgeous new work up, but I've got to sell it for it to make any difference. This kind of stress is also not helping my health. I need that to change now, and fast. And to that end, links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here;
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And we do still need to make those regular weekly sales, so please share all of the links. We really do need this to be a better month than what we've had so far this year.

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.          

Friday Feature: An Auguring of Winter's Dusken Light

Photo copyright Aji, 2025; all rights reserved.

It's our Friday Feature at The NDN Silver Blog, with a single work show from three perspectives that embodies the beauty of the desert spirits of fall. It's a cuff built around a unique and unusual focal, an echo of tonight's autumn twilight skies and an auguring of winter's dusken light.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. Our expenses this year have been enormous in both senses of the word, and we officially entered the holiday creative season as of today, which will require its annual huge investment of resources and time [and last week brought us another ~$1K in unexpected cash expense, repairs, scrips, medical]. We need to bring in consistent sales each and every week to make sure that everything is covered in time.

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.         

My idea of fall.

Photo copyright Aji, 2025; all rights reserved.

Lots of color now. It's beautiful here. And in theory, we're supposed to get rain again starting Saturday, which means that it will cool off, at long last. These 80+ days are not my idea of fall. My idea of fall is sharp, cold mornings that steal your breath and a mercury that never gets above "sweater weather."

I said that yesterday was a lot, and yet somehow, today was even more so. Now, I'm profoundly irritated, because people are just so determined to be edgelord assholes, and it's all so unnecessary. That includes institutions locally; there is one that is openly violating its mission, and I have my own suspicions why that would be, but it's unacceptable, and they won't get any support from us until they clean house. At any rate, the very people they're supposed to be helping are the ones dealing with the fallout, which in turn means that [to a far, far lesser degree] I am too, trying to help them work around awful situations that were supposed to be resolved and instead were made worse.

Yeah, I know, I'm grumpy. But the whole fucking world is on fire, and you'd think that people would recognize that they might very soon need help themselves and stop being assholes to everyone else, but no.

In the meantime, I've GOT to bring in sales, and I've got to do it regularly, at least, if not actually daily. We were incredibly blessed to make one today, which helps get us back on track a bit, but we'll need to bring in substantially more if we're going to bring the guys back to finish the repairs next week. [If I'm honest, there's a part of me that likes that idea, because it's so exhausting, but it needs to be done before winter, and we're already supposed to be getting rain most of next week.]

And that holiday creative season effectively began yesterday, and we're both already running 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. And it'll be that way until the end of the year. He also has to finish the last half-dozen or so commissions that are in the works [all of which are in various stages of completion] before he can turn his attention to cranking out holiday inventory in any real way. And we need to bring in sales now, both to cover his work building new inventory and simply to meet all the costs of this stupidly expensive year [on top of last year being the same; hell, last week, set us back about $1K in cash, between the repair and he guys and scrips and medical stuff]. If we could just continue to make regular weekly sales, we'd be fine . . . but we need to make those sales now, and so far, that's not happening. There's a lot of gorgeous new work up, but I've got to sell it for it to make any difference. This kind of stress is also not helping my health. I need that to change now, and fast. And to that end, links are here [with the LaminaSaver back on the wishlist, because Miika goes through it at a rapid clip]:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here [priority at the moment is more of the LaminaSaver for Miika];
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And we do still need to make those regular weekly sales, so please share all of the links. We really do need this to be a better month than what we've had so far this year.

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.          

#ThrowbackThursday: The Mystic Glow of Night's Aurora

Photo copyright Aji, 2025; all rights reserved.

It's #TBT at The NDN Silver Blog, with a #ThrowbackThursday featured work that dates back just shy of a month, to early September of this year. It's one of a trio of commissioned works ordered by long-time clients, each piece intended to capture the mystic glow of night's aurora, which this single earring does in hauntingly beautiful form.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. This work will never be duplicated exactly, 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.  Our expenses this year have been enormous in both senses of the word, and we officially entered the holiday creative season as of yesterday, which will require its annual huge investment of resources and time. We need to bring in consistent sales each and every week to make sure that everything is covered.

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.        

Today has been *a lot*.

Photo copyright Aji, 2025; all rights reserved.

October first. Hard to believe the year's already almost over, but here we are. My honey brought me flowers; they're the perfect color for this month, and they smell so lovely.

Today has been a lot, and it's been nonstop. This morning, I saw Stormy and Cricket take off suddenly, running low to the ground, full tilt, chasing something at top speed. I took off after them [which isn't saying much, more hobbling than running for me], because if it was the pup who ran away from a rollover down the highway the other night, I didn't want them either chasing it onto the highway or bullying it here.

It wasn't. It was Coyote, and a big one, and I've never seen one run so low or so fast [and I've seen a lot of them over the years]. Apparently, he tried to grab Emerald, one of our Australorp chickens, and they caught him at it. Fortunately for Emmy, she, like the the other girls, is molting right now, so he grabbed a mouthful of tailfeathers . . . and that was all he got. He did manage to pull some out by the calamus; given the clumps scattered around in four different areas, giant amounts, I thought for sure he'd gotten Jade, Emmy's sister, who was missing. I looked everywhere, but no more feathers, no blood trail, no chicken, nada. I had work to do, so I got back to it; I took a break around 1 PM and we both searched everywhere. As I was heading off toward the south, I saw a shadow slip alongside the studio so I went that way, and sure enough, there was Jade, blinking in the bright sunlight. She had apparently been hiding underneath all the troughs and other gear behind the studio . . . for four and a half hours.

So all is well on that front, but at the same time, we've got to be more watchful, which means less time to do all the thousand and one things we both have to get done. I've been on the go all day, searching for the chickens, laundry, linens, working on specific household projects, all my usual work. The steroid shot seems to have helped,  not just my shoulder but generally working through the rest of my body and helping my other joints, too. But I did not, as I was hoping to do, escape the steroid headache. It took until this afternoon to break through, but it's here in full force now. Steroids work well for me, but they're absolutely miserable.

In the meantime, I've GOT to bring in sales, and I've got to do it regularly, at least, if not actually daily. That holiday creative season effectively begins today, and we're both already running 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. And it'll be that way until the end of the year. He also has to finish the last half-dozen or so commissions that are in the works [all of which are in various stages of completion] before he can turn his attention to cranking out holiday inventory in any real way. And we need to bring in sales now, both to cover his work building new inventory and simply to meet all the costs of this stupidly expensive year [on top of last year being the same; hell, last week, set us back about $1K in cash, between the repair and he guys and scrips and medical stuff]. If we could just continue to make regular weekly sales, we'd be fine . . . but we need to make those sales now, and so far, that's not happening. There's a lot of gorgeous new work up, but I've got to sell it for it to make any difference. This kind of stress is also not helping my health. I need that to change now, and fast. And to that end, links are here [with the LaminaSaver back on the wishlist, because Miika goes through it at a rapid clip]:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here [priority at the moment is more of the LaminaSaver for Miika];
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And we do still need to make those regular weekly sales, so please share all of the links. We really do need this to be a better month than what we've had so far this year.

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.          

The Mysteries of the Golden Season

Photo copyright Aji, 2025; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a masterwork by any measure, an old-style chandelier necklace animated by a beautifully contemporary spirit, created to mark the end of winter but just as perfect for the threshold of its return. It's a work that embodies the breathtaking beauty of the autumn light, and the mysteries of the golden season that are one last gift before the cold arrives to stay.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. Our expenses this year have been enormous in both senses of the word, and we officially entered the holiday creative season as of today, which will require its annual huge investment of resources and time [and last week brought us another ~$1K in unexpected cash expense, repairs, scrips, medical]. We need to bring in consistent sales each and every week to make sure that everything is covered in time.

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.