About to get rolled over.

Photo copyright Aji, 2022; all rights reserved.

Once again, pointing up these three new works that Wings finished only yesterday. Each got posted here and in its respective gallery entry last night, but it was late enough that all three of them could use some more traction. There are three more currently in the works, although all three are turning out to be more elaborate than these (and mostly with higher-value stones), so they will be at a somewhat higher price point that these first three.

Meanwhile, I need to pull in some sales from somewhere, because I'm behind a four-figure eight-ball right now, and about to get rolled over. And it's all going to get worse. The rest explains, but it's all cut-and-paste, because I am still just too wiped out and in too much physical pain to write anything new right now. I don't know how I'm supposed to cope with this level of pain and still function.

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.                                                   

Red Willow Spirit: A Radiant Floral Medicine

Photo copyright Wings, 2022;
all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's an edition of Red Willow Spirit for the late-arriving blossoms of summer, those that dance with the winds of an early fall. It's three images linked by two works of wearable art, all of them manifest in a radiant floral medicine that brightens the land now, and our days with it.

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 to make it through this third year of pandemic and loss (and a spectacularly costly couple of months, with much more to come), so shares of the site links are much appreciated.

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.        

Three new works by Wings, with more to come.

Photo copyright Aji, 2022; all rights reserved.

Earlier today I promised three new works by Wings, with more to come. Those first three are here. It's been just shy of three years (like, within three weeks to the day) since he created a new pendant for inventory (emphasis on pendant, as opposed to a necklace that includes a pendant). Each of these is formed of one major focal cabochon and three smaller accent stones; each does ship with a small sterling silver snake chain, but they're presented here without it.

First up, the one that I think is probably my personal favorite (although it's really hard to choose), and the one shown above: The First Forest Light. That focal cabochon? It's a wafer-thin slice of a pine cone, an actual pine cone, in gorgeous blue resin. Beneath are three small round cabochons of sunny golden rutilated quartz, and do they ever catch the light. You can read its full description here.

The second work evokes the opposite end of the day:

Photo copyright Aji, 2022; all rights reserved.

This is called The Last of the Storm, and it really does look like our sunsets now with the final few drops of rain falling beneath a sky in flames. This one is apple coral, really fiery with visible porous banding and a beautiful beveling job on its edges, with silky, silvery Labradorite beneath. Those cabs really refract the light, too. You can read its full description here.

The third is a little less about the sky (albeit not entirely), and more about the waters beneath it:

Photo copyright Aji, 2022; all rights reserved.

This one is called Drops From the Sacred Lake, and it's every bit as blue as you'd expect it to be. That's genuine Afghanistan lapis lazuli, an incredible cobalt blue in a spectacularly large oval, marbled faintly with deeper blues and with a shimmering dust of iron pyrite all through it, like a sunlit spray on the surface of a lake. The drops beneath it are lapis in the same shades of blue, too. You can read its full description here.

All are priced at the same price point: $725 + s/h/i. That will likely be true of most of the rest to come, although at least one will likely be higher simply because it's built around a very high-value focal cab. As noted above, each will ship with its own 18" silver snake chain, but you can also string them on other types of chain, leather thongs, or small fine beads. All three are extraordinary one-of-a-kind pieces, and each can be ordered via the form linked below.

Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We badly need to make consistent sales to make it through this third year of pandemic and loss (and a spectacularly costly couple of months, with much more to come, particularly these next two to three weeks), so shares of the site links are much appreciated.

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.      

More to come.

Photo copyright Aji, 2022; all rights reserved.

New work coming tonight, provided that I can get all the photography and editing done and uploaded, and all the descriptions written. It's three separate pendants, two of whose elements you can see here, in part. There'll be more to come.

Wings had the first in his latest round of injections this morning; the second round will be next week. I have my first MAH treatment this week (assuming I pass the screening for it). The taxes are hanging over my head, and my pain levels are off the charts. I should be looking forward to my pain. therapy appointment next week, but I honestly don't know whether we'll be able to afford it. My hip and leg are so bad right now, but there are other things tht have to be paid first, and this has been a horribly low sales year.

And it's going to get worse. The rest explains, but it's all cut-and-paste, because I am frankly too wiped out and in too much physical pain to bother right now.

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.                                                   

Monday Photo Meditation: Summer Flowers, and Summer Light

Photo copyright Wings, 2022; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a photo meditation for a Monday in these waning days of the warm season, and for the beauty and space and place and season and time. It's a profoundly local image of indigenous medicine, of the gifts of summer flowers, and summer light.

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 badly need to make consistent sales to make it through this third year of pandemic and loss (with much more to come), so shares of the site links are much appreciated.

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.     

More things on fire.

Photo copyright Aji, 2022; all rights reserved.

It's blurry because I shot it through the living room window, but that was yesterday evening, very, very near us. More things on fire, no warning, no explanation, no nothing. I'm tired.

I'm not just tired. I'm increasingly disabled by the pain that has skyrocketed with going off the lupus meds. It's actually kind of terrifying, because I don't know what this means for mymobility in the months (never mind years) to come.

And speaking of things on fire, I'm just gonna cut and paste everything from yesterday, because I don't have the energy or brain clarity (thanks to my pain levels) to do anything more. But everthing's about to be on fire if I can't make some sales and get these tax bills covered. I mean, within the next two weeks. I've got to bring in a middling four figures just for all of that, and that doesn't even include the medical stuff. I need help.

The rest is from yesterday.

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.                                                  

Flowering Rain, Petal, and Light

Photo copyright Aji, 2022; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's an old-style traditional work to honor the beauty and medicine of the downward slope of summer. It's a cuff that distills the phemonena of the growing season into blossoms of silver and stone, a tribute to flowering rain, petal, and light.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We badly need to make consistent sales to make it through this third year of pandemic and loss (and a spectacularly costly couple of months, with much more to come), so shares of the site links are much appreciated.

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.