Among the lucky ones.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

I am never more grateful for being housed, at long last, than on days like this. Just seeing the smoke come out of the chimney? It's like looking at a full fridge or pantry, capable of making me cry.

These last days have been absolutely murderous, and I'm paying for it. Saturday was one thing, since you could argue it was voluntary, going out in public to that meetup to try to brainstorm solutions for unhoused folks locally. But having to spend Monday walking all over the damn place to solve a bureaucratic fuckup [not done yet], out in that brutal wind, and the winds being even worse yesterday? My pain levels are so bad that I got no sleep last night, had to be out early again today and on my feet and walking and waiting on hard surfaces again, and my misery levels are indescribable now.

And, as evidenced by the smoke up there, I know we're actually among the lucky ones.

It got down to twelve degrees last night, which meant wind chills in single digits, at best. That cold is an issue here, and it's why some of us are doing the work we're doing [although in my case, it's mostly from home and online; other folks are doing the harder stuff out in the streets]. As I said, some of us met on Saturday to try to figure out where we could put a dent in this mess. This was very introductory, but that was the point: figuring out what exists [very little] and what doesn't [nearly everything] and where we might be able to fill in a few of those gaps. I'll have more info in the days and weeks to come, but for now?  Go here, buy something, or several somethings, off the outreach group's wishlist, and you will literally be saving a life, probably more than one. It's not really possible to overstate how bad it is out there, nor how great the need is. I've sorted it in their Priority order, but they've given out so much stuff this week that they now have new priorities: hand warmers, snacks, tarps, duct tape, two-person tents [only $22 each!], the safety stuff like flashlights and pepper spray; they also need large-size men's stuff, socks, and large- and extra-large-size dog stuff, like collars and harnesses and dog coats, further down on the list.

And then there's my own actual work. WE NEED SALES. As always at this time of year, I'm already putting in 12- to 16-hour days every day, 7 days a week, because the work won't wait, and for us, being able to help anyone else starts with us making those sales, of course. But beyond that? I also am finding myself unexpectedly under the gun on another front; besides needing to bring in enough in seasonal sales to repay a big chunk on our '24 taxes, the election has made the need to replace my laptop NOW absolutely mandatory, before the end of the year, because the price, already hellish for the one I need, will skyrocket at the first of the year. So if you're contemplating buying? Now would be a really, really good time. Our laptop is our whole work, everything, and it fails me on the daily now.

Today's feature is a masterwork that's close to heart, but meant for someone else who needs its gentle but powerful spirit. It's a necklace called Butterfly Maiden, sterling silver, onyx, hawk's eye, and simbircite, on a strand of onyx, sardonyx, and sterling silver beads. So for tonight's inventory selections, four other "butterfly" works:

• "Hearts Aflutter" necklace, sterling silver; Rosarita [gold slag]; natural American turquoise that looks like Blue Moon or #8, on sterling silver; fire agate, and high-grade natural American turquoise [likely Sleeping Beauty], here;
• "Migratory Paths" cuff bracelet, sterling silver and old Kingman turquoise, all the micro-stampwork and scorework freehand with a wholly separate butterfly, saw-cut by hand, hand-made ingot beads for the body, the whole overlaid as though hovering, here;
• "Chrysalis Sun" earrings, sterling silver and fiery amber, formed of old-style traditional butterfly conchas, here; and
• "Illuminating Skies," an absolute masterwork of a concha belt, with 13 butterfly conchas, 12 classic oval conchas with perfect freehand concentric stampwork and turquoise focals, plus buckle stamped, scored, and hammered by hand; sterling silver, old turquoise that's likely Montezuma [buckle] and Royston [conchas], and heavy brown-black hardened leather, here.

There's more on the way very soon; he's got something like four more cuffs [an incredible one posted here Saturday], a couple of pendants, several new pairs of earrings [again, one, a small tiger iron pair, done yesterday and slated to go up by tonight, really, this time, or not, depending on how long I last tonight], and eventually all the new coils he'll need for holiday inventory. And I need to sell them all, because I still need to make sales weekly for us to catch up on the year and cover all the stuff still in the pipeline that needs covering [laptop, roof next year, more medical, always prepaid taxes, etc.]. So: GO BUY! Links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (Priority is the liquid soaps and Amazon cards, probably most useful at this point); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

After such a grim year, this one already far worse than the last, we really need to get what's left of 2024 onto a better footing before it ends, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2024; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                                        

Adaptation Becomes Transcendence

Photo copyright Aji, 2024;
all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a masterwork for Butterfly Maiden and the other small spirits of flight, staying late and still at the work of pollination. It's that being as you've never seen her, robed in monarch shades to remind us that humble beginnings that become extraordinary beauty, and that, in a world as wounded as this one is now, adaptation becomes transcendence.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. Christmas is now fewer than six weeks away already, with half of the winter holiday creative season already over, so get your orders in now. We need to bring in consistent sales at least weekly for the rest of the year, so shares are very much needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2024; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.           

Today was brutal.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

Today's lead photo at The NDN Silver Blog? An 8-year-old view of that same shot, albeit with a storm in the background, and weeping willows that are, you know, ALIVE. Not so much of that now, either the storm or the alive part. 

Today was brutal. There's no other word for it. It was much, much colder today in terms of actual temperature than it was yesterday, and the winds were even worse. And there is nothing in existence that jacks my pain levels and my inability to function like high winds. I can deal with cold, heat, rain, snow, you name it . . . anything but these stupid awful winds. It's fall! We're not supposed to have these, absent a storm, until spring! But here we are, year-round now.

And it's supposed to get down to twelve degrees tonight, which means the wind chills will be single digits, at best. That cold is an issue here, and it's why some of us are doing the work we're doing [although in my case, it's mostly from home and online; other folks are doing the harder stuff out in the streets]. As I said, some of us met on Saturday to try to figure out where we could put a dent in this mess. This was very introductory, but that was the point: figuring out what exists [very little] and what doesn't [nearly everything] and where we might be able to fill in a few of those gaps. I'll have more info in the days and weeks to come, but for now?  Go here, buy something, or several somethings, off the outreach group's wishlist, and you will literally be saving a life, probably more than one. It's not really possible to overstate how bad it is out there, nor how great the need is. I've sorted it in their Priority order, but they've given out so much stuff this week that they now have new priorities: hand warmers, snacks, tarps, duct tape, two-person tents [only $22 each!], the safety stuff like flashlights and pepper spray; they also need large-size men's stuff, socks, and large- and extra-large-size dog stuff, like collars and harnesses and dog coats, further down on the list.

And then there's my own actual work. WE NEED SALES. As always at this time of year, I'm already putting in 12- to 16-hour days every day, 7 days a week, because the work won't wait, and for us, being able to help anyone else starts with us making those sales, of course. But beyond that? I also am finding myself unexpectedly under the gun on another front; besides needing to bring in enough in seasonal sales to repay a big chunk on our '24 taxes, the election has made the need to replace my laptop NOW absolutely mandatory, before the end of the year, because the price, already hellish for the one I need, will skyrocket at the first of the year. So if you're contemplating buying? Now would be a really, really good time. Our laptop is our whole work, everything, and it fails me on the daily now.

Today's feature consists of two photos linked by one newish work of wearable art, a pendant that Wings completed only near the end of October. It's called The Bare Blue Bones of Night, and it's a fabulous mix of natural and human-made materials, actual pinecone in intense swirls of deep blue resin. And mindful that we really, really need to make some holiday sales and knowing that we have eight additional pendants in current inventory, here they all are:

• "The Sky Sheds a Single Tear," all new, a freeform teardrop of absolutely phenomenal ultra-high-grade black-web Kingman turquoise, here;
• "The Bluest Waters," also all new, with an inverted shield-cut cab of azurite in malachite, the azurite unbelievably intense in hue, here;
• "From Sparks and Smoke," created a couple of weeks ago, a dazzling tiger iron cabochon beneath a complex naja-like sub-bail, here; 
• "Meeting On the Bridge of Stars," a traditional naja with an internal pendant of a local indigenous rare material, staurolite, here;
• "The Breath of the Light," a nested dual naja, fiery small amber suns bookending the outer arc, here;
• "The Last of the Storm," with an extraordinary OLD cabochon of beautifully beveled apple coral, with three shimmering Labradorite "raindrops" below, here;
• "Eagle Carries the Medicine of Earth and Sky," with the great raptor as you've never seen him before, saw-cut, scored, and stamped freehand with a spectacular rounded trillion cab of chrysocolla in orbicular malachite in a hand-made bezel, here; and
• "Growing Together," a talismanic work featuring more amazing freehand flowing line work and an OLD freeform cabochon from Wings's private collection that we reliably believe to be old Orville Jack turquoise [zinc creates the lime-green faustite], here.

There's more on the way very soon; he's got something like four more cuffs [an incredible one posted here yesterday], a couple of pendants, several new pairs of earrings [again, one, a small tiger iron pair, done yesterday and slated to go up by tonight, really, this time], and eventually all the new coils he'll need for holiday inventory. And I need to sell them all, because I still need to make sales weekly for us to catch up on the year and cover all the stuff still in the pipeline that needs covering [laptop, roof next year, more medical, always prepaid taxes, etc.]. So: GO BUY! Links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (Priority is the liquid soaps and Amazon cards, probably most useful at this point); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

After such a grim year, this one already far worse than the last, we really need to get what's left of 2024 onto a better footing before it ends, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2024; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                                        

Red Willow Spirit: Limbs Made Strong By the Light

Photo copyright Wings, 2024; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's an edition of Red Willow Spirit for hard days and harder conditions, for work done in deep cold and brutal winds, and for spirits driven by defiance, resistance, and persistence. It's two images linked by a single new work of wearable art, all of them reminding us that we can take our cues from our relatives the trees now, their limbs made strong by the 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. Christmas is now fewer than six weeks away already, with half of the winter holiday creative season already over, so get your orders in now. We need to bring in consistent sales at least weekly for the rest of the year, so shares are very much needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2024; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.      

At least our raptor relatives showed up.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

Today was bitterly cold, not so much a result of the mercury's location, but the bitter, brutal wind. And of course, we had to be out in it half the day, and my joints are suffering tonight.

Not the way either of us planned to spend this day, which is our wedding anniversary, but there wasn't a choice. I got improperly summonsed for jury duty [to my maiden name, and after the due date], so I had to go get that corrected, which took some doing [NOT because of the woman who had to deal with issue, because she was wonderful; just the way their computer systems (and presumably the state's) share, or more to the point, don't share, information they're supposed to]. Anyway, just so they have everything properly on record, I need to get a new medical excuse, so that's in process, with a telehealth appointment slated later this week, but it required a trip to the doctor's office today to figure out with their admin people what needs to be done, and that was more standing, and more pain. [I can't sit more than a half-hour at a time, or stand for any length of time, and of course I have to be masked and distance, and there are a bunch of other autoimmune issues that make it impossible. The court doesn't want me there, believe me.] At least our raptor relatives showed up today: up there in the photo this morning, two or three of them circling overhead as we drove home, and then again at sunset.

But all of that, plus a couple of other related things, ate up much of the day, and also meant that I did a lot more walking/standing on hard surfaces than my joints would like. So tomorrow will be catching up on things I had planned but couldn't get to today. We don't eat out anymore, because pandemic[s], but most years we get take-out for dinner, and we didn't even have time for that. We did swing through the Wendy's drive-thru on the way home to get something that might pass for lunch, because I had not been able to eat anything yet today at that point. Tonight will be tacos and Monday Night Football, and that will be fine. 

But the cold is an issue here, and it's why some of us are doing the work we're doing [although in my case, it's mostly from home and online; other folks are doing the harder stuff out in the streets]. As I said, some of us met on Saturday to try to figure out where we could put a dent in this mess. This was very introductory, but that was the point: figuring out what exists [very little] and what doesn't [nearly everything] and where we might be able to fill in a few of those gaps. I'll have more info in the days and weeks to come, but for now?  Go here, buy something, or several somethings, off the outreach group's wishlist, and you will literally be saving a life, probably more than one. It's not really possible to overstate how bad it is out there, nor how great the need is. I've sorted it in their Priority order, but they've given out so much stuff this week that they now have new priorities: hand warmers, snacks, tarps, duct tape, the safety stuff like flashlights and pepper spray; they also need large-size men's stuff, socks, and large- and extra-large-size dog stuff, like collars and harnesses and dog coats, further down on the list.

And then there's my own actual work. WE NEED SALES. As always at this time of year, I'm already putting in 12- to 16-hour days every day, 7 days a week, because the work won't wait, and for us, being able to help anyone else starts with us making those sales, of course. But beyond that? I also am finding myself unexpectedly under the gun on another front; besides needing to bring in enough in seasonal sales to repay a big chunk on our '24 taxes, the election has made the need to replace my laptop NOW absolutely mandatory, before the end of the year, because the price, already hellish for the one I need, will skyrocket at the first of the year. So if you're contemplating buying? Now would be a really, really good time. Our laptop is our whole work, everything, and it fails me on the daily now.

Today's feature is a photo, so the most I can really do is match color or animating spirit. The image, shown here, reminds me of the shimmering beauty of Labradorite and the satiny iridescence of gray moonstone. So for today's inventory selections, four pairs of earrings, two Labradorite and two gray moonstone, all of them absolutely gorgeous:

• "The Moon Rests On a Blanket of Stars," a big, bold, old-school design in tribute to the Four Sacred Directions, set here with highly domed Labradorite cabs whose flash picks up the blues and golds of the photo, here;
• "All the Blue Moons," old-style oval conchas with freehand radiant motifs and highly domed Labradorite cabs at the center with incredible blue flash, here;
• "Held In the Light," a vintage-style adaptation of the naja-like crescent, set with shimmering gray moonstones that have a LOT of color shift, here; and
• "Little Winter Moons," a traditional radiant Eye of Spirit style, and my personal favorite, saw-cut, scored, and stamped freehand, with those absolutely ethereal gray moonstones at the center, here.

There's more on the way very soon; he's got something like four more cuffs [an incredible one posted here yesterday], a couple of pendants, several new pairs of earrings [again, one, a small tiger iron pair, done yesterday and slated to go up by tonight, really, this time], and eventually all the new coils he'll need for holiday inventory. And I need to sell them all, because I still need to make sales weekly for us to catch up on the year and cover all the stuff still in the pipeline that needs covering [laptop, roof next year, more medical, always prepaid taxes, etc.]. So: GO BUY! Links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (Priority is the liquid soaps and Amazon cards, probably most useful at this point); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

After such a grim year, this one already far worse than the last, we really need to get what's left of 2024 onto a better footing before it ends, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2024; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                                       

Monday Photo Meditation: A Balanced Perspective

Photo copyright Wings, 2024;
all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a Monday Photo Meditation for the hard days of early winter, when the snow declines to fall, but the wind drives the cold bone-deep. It's a reflection on the need to face the hard truths without becoming sidetracked by them, to live a life of gratitude for this world's beauty and blessings, seeking the health and harmony of a balanced perspective.

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. Christmas is now fewer than six weeks away already, with half of the winter holiday creative season already over, so get your orders in now. We need to bring in consistent sales at least weekly for the rest of the year, so shares are very much needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2024; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.       

We know how fast it can change here.

Pohto copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

Hard to believe, looking at that sky today, that we're supposed to get rain and then snow this evening, innit? Of course, this time it's supposed to come from the opposite direction [the fringes of Tropical Storm Sara hitting Central America now], but the sky in that direction looks exactly the same right now.

Still, I helped Wings finish tarping the wood a few minutes ago, and we're getting ready, because we know how fast it can change here.

If it does what they predict, it's going to be horrible for the local folks who have no shelter. Because it's supposed to rain first, which will soak everything, and only then turn to snow, which will add more weight and cold. The mercury is supposed to get down near 20 overnight, but the wind chill will be MUCH colder.

This is why some of us a doing the work we're doing [although in my case, it's mostly from home and online; other folks are doing the harder stuff out in the streets]. As I said yesterday, some of us met then to try to figure out where we could put a dent in this mess. This was very introductory, but that was the point: figuring out what exists [very little] and what doesn't [nearly everything] and where we might be able to fill in a few of those gaps. I'll have more info in the days and weeks to come, but for now?  Go here, buy something, or several somethings, off the outreach group's wishlist, and you will literally be saving a life, probably more than one. It's not really possible to overstate how bad it is out there, nor how great the need is. I've sorted it in their Priority order, but they've given out so much stuff this week that they now also need stuff lower down on the list: the tarps, the duct tape, the safety stuff like flashlights and pepper spray; they also need large-size men's stuff, socks, and large- and extra-large-size dog stuff, like collars and harnesses and dog blankets.

And then there's my own actual work. WE NEED SALES. As always at this time of year, I'm already putting in 12- to 16-hour days every day, 7 days a week, because the work won't wait, and for us, being able to help anyone else starts with us making those sales, of course. But beyond that? I also am finding myself unexpectedly under the gun on another front; besides needing to bring in enough in seasonal sales to repay a big chunk on our '24 taxes, the election has made the need to replace my laptop NOW absolutely mandatory, before the end of the year, because the price, already hellish for the one I need, will skyrocket at the first of the year. So if you're contemplating buying? Now would be a really, really good time. Our laptop is our whole work, everything, and it fails me on the daily now.

Today's featured work is one with a message I think most of us need to hear now, one about resilience. It's a cuff with a phenomenal stone, but a fragile one, and the post explains how Wings chose to handle the inevitable; that post is here. So for today's inventory selections, it's another cuff that, in its own way, embodies this lesson. Its stone is not cracked or broken, but it's a very old one set into one of Wings's newest works, and while it's rougher than a new cabochon might be, it still manifests a extraordinary beauty:

• "At Angles to the Night," an absolutely dazzling Art Deco cuff with big, bold, deep freehand scorework one the wide band, and an old but beautifully beveled obloong cabochon of what we reliably believe to be orbicular sugilite in quartz, here.

There's more on the way very soon; he's got something like four more cuffs [an incredible one posted here yesterday], a couple of pendants, several new pairs of earrings [again, one, a small tiger iron pair, done yesterday and slated to go up by tonight], and eventually all the new coils he'll need for holiday inventory. And I need to sell them all, because I still need to make sales weekly for us to catch up on the year and cover all the stuff still in the pipeline that needs covering [laptop, roof next year, more medical, always prepaid taxes, etc.]. So: GO BUY! Links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (Priority is the liquid soaps and Amazon cards, probably most useful at this point); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

After such a grim year, this one already far worse than the last, we really need to get what's left of 2024 onto a better footing before it ends, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2024; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.