Summer Spirits

Image copyright Wings, 2010; all rights reserved.

It's nearly summer, which means that it's dragonfly season at home. Dragonflies are both air and water spirits: Messengers of the gods, like hummingbirds, but also symbols of fertility and life - perfect metaphors for a season of abundance.

Over the years, Wings has created some stunning dragonflies - with bodies of fire agate, Sacred White Buffalo turquoise, Sleeping Beauty turquoise - but I sometimes think his most recent may be his best ever. The antennae curve perfectly; the eyes, of stamped sunrise symbols, give the head a realistically fuzzy effect; the braid-effect tail is gracefully mobile. But the wings! Whatever moved Spirit to give him the vision of Fish forming dragonfly's wings . . . I know I'm biased, but synthesizing the two is inspired.

Oh, and that stone? Easter Blue turquoise, and it's every bit as touchable a piece of the sky in person as it appears in the photo.

$425 in "Necklaces, Pendants, and Pins" under the "Galleries" tab on the Web site.