Ajijaakwe: What We're Up Against [Updated to reflect sold items]

Last week, Wings's nephew began working for us again. Nothing major; he's just helping out around here with the heavy labor. Our bodies (and our schedules) need the break, and he needs the money. Desperately.

This young man has a lot of obstacles in front of him. Some are of his own making; some are not. Most, probably, as with most people, are a combination of the two — bad circumstances complicated by certain bad decisions that have snowballed in a way that would never have occurred but for the accident of biology (by which I mean, not being born white). But he's trying. He is an incredibly hard worker, and very skilled, and he does his assigned tasks rapidly, thoroughly, and without reservation.

He's also a skilled smith.

He's had some training, years ago, and he's gotten some help from Wings along the way. When he has both the time and the resources, he produces very good work. He's young, and he's nowhere near the level of older, more experienced jewelers, but if he's ever able to give up other jobs to focus solely on his art, he'll become very good indeed.

And he's getting screwed.

He has a daughter who is in kindergarten or first grade, I forget which; he and his partner have a baby due in two days. The daughter's school had a Valentine's dance (yes, apparently this is a thing now for 5- and 6-year-olds), and she needed some things for it (these things cost the parents, too). He needed to make some money. On Valentine's Day, he went into town, to the Plaza, to try to sell some copper cuff bracelets he'd made. These are high-quality pieces: skilled workmanship; tight, clean design; good detailing. He tried selling the larger ones for $10 apiece.

Now, ten bucks per is worse than a steal. It doesn't cover the cost of the copper, much less his labor or his talent. But he needed cash, and on Valentine's weekend, there are plenty of wealthy tourists in the Plaza, spending money like water at the ski shops and elsewhere.

They offered him $5.

Five dollars. I am not shitting you. Everybody who asked offered him half of his already well-below-cost asking price. One guy actually demanded (and sadly got) two for eight.

This is not acceptable.

But leaving aside the Republican greed on display here, this literally hurt my heart. I know enough about our field, and about what's what in it, to know when something's done well, and to be able to fix a ballpark reasonable price based on all the factors at play. And this literally made me weep for him.

Wings told him never to settle; set his cost, and insist that people pay him what he's worth. Which, of course, is easier to do once you're an established artist, and when you're not trying to scrounge up the necessary scratch for the most minimal essentials. It was, obviously, advice for the long term. But Wings isn't going to give a young artist that kind of unworkable advice and do nothing else, so we stepped in.

We bought six of his cuffs outright. Two were for me to wear (copper seems to help the horrible arthritis in my arms, wrists, and hands a bit, so I now wear one on each wrist) The other four we are selling as part of our inventory. That was all we could afford right now. However, we took another six cuffs, the smaller ones, on consignment, to sell for him. These are relatively small in length, probably five inches rather than the standard six. Still, they're very easily adjusted, and he's finished them so well that they fit very comfortably.

Of the ones for sale as part of our inventory, there are two like the one above, a pair of solid copper wire strands hand-twisted together, shaped, and cut and finished off on the ends. You can see how cleanly he's finished those ends in the photo below:

This is the second cuff in the same design:

These two retail for $55 each.

The second design is slightly heavier and thus a bit more expensive. These two are made with thicker strands, hand-twisted together far more tightly. Where the other two look like braids, these look a bit like a snake rattle (from my own people's stories, that's especially fitting). This is the first:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.
SOLD

And this is what the ends look like. These are spectacularly wound, and very beautiful.

This is the second of these two:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.
SOLD

Again, as you can see, there are the slightest of irregularities in the twist work, showing that it was done by hand rather than by machine. With copper of this thickness, that's not easy. Each of these retails for $75 apiece.

Now, to the consigned pieces.

These are a bit thinner that the ones shown at the top of this post; same design, same beautiful finish, but the braided strands aren't quite as thick. We have two in stock; they retail for $45 each.

And finally, we come to the really delicate ones. I thought at first they were copper bead wire, that's how tightly he's managed to twist them. They're not; they're plain copper strands of really slender size, hand-twisted so closely that they appear like a long row of tiny beads. We have four in stock, each of which retails for $35.

Shipping, handling, and insurance on each runs $10.

I'd really like to be able to sell out on all of these for him. Spirit knows he needs the money, especially with a new baby only a few hours in the offing now. And if he can get some breathing room, maybe he can go back to making jewelry on something a little closer to a regular basis. Wings has already committed to helping him with materials acquisition.

So, if you're interested in having what my people believe is a piece of the Great Water Snake, a bit of prosperity and abundance and good luck, all for what are incredibly reasonable prices, you'll be helping a young Native man who really needs the support, moral and financial alike. You can order them by e-mailing me or by using the Contact form at Wings's Web site, or simply by hitting the PayPal "Donate" button at the upper right of this page and identifying which piece(s) you want in the "Notes" section of the PayPal entry window.

And please share this post around. He's family, and we really want to help give him a hand up.

Thanks.

Ajijaakwe

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

What We're Up Against [Updated to reflect sold items]

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