I need to make it rain today, without fail.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Yeah, nice clouds. Don't expect them to develop into anything like yesterday, though.

I need to make it rain today, without fail. The other kind of rain. I've got to be able to cover tomorrow's first-of-the-month crap.

This summer's track record doesn't given me any hope.

And somehow, after all that, I have to come up with a way to pay for everything else we're facing, from medical bills to regular monthly expenses to quarterly tax prepayments (and I've missed the first two quarters already, obvs). So I have GOT to bring in some sales. NOW. But I seem to be as utterly useless at that as at everything else right now. I need to boost my Patreon back up, too; it's down more than $300 a month, and for us, that's much too big a hit, one we can't afford. And right now, I'm hobbling from two days last week, plus yesterday and today, having to walk too much on too-hard surfaces for too long, plus being exposed to people who refuse to mask and distance breathing all over me each time. Tomorrow starts that new treatment protocol, too, and I will be housebound completely for at least two weeks, maybe the whole month, and I have to bring in sales.

The other day I posted Wings's newest two works, here, both at lower price points than is usual for him. I also posted his newest gemstone-bead trio a week ago, here. Sales have been terribly slow all year, and . . . the possibility of $25K. I don't have any way to solve that outside of making sales, so I'm begging folks, please: All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (current priority still the Zero-Odor sprays, because these days we're back to wet dogs again; and the liquid soaps, which we can't get locally); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                 

Monday Photo Meditation: The Fire's Dance

Photo copyright Wings, 2023;
all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a Monday Photo Meditation for month's end, and for the hopes and dangers that attend the month to come. It's a contemplation — somewhat melancholy, true — of what summer was here not so long ago, and of what the fire's dance once meant for a land in relative health and harmony.

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 in this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and we are facing huge and utterly unmanageable costs for Wings's latest round of dental work, so shares are desperately needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.     

All the snow is gone.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

That was this afternoon. For weeks, there's been a single tiny, shrinking patch of white in that ridgeline throat on the right.

All the snow is gone.

That's terrifying.

By now, we should have had enough monsoonal storms both to break the heat and to add to the remnant patches that should be there pretty much 365/6 days out of the year. We're talking elevations of 12,000 feet and more, after all. 

But it's all gone.

When I say our world is dying around us, I'm not exaggerating in the slightest, and the grief is all too real.

I want this month to be over. It's been a terrible month, on top of several other terrible months in a row, and I just need us to get shot of it and start over with August. Except that without one or more sales yet today, August is going to start terribly, too.

I can't keep this up. The stress is killing me. We finally went to the grocery store today to stock up, and besides divesting us of the last of our cash, it also took whatever progress my feet had been making. My pain levels are back through the roof tonight, and besides all the work I still have to do here tonight, I have to go out again tomorrow because they didn't have the last three supplements I need for starting this horrifying new treatment protocol on Tuesday (horrifying because of side effects; if it actually works, it'll be a good thing when it's over, but I won't know for a while, and I'll be stuck here the whole time). 

And somehow, in a summer when no one's buying (we've made one sale in July; one) I have to come up with a way to pay for everything else we're facing, from medical bills to regular monthly expenses to quarterly tax prepayments (and I've missed the first two quarters already, obvs). So I have GOT to bring in some sales. I need to boost my Patreon back up, too; it's down more than $300 a month, and for us, that's much too big a hit, one we can't afford. But I can't even get time to write, and I think I'm going to have to stop posting every single day, because aside from the fact that my health is suffering? I can't get anything else done, and I have to bring in sales.

The other day I posted Wings's newest two works, here, both at lower price points than is usual for him. I also posted his newest gemstone-bead trio a week ago, here. Sales have been terribly slow all year, and . . . the possibility of $25K. I don't have any way to solve that outside of making sales, so I'm begging folks, please: All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (current priority still the Zero-Odor sprays, because these days we're back to wet dogs again; and the liquid soaps, which we can't get locally); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                 

The Lightning's Song

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's one of Wings's newer masterworks, an old-style traditional cuff that channels the power of the mountain lightning of midsummer. It's a work that pushes us to recognize the wounds inflicted on our world now, one that whispers the elemental sound of the lightning's song, pleading with us to begin the work of healing now.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We will still need to make consistent sales in this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and we are facing huge and utterly unmanageable costs for Wings's latest round of dental work, so shares are desperately needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.    

Difficult.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

It feels like we might actually get some rain. I hope so; we got a short, hard storm yesterday evening, which was useful, but nowhere near enough. And as I said yesterday, I'm tired of watching the world dying around us.

Yesterday was a difficult end to a difficult week (and near the end of a difficult month), seemingly on every front. There's progress, or, rather, there's the potential for progress; nothing yet. But the process of dealing with Wings's dental work is going to be slowed way, way down, because that's how bureaucracies move.

There is a new dentist at IHS. I had already spoken to her on the phone a couple of times, and she bumped up his appointment from next month, squeezing him in at the end of the day yesterday. She understands completely in the ways that the bureaucracy refuses to acknowledge that this is not a "cosmetic" matter, but one of medical necessity, and she had spent time researching his issues in like demographics to find the "magic words" that we all know every so-called "health-care system" in this country requires before they will even entertain examining you. But . . . IHS considers what he needs to be cosmetic, period, no discussion, even though it's very clearly not, because we Natives are far less than even second-class citizens on our own lands. So the question becomes what no one tasked with this has ever been willing to entertain, which is how to get it reclassified. [To be clear: There are people within the system whose job this is; that's NOT the dentist. And yet she's the one doing all of this, trying to get us some help.]

So where things stand now is waiting to hear back from three other providers, one of whom is "in the system," so to speak, one of whom is not but "works with it" somehow, and and third who is outside of it entirely. At issue is exactly what needs to be done and a distinction between two differing final approaches, not just because of cost but because of risk in a diabetic (and in a surging pandemic, i.e., the level of invasiveness involved). She's waiting to hear back from them all now. Depending on what they say, it may involve travel to Santa Fe and Albuquerque, which is extremely hard on us physically (especially the latter). And if that happens? Well, this is all going to take a VERY long time. But it might also buy us some room on the payments, even if the overall cost winds up being the same. He's not happy; he wants to get this done and not have to deal with this disaster (one a decade and a half and more in the making) any longer; I don't want him to have to wait, either, but this is what this country and system do. He's resigned to it, I think.

But that doesn't change the fact that we will have to pay for a great deal of it, and in the meantime, we have to pay for everything else we're facing, from medical bills to regular monthly expenses to quarterly tax prepayments (and I've missed the first two quarters already, obvs). So I have GOT to bring in some sales. I need to boost my Patreon back up, too; it's down more than $300 a month, and for us, that's much too big a hit, one we can't afford. But I can't even get time to write, and I think I'm going to have to stop posting every single day, because aside from the fact that my health is suffering? I can't get anything else done, and I have to bring in sales.

The other day I posted Wings's newest two works, here, both at lower price points than is usual for him. I also posted his newest gemstone-bead trio a week ago, here. Sales have been terribly slow all year, and . . . the possibility of $25K. I don't have any way to solve that outside of making sales, so I'm begging folks, please: All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (current priority still the Zero-Odor sprays, because these days we're back to wet dogs again; and the liquid soaps, which we can't get locally); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                 

The Healing Promise of a Sweetgrass Sky

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a masterwork of the very earth itself, a cuff built around an extraordinary Skystone with ingot accents and a twinned silver band. It's a work that holds all the healing promise of a sweetgrass sky, much like our own skies this morning, now filled with the prospect of rain.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We will still need to make consistent sales in this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and we are facing huge and utterly unmanageable costs for Wings's latest round of dental work, so shares are desperately needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.    

I'm so tired of watching the world die around us.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Early morning was all blue; mid-morning gave us this. Now, the sky is mostly gray, but still the rain refuses to fall.

And just this moment, the smoke plume has begun to rise again from the same too-near spot as yesterday.

I'm so tired of watching the world die around us. Tired of watching colonialism kill it, and no one lifting a finger to stop it.

Today is chaotic; we've got a lot going on with too many things at once, all of them criminally expensive, and nothing we can do about that, either. We need sales, but no one's buying.

Yesterday I posted Wings's newest two works, here, both at lower price points than is usual for him I also posted his newest gemstone-bead trio on Saturday, linked below, and I sincerely wish we could sell some of our existing inventory. Sales have been terribly slow all year, and I still have to figure out a way to cover not just regular monthly expenses but next year's quarterly tax prepayments (due this year, obvs; that's why they're called prepayments), and $25K to fix Wings's multiply-botched dental work. That, in fact, is the issue I'm dealing with today, but there's no practical solution in sight. It's a medical necessity, not cosmetic, but try convincing this evil system of that. I'm not numb anymore. I'm tired, I'm scared, but I'm not numb; I'm mad as hell. Meanwhile, our Web site hits are down drastically from what they should be in any given month, never mind the middle of the year, and my Patreon subscriptions, our only even slightly "guaranteed" income each month, are down by more than $300 worth, which we can't afford. This despite the fact that there's a lot of new work on the site already, including last week's new gemstone bead trio, here. Meanwhile, he has more silverwork in rotation, too (two cuffs, more earrings). And . . . $25K. I don't know when we can get to that, even the beginnings of it (and they're worried about his bite collapsing from the damage from prior dentists, so time matters here in ways we didn't realize). But I don't have any way to solve that outside of making sales, so I'm begging folks, please: All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (current priority still the Zero-Odor sprays, because these days we're back to wet dogs again; and the liquid soaps, which we can't get locally); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                 

Friday Feature: A Prayer For a Cobblestone Sky

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

It's our Friday Feature at The NDN Silver Blog, with one of Wings's recent works wrought in an old traditional style, animated by a spirit as timeless as it is substantial. It's a cuff wrought in ancient blues and greens and framed in silver, its wearing an act of offering up a prayer for a cobblestone sky.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We will still need to make consistent sales in this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and we are facing huge and utterly unmanageable costs for Wings's latest round of dental work, so shares are desperately needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.        

Two new small single barrettes by Wings.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

I promised two all-new works, and here they are: two new small single barrettes by Wings, both at lower price points than his norm. First up is the larger of the two, called Night Medicine: saw-cut freehand, scored and stamped freehand, too, in traditional imagery that evokes summer thunderheads, night skies, and an earth in flower. Held on the back by a full-sized genuine French clip. You can read its full description here.

The second one is similar in design, but slightly smaller (and accordingly, priced lower):

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

This one is called Thunder Dance, similar in stampwork to the one above, but with differing borders and half-arrows to form Thunderbird's lightning bolts. Again, even despite the smaller height, it's secured via a full-sized French clip on the back. You can read its full description here.

Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We really, really need to make consistent sales in this fourth year of pandemic and loss, not least because we are facing huge and utterly unmanageable costs for Wings's latest round of dental work, so shares are desperately needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.     

Far too close for comfort.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

More jackassery this morning from the billionaire colonizer contingent. It's 90 fucking degrees in a twelve-hundred-year drought, the land is a goddamned tinderbox, we have a good brisk breeze blowing, and these fuckwits decide to set shit on fire. It's always the same spot, and the plume was growing fast. It appears that someone with some sense took over and doused it really, really fast, but that's far too close for comfort, and after last year's three megafires being started due to officials NOT checking to make sure burns were really OUT, there's no betting on it being actually extinguished. We'll have one eye on that spot all day now.

We got a couple of dozen tiny drops yesterday evening; nothing more. The rain forecast for today is basically nonexistent now. Everything's burning up, and there's no respite. Meanwhile, I have to make it rain in the other sense, too, if we're going to make it to and through the first of the month in one piece; so far it's not looking promising.

I'm still hoping to have those two new works today for the Accessories category (single barrettes). I also posted Wings's newest trio on Saturday, linked below, but I sincerely wish we could sell some of our existing inventory. Sales have been terribly slow all year, and I still have to figure out a way to cover not just regular monthly expenses but next year's quarterly tax prepayments (due this year, obvs; that's why they're called prepayments), and $25K to fix Wings's multiply-botched dental work. It's a medical necessity, not cosmetic, but try convincing this evil system of that. I'm not numb anymore. I'm tired, I'm scared, but I'm not numb; I'm mad as hell. Meanwhile, our Web site hits are down drastically from what they should be in any given month, never mind the middle of the year, and my Patreon subscriptions, our only even slightly "guaranteed" income each month, are down by more than $300 worth, which we can't afford. This despite the fact that there's a lot of new work on the site already, including last week's new gemstone bead trio, here. Meanwhile, he has more silverwork in rotation, too (two cuffs, more earrings). And . . . $25K. I don't know when we can get to that, even the beginnings of it (and they're worried about his bite collapsing from the damage from prior dentists, so time matters here in ways we didn't realize). But I don't have any way to solve that outside of making sales, so I'm begging folks, please: All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (current priority still the Zero-Odor sprays, because these days we're back to wet dogs again; and the liquid soaps, which we can't get locally); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                 

#ThrowbackThursday: Rain From an Intermittently Stormy Sky

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

It's #TBT at The NDN Silver Blog, with a #ThrowbackThursday work that dates back a little over five years, to March of 2018, and a very special commission by someone very dear to us, as a gift to someone else who is very dear to us. It's a cuff built around an absolutely dazzling Skystone, a reminder of the medicine to be found in rain from an intermittently stormy sky.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. As always, this work will never be duplicated, 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. We will still need to make consistent sales in this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and we are facing huge and utterly unmanageable costs for Wings's latest round of dental work, so shares are desperately needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.       

Not a single drop of rain.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Beautiful clouds. Not a single drop of rain.

Not of either type, but the outgo never stops. $216 cash out the door this morning on prescriptions, mostly due to one of Wings's that has been around for decades and is generic, but they've suddenly decided, apparently, that "supply-chain issues" are cause for gouging.

Endless heat, endless drought, endless autoimmune pain, no sales, Patreon down by more than $300 a month in subscriptions, that absolutely absurd cost of dental work in this shithole country, and the expenses don't let up.

I might have a couple of new works today for the Accessories category; we'll see how much time I have, since today's errands have already put me even more behind than usual. I also posted Wings's newest trio on Saturday, linked below, but I sincerely wish we could sell some of our existing inventory. Sales have been terribly slow all year, and I still have to figure out a way to cover not just regular monthly expenses but next year's quarterly tax prepayments (due this year, obvs; that's why they're called prepayments), and $25K to fix Wings's multiply-botched dental work. I'ts a medical necessity, not cosmeetic, but try convincing this evil system of that. I'm not numb anymore. I'm tired, I'm scared, but I'm not numb. I'm mad as hell. Meanwhile, our Web site hits are down drastically from what they should be in any given month, never mind the middle of the year. This despite the fact that there's a lot of new work on the site already, including last week's new gemstone bead trio, here. Meanwhile, he has more silverwork in rotation, too (two cuffs, more earrings). And . . . $25K. I don't know when we can get to that, even the beginnings of it (and they're worried about his bite collapsing from the damage from prior dentists, so time matters here in ways we didn't realize). But I don't have any way to solve that outside of making sales, so I'm begging folks, please: All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (current priority still the Zero-Odor sprays, because these days we're back to wet dogs again; and the liquid soaps, which we can't get locally); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                 

To Warrior Up Like the Warbonnet Sky

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's Wings's newest masterwork in its category, a cuff bracelet full of traditional symbolism and animated by a spirit at once contemporary and utterly timeless. It's one whose identity forces us to contemplate our own role and actions, reminding us that these are times to warrior up like the warbonnet sky, to fight for a world where the rains can fall once more.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We will still need to make consistent sales in this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and we are facing huge and utterly unmanageable costs for Wings's latest round of dental work, so shares are desperately needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.    

The creative process is sometimes hard and long.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Overlay work. Fingers crossed that it's truly almost done. This one was a big undertaking literally and figuratively, given the number and size of stones it needed to accommodate and the detail work he demanded of it.

The creative process is sometimes hard and long.

My own has been far too long, but I don't see any possibility of getting back to it anytime soon. Revising a novel doesn't pay the bills, and right now, we're staring down way too much staggeringly high expense for me to be able to do anything but chase sales.

Outside, the air smells of rain (just as it did yesterday evening), but we aren't getting a single drop (at least so far).  There's very little more maddening than that, in this kind of drought. Of course, these days, we have both types oof drought and need both types of rain. On the plus side, my Patreon is back courtesy of Mark in Support who fixed it for me, and to whom I am incalculably grateful. So we won't lose all of it, although I'm now down over $300 a month on subscriptions, which is a huge hit in itself for us.

I also posted Wings's newest trio on Saturday, linked below, but I sincerely wish we could sell some of our existing inventory. Sales have been terribly slow all year, and I still have to figure out a way to cover not just regular monthly expenses but next year's quarterly tax prepayments (due this year, obvs; that's why they're called prepayments), and $25K to fix Wings's multiply-botched dental work. I'm not numb anymore. I'm tired, I'm scared, but I'm not numb. I'm also mad as hell. Meanwhile, our Web site hits are down drastically from what they should be in any given month, never mind the middle of the year. This despite the fact that there's a lot of new work on the site already, including yesterday's new gemstone bead trio, here. Meanwhile, he has more silverwork in rotation, too (two cuffs, more earrings). And . . . $25K. I don't know when we can get to that, even the beginnings of it (and they're worried about his bite collapsing from the damage from prior dentists, so time matters here in ways we didn't realize). But I don't have any way to solve that outside of making sales, so I'm begging folks, please: All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (current priority still the Zero-Odor sprays, because these days we're back to wet dogs again; and the liquid soaps, which we can't get locally); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                 

Red Willow Spirit: A Cloud-Dappled Late Summer Sky

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's an edition of Red Willow Spirit for seasons telescoped into each other, and for hope in a world in collapse. It's three images linked by a single work of wearable art shown from two vantage points, all of them illustrating the beauty and medicine of a cloud-dappled late summer sky.

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 in this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and we are facing huge and utterly unmanageable costs for Wings's latest round of dental work, so shares are desperately needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.       

Signs of too-early fall.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

So we screwed up when we measured preparatory to putting up his other shade sail (natch). Which, of course, then meant that he had to pull the post out of the ground and re-set it a short distance away. He did that today, which means that he will be able to have shade while using his grinder and buffer (that's what's covered with the yellow sailcloth tarp just over his left shoulder). I'm glad it's done, because the rest of the day is only going to get hotter, and he shouldn't be out in it. 

They say rain on Thursday, but we'll believe it when we see it. Even if it does rain, it might very well do what it's been doing lately, which is to give us a half-dozen drops while it floods the burn scars over in Mora County. That helps nobody. Meanwhile, I'm seeing more and more signs of too-early fall; yesterday actually felt like one of those overly hot mid-September days, completely dry and too bright. The orb weavers are already at the work that usually occurs in October. And, of course, everything's drying up and turning color.

We need rain. Both types. On the plus side, my Patreon is back courtesy of Mark in Support who fixed it for me, and to whom I am incalculably grateful. So we won't lose all of it, although I'm now down over $300 a month on subscriptions, which is a huge hit in itself for us.

I also posted Wings's newest trio on Saturday, linked below, but I sincerely wish we could sell some of our existing inventory. Sales have been terribly slow all year, and I still have to figure out a way to cover not just regular monthly expenses but next year's quarterly tax prepayments (due this year, obvs; that's why they're called prepayments), and $25K to fix Wings's multiply-botched dental work. I'm not numb anymore. I'm tired, I'm scared, but I'm not numb. I'm also mad as hell. Meanwhile, our Web site hits are down drastically from what they should be in any given month, never mind the middle of the year. This despite the fact that there's a lot of new work on the site already, including yesterday's new gemstone bead trio, here. Meanwhile, he has more silverwork in rotation, too (two cuffs, more earrings). And . . . $25K. I don't know when we can get to that, even the beginnings of it (and they're worried about his bite collapsing from the damage from prior dentists, so time matters here in ways we didn't realize). But I don't have any way to solve that outside of making sales, so I'm begging folks, please: All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (current priority still the Zero-Odor sprays, because these days we're back to wet dogs again; and the liquid soaps, which we can't get locally); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                 

Monday Photo Meditation: Beneath a Sky Returning to Blue

Photo copyright Wings, 2023; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a Monday Photo Meditation for days of harsh clear skies, high heat, deadly drought . . . and the need to make our own hope. It's a bit angry, a lot melancholy, and a rumination on what it means to work beneath a sky returning to blue.

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 in this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and we are facing huge and utterly unmanageable costs for Wings's latest round of dental work, so shares are desperately needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.     

Sixth iteration.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Hard at work in the studio, fans on full blast. It's hot again today, no real chance of rain, and none in the forecast before Thursday. Given the futility of recent official forecasts, I think it's unlikely even then.

What he's working on is the sixth iteration of a particular piece. It's a commission, and one that he feels very strongly about getting right, which means that he redoes it and redoes it and until his happy with it. The first four iterations, thankfully, were mostly continual reconceptions of the design phase, but this is the second fully articulated three-dimensional version (i.e., essentially complete, not just partially), so I hope he's happy with this one. It's amazing, but I thought that about the previous one, too.

If you wonder why some commissions seem to take forever, this is why. He is his own worst critic, and also incredibly meticulous, and that leads to this.

But I sincerely wish we could sell some of our existing inventory. Sales have been terribly slow all year, and I still have to figure out a way to cover not just regular monthly expenses but next year's quarterly tax prepayments (due this year, obvs; that's why they're called prepayments), and $25K to fix Wings's multiply-botched dental work. I'm not numb anymore. I'm tired, I'm scared, but I'm not numb. I'm also mad as hell, but that won't accomplish anything, so . . . . But it doesn't erase the fact that I'm mad. At everything this society keeps handing us, including the ramped-up environmental destruction here and everywhere, to say nothing of the forcible infliction of disability and death on people by this government's criminal refusal to deal even minimally with the pandemic.

And there's nothing I can do about any of it. So we put our heads down and focus on what we can do here, now, but it's all so dependent on the ravages created by the outside world that I can't even focus on that, not really. And I have GOT to bring in more sales, NOW. My Patreon is now down by more than $300 a month, and I still don't know for sure whether I'll get this month's payout, or even be able to keep the platform. Our Web site hits are down drastically from what they should be in any given month, never mind the middle of the year. This despite the fact that there's a lot of new work on the site already, including yesterday's new gemstone bead trio, here. Meanwhile, he has more silverwork in rotation, too (two cuffs, more earrings). And . . . $25K. I don't have any way to solve any of this outside sales, so I'm begging folks, please: All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (current priority still the Zero-Odor sprays, because these days we're back to wet dogs again; and the liquid soaps, which we can't get locally); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                 

To Create a Healed and Healing Sky

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's one of Wings's newer works, a classic cuff with a contemporary sensibility, manifest as the process of creating sky. It's a reminder of what this wounded world needs from us all now, and of the truth that to create an earth in balance is to create a healed and healing sky.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We will still need to make consistent sales in this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and we are facing huge and utterly unmanageable costs for Wings's latest round of dental work, so shares are desperately needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.   

The Storms and Lights of Summer Nights

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's Wings's newest trio of gemstone bead works, a limited series designed to evoke all of the midnight magic of season and place. It's necklace, pair of earrings, and coil bracelet, all coordinating but not forcibly matched, each designed to show us the beauty and power of the storms and lights of summer nights in this land where earth is so near to sky. 

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We will still need to make consistent sales in this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and we are facing huge and utterly unmanageable costs for Wings's latest round of dental work, so shares are desperately needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.      

Out of order.

Photo copyright Aji Wings, 2023; all rights reserved.

::Marlin Perkins voice:: "The mighty hunter races away with his trophy." Yeah, it's that whole, circle of life thing, you know. And Cricket actually is a good hunter, as well as a good guard dog, even if he is terrified of two-legged types.

Out of order today; I'm hoping to have Wings's fourth new gemstone bead trio before the day is out. He already has the necklace and earrings done, waiting for findings, but the coil is the issue. If he doesn't have them done by day's end, I have an extant work as back-up for today's NDN Silver post. 

Despite all the stormy weather, we only got a few sprinkles until something like 1 AM; then we got a few minutes of heavy rain, enough to fill the rain barrels halfway. Nowhere near enough (and nothing like the forecast breathlessly predicted, natch), but something. The burn scars, I have no doubt, got flooded again, though. Today, it's a beautiful day, not quite as hot, and a small possibility of rain this afternoon (very small, apparently). Today's a marker, but a good one — it was on this date all those years ago that we first met. Our first date was a week later, and that was it.  Rain would be a good way to celebrate.

Rain of both types, of course, because sales have been terribly slow all year, and I still have to figure out a way to cover not just regular monthly expenses but next year's quarterly tax prepayments (due this year, obvs; that's why they're called prepayments), and $25K to fix Wings's multiply-botched dental work. I'm not numb anymore. I'm tired, I'm scared, but I'm not numb. I'm also mad as hell, but that won't accomplish anything, so . . . .

But that means that I have GOT to bring in more sales, NOW. Our Web site hits are down drastically from what they should be in any given month, never mind the middle of the year. This despite the fact that there's a lot of new work on the site already. Meanwhile, he has more silverwork in rotation, too (two cuffs, more earrings). And . . . $25K. I don't have any way to solve any of this outside sales, so I'm begging folks, please: All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (current priority still the Zero-Odor sprays, because these days we're back to wet dogs again; and the liquid soaps, which we can't get locally); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                

Other things.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

While working on today's post, the clouds began to turn into something a little more than puffs of white. Supposedly we're at risk of truly wild weather by late afternoon/early evening, but as always, no believing until it materializes.

I mean, yesterday gave us five minutes of rain. You know, just enough to turn everything into a real sauna. At least the cloud cover at the moment is cooling it off a little.

My bigger concern right now is how to make it rain in the metaphorical sense. There's a glimmer of hope with my Patreon, but it's not definite. Either way, I'm not sure I can ever go back to daily posting; at some point, I have to have room for other things, and that might mean only two or three posts a week. Of course, right now, the only "other things" are sales, because . . . .

Well, because I have to figure out a way to cover not just regular monthly expenses but next year's quarterly tax prepayments (due this year, obvs; tht's why they're called prepayments), and $25K to fix Wings's multiply-botched dental work. I'm not numb anymore. I'm tired, I'm scared, but I'm not numb. I'm also mad as hell, but that won't accomplish anything, so . . . .

But that means that I have GOT to bring in more sales, NOW. Our Web site hits are down drastically from what they should be in any given month, never mind the middle of the year. This despite the fact that there's a lot of new work on the site already. Meanwhile, he has more silverwork in rotation, too (two cuffs, more earrings). And . . . $25K. I don't have any way to solve any of this outside sales, so I'm begging folks, please: All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (current priority still the Zero-Odor sprays, because these days we're back to wet dogs again; and the liquid soaps, which we can't get locally); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.