Ajijaakwe: January 2024

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Things on fire.

What started as a very gray and wintry is now suddenly mostly sunny . . . with a side of heavy smoke over toward Peñasco. Apparently it's a prescribed burn, which I think is our area's first of the calendar year. Supposed to be snow starting tomorrow and on into Saturday, just showers, but something, at least, so maybe this one won't get away from them.

That said, I hope they bother to make sure it's entirely out. [Unlike what they did with the Calf Canyon Fire, also a January prescribe burn, that continued to smolder until the winds whipped it up and it merged with the Hermit's Peak Fire to create the largest wildfire in recorded state history. People are still left with nothing two years later, and without the promised payouts.]

Speaking of things on fire [aside from my joints and my nerves], that's what our current and upcoming expenses are doing to our finances. Taxes are due in a few weeks. That's non-negotiable. But we are also cursed with this septic system mess, and the guy who does the work of fixing these kinds of disasters [who we know; he's a good guy] 1) is unlikely to be able to do it before well into March, and 2) is convinced, based on our description and what the septic cleanout guys have told us, that it's going to require digging a whole new leachfield. We don't have that kind of money.

On top of that, my laptop is dying, and I don't have the kind of money I need to replace it [the image work I do means that it has to have a certain level of power]. It's been on the decline for three or four months, but I thought I had more time; last night, it became clear that it's going to be a very big problem sooner rather than later. If I can't replace it, I can't work; if I can't work, there's no income.

Oh, and at some point, I'm going to need a power wheelchair.

And the only way out of this is SALES.

My Patreon down $250 again this month; I'm guessing tomorrow's payout will be more of the same. We're already paying out $200+ every 8-10 days to have the tank pumped, because the water has nowhere to go [and believe me, we're conserving as much as we can]. The most recent was yesterday. All this nonsense comes in one of our two most costly months of the year as it is, and in the same quarter as taxes, and no amount of tearing my hair out is going to make all this reconcile, but here we are. Amid the constant, unremitting physical pain and the ugly new developments and complete and utter lack of an immune system in a place where no one mitigates the pandemic in the slightest, leaving me almost entirely housebound.

I got the Wings's four new pairs of earrings up yesterday: here, here, here, and here [this pair already sold, only our second sale of the month; he has more planned in this size/style]. The other works were posted the day before: the ring and four pairs of earrings, here, here, here, here, and here. These are all more moderately priced than most of his work, and the silverwork and stones are absolutely incredible . . . and Valentine's Day is only two weeks away, so go look. Please. I am at my wits' end after our worst year in recent memory last year and this year starting off so badly on so many fronts, and I need help sharing our links and his work. If I could make two more sales yet today, I'd at least be current with the month. As always, all the links are listed below, and sales are the most important:

Sales here;

Testimonials here;

Amazon wishlist here (priorities now are the liquid soaps and especially the vacuum, because mine has died a complete and ignominious death, and if I don't vacuum every single day, the dog hair takes over completely [and the dustbuster is just not cutting it]);

Patreon here;

Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site about a dozen all told over the last three weeks or so, cuffs and earrings and pins, plus the necklace and earrings to come. After such a grim 2023, we really need to get this year started off on a better footing, 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.

The Lapis Blues of Storm, of the Tidal Flow of Night

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a masterwork for all seasons, but especially for this alpine winter world's stormy buffalo sky. It's a necklace wrought in an old collar style, bearing five separate pendants on a strand of extraordinary hand-selected beads, together manifest in the lapis blues of storm, of the tidal flow of night, of clear turquoise days and the silver and pyrite of cloud edge and sunlight.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We truly need to begin this new calendar year on a better note, which means that we will need to make consistent sales, so shares are very much needed and much appreciated.

Tuesday, January 30, 2024

Third and finally, my personal favorites: three extraordinary new pairs, all set with jewels.

And now, third and finally, my personal favorites [of the earrings]: three extraordinary new pairs, all set with jewels. Normally I would have ordered these rather differently, but given the naja-style necklaces below, I decided instead to lead with the naja-style earrings, too:

These are called The Lunes of Twilight. Yes, they're little crescents, although not so little; at 1.5" long and 1.25" across, they're a bit larger than the conchas in the previous post. Yes, each naja is saw-cut individually, entirely freehand, and the stampwork is so simple and elegant and absolutely dazzlingly beautiful. The stones are amethyst, highly domed and such a deep violet that they look almost like fine iolite. These are incredible; no two ways about it. You can read their full description here.

And so the second one today is related to this by color, albeit in a different shape:

You might expect that the najas would be my favorites, and they're close, but for me? This pair is it. These are called The Medicine of Night. The najas are more costly than the conchas; these are little more costly yet, albeit well within Wings's mid-range. They're traditional conchas, round instead of oval, and a little larger: again, 1.5" long by 1.5" wide. They're set with more of those incredible, highly domed, deeply-hued amethyst cabs, and the stampwork that surrounds them is magnificent: clear, deep, and perfectly even. You can read their full description here.

Finally, the third jeweled pair, which was actually the first of the three to be created:

This pair is named not for the stone color overall, but for the flash of the color shift within them. These are All the Blue Moons, and they're set with Labradorite rounds that are highly domed and possessed of fabulous cobalt blue flash from deep inside. These are ovals, and technically, they're the largest of the group at 1.75" long by 1.5" across. Again, they're domed traditionally into conchas, with rays on the outer surface scored freehand, ending in radiant arcs linked by tiny hoops. And then they have those fabulous stones at the center. You can read their full description here.

As always, Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We truly need to begin this new calendar year on a better note, which means that we will need to make consistent sales, so shares are very much needed and much appreciated.

You want to see these, too: four pairs of earrings [okay, technically five].

Now, the sterling silver concha earrings. You want to see these, too: four pairs of earrings [okay, technically five; the last one has already sold, but I'll show it here so you can see it, because he'll have more in this style to come].

First up, the pair shown above, repeated here:

This pair is called A Heart That Beats In All Directions. These are standard oval conchas, perhaps a little larger than some [1-3/8" long; I suspect 1" is about average], domed by hand from the reverse. Slightly lower price point on all of this style, with each of the plain silver ones priced at $350 a pair. These are stamped freehand with a central stylized Zia-like motif, itself centered by a heart; Wings has arranged them so that one heart points upward, the other down. Outward, to all of the other directions, are tree graduated concentric ovals of radiant motifs linked by tiny hoops; the arcs, arrayed in ascending size as they are, call to mind the pulse of a beating heart. You can read their full description here.

The second pair is very similar, and yet, entirely unique:

This pair is called Birth of a New Sun. They're the same size as the previous pair, but the negtive space makes them appear slightly larger. Again, saw-cut into classic ovals and domed by hand, traditionally; this pair has a center motif formed by a slightly 3D starburst stamp, texturized by Wings by hand at its center, and giant radiant sunrises linked by tiny hoops around the border. These are polished to a higher finish, and they absolutely glow. You can read their full description here.

The third pair features some fabulous imagery:

These are called, simply and aptly, Sun and Moon and Morning Star, all of which appear in the deep, gorgeous freehand stampwork on their surface. These are ever so slightly larger than the first two pairs: 1-5/8" long by 1-1/4" across. More saw-cut ovals, domed from the reverse; the sunrise motif appears around a parapet symbol, like the rooflines in the old village; the crescent moons are an extraordinary display of skill, creating a whirlpool effect; and the stars at the center are formed by hand of individual points as spokes around a central hoop. You can read their full description here.

The fourth pair, created a couple of days later, is adorned with imagery similar to that above, yet entirely unique:

This pair is called, simply, Orbital. Click on the image to enlarge it, and you'll see why. This pair, too, is a little larger, 1-5/8" long by 1-5/16" across, saw-cut ovals domed the old way. At the center, another Guiding Star, spokes and centers created individually by hand, ringed by an oval of crescent moons at center, a larger one of radiant points at the outside, and together they impart such a sense of motion that this pair virtually named itself. You can read its full description here.

Finally, the fifth ["technical"] pair, one that was created along with these, but has already sold:

These are called The Eye of the Light, and I'm showing them to you here because Wings has more planned in this tiny hex-drop style. These were saw-cut freehand, the central motif a repoussé Eye of Spirit [meaning that they were stamped from the reverse, so the diamond shape rises in relief against the rest of the earring]. Freehand stampwork around it; very simple, and significantly less expensive. He's planning on creating more in this size at this price point, and as always, each pair will be unique, so if you want to geet an order in early, you can do it now. You can also read their full description here.

Believe me, you really, really want to see these [the first three of Wings's newest works].

I've been saying how badly we need to make sales, but the one thing I haven't had time to do yet is feature Wings's newest works in this particular space. There are, over the last two weeks, two new necklaces, a new ring, and seven new pairs of earrings. So as not to make these posts unduly long, I'm going to split them up: necklaces and ring here; the four all-silver pairs of earrings in the second post; and the three pairs of earrings set with stones in the third.

Because believe me, you really, really want to see these.

First up is the newer of the two necklaces, shown above:

This one is called Spirit Horse Rides the Arc of the Sky, and it's extraordinary. This photo doesn't do any of it justice, but scroll up and look at the pendant [and you'll see the beads there, too]. It's a traditional naja-style pendant, stamped, not cast; at the top is a tiny Indian pony, saw-cut and stamped freehand, just like the crescent itself. Suspended from the center is an old, old cabochon from Wings's private collection, a perfect clear sky blue with a little golden-ivory patchy matrix. It looks like the old Cerrillos used to look; could be Sleeping Beauty, but our opinion is that it's old Blue Gem from Nevada. The beads were all hand-selected to match, and wow, are they something: ultra-high-grade [and ultra-high-cost] Sleeping Beauty rondels, smaller rondels and heishi-cut discs of high-grade natural turquoise [unlabeled by mine], and solid sterling silver saucer beads. You can read its full description here. Seriously, go look.

The second necklace is also a naja-style pendant on hand-selected beads:

This one is called The Arc of an Evergreen Earth, and it's a crescent within a crescent, the whole saw-cut entirely freehand; stamped freehand, too. This one is set with a cabochon on top rather than as the pendant; it's malachite, not the phenomenally high value of the turquoise cabochon in the work above, but soft, gentle, a beautiful gradient of greens. Once again, the beads were matched to the pendant: malachite cubes in that same softer shade; ultra-high-grade large rainbow moonstone orbs; more standard-quality rainbow moonstone in smaller rounds; sterling silver; and tiny anchors of genuine emerald. You can read its full description here [and like the first necklace, the photos do not begin to do it justice; the light was uncooperative].

And finally for this post, the new ring:

This is a vintage-style ring in an old traditional pattern known as the rolling sun. Wings has created several of these over the years, each one unique; this iteration is called Breath and Light. It has a middling-wide band stamped freehand in alternating motifs, the imagery to which the "breath" and "light" of the name refer. Resizeable at no charge. Click through and look at the stampwork. You can read its full description here.

Omens.

Light blue skies, iridescent "clouds." Scare quotes because they're not actually real clouds at all, just more drought-deepening, air-polluting contrails. [Not that "chemtrails" nonsense; contrails. Look it up; jet fuel is full of microplastics, and the trails suck up whatever moisture is in the air, leaving less for air and land down here].

Yesterday, though, we had some iridescence that was naturally-occurring . . . and should not have been able to occur, given that it was 58 degrees. [It's 62 today.] Late afternoon brought us a sun dog, a phenomenon of deep, bitter cold. Except, as I said, it was 58. Should not have been possible, and yet there it was, for an hour and more.

In our cultures, they're omens. I am deeply concerned about what kind of omen a year that's started off so badly might bring us.

Taxes are due in a few weeks. That's non-negotiable. But we are also cursed with this septic system mess, and the guy who does the work of fixing these kinds of disasters [who we know; he's a good guy] 1) is unlikely to be able to do it before well into March, and 2) is convinced, based on our description and what the septic cleanout guys have told us, that it's going to require digging a whole new leachfield. We don't have that kind of money.

Oh, and at some point, I'm going to need a power wheelchair.

And the only way out of this is SALES.

I feel like I'm losing my mind, trying to find a way to cover just the first two, never mind the rest. We have had two sales now this whole month, and nothing else, and that's not gonna cut it, especially with my Patreon down $250 again this month. We're already paying out $200+ every 8-10 days to have the tank pumped, because the water has nowhere to go [and believe me, we're conserving as much as we can]. The most recent was this morning. All this nonsense comes in one of our two most costly months of the year as it is, and in the same quarter as taxes, and no amount of tearing my hair out is going to make all this reconcile, but here we are. Amid the constant, unremitting physical pain and the ugly new developments and complete and utter lack of an immune system in a place where no one mitigates the pandemic in the slightest, leaving me almost entirely housebound.

I got the Wings's four new pairs of earrings up yesterday: here, here, here, and here [this pair already sold, only our second sale of the month; he has more planned in this size/style]. The other works were posted the day before: the ring and four pairs of earrings, here, here, here, here, and here. IThese are all more moderately priced than most of his work, and the silverwork and stones are absolutely incredible . . . and Valentine's Day is only two weeks away, so go look. Please. I am at my wits' end after our worst year in recent memory last year and this year starting off so badly on so many fronts, and I need help sharing our links and his work. As always, all the links are listed below, and sales are the most important:

Sales here;

Testimonials here;

Patreon here;

Ko-fi here.

Red Willow Spirit: The Blue and the White, the Waters and 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 an alpine mid-winter, for what should be in these days when the season has become unrecognizeable now. It's two related images linked by a single phenomenal work of wearable art, all of them manifest as the blue and the white, the waters and the light that were traditionally the hallmark of a healthy post-storm winter here.

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 truly need to begin this new calendar year on a better note, which means that we will need to make consistent sales, so shares are very much needed and much appreciated.

Monday, January 29, 2024

The one and only thing.

Take a look at the snowcaps in that photo. Now, scroll down to yesterday's post, and compare the two.

January, and it's 58 degrees at midday, and still climbing. Like our expenses.

This month has passed so fast it's a blur, and yet it feels like the longest string of Mondays possible, day after day after day. I'm not sleeping properly, mostly because of pain, but partly because of all the pollen already flying around. These are end-of-April conditions, and we've had them all of January. The less I sleep, the less manageable my pain becomes. And the less manageable my pain becomes, the less I'm able to focus on the one and only thing I need to make sure gets done right now: Bring in sales.

What lies ahead is terrifying.

Oh, and at some point, I'm going to need a power wheelchair.

And the only way out of this is SALES.

I feel like I'm losing my mind, trying to find a way to cover just the first two, never mind the rest. We have had two sales now this whole month, and nothing else, and that's not gonna cut it, especially with my Patreon down $250 again this month. We're already paying out $200+ every 8-10 days to have the tank pumped, because the water has nowhere to go [and believe me, we're conserving as much as we can]. The next will be tomorrow. All this nonsense comes in one of our two most costly months of the year as it is, and in the same quarter as taxes, and no amount of tearing my hair out is going to make all this reconcile, but here we are. Amid the constant, unremitting physical pain and the ugly new developments and complete and utter lack of an immune system in a place where no one mitigates the pandemic in the slightest, leaving me almost entirely housebound.

I got the Wings's four new pairs of earrings up yesterday: here, here, here, and here [this pair already sold, only our second sale of the month; he has more planned in this size/style]. The other works were posted the day before: the ring and four pairs of earrings, here, here, here, here, and here. IThese are all more moderately priced than most of his work, and the silverwork and stones are absolutely incredible . . . and Valentine's Day is only two weeks away, so go look. Please. I am at my wits' end after our worst year in recent memory last year and this year starting off so badly on so many fronts, and I need help sharing our links and his work. As always, all the links are listed below, and sales are the most important:

Sales here;

Testimonials here;

Patreon here;

Ko-fi here.

Monday Photo Meditation: A Frost-Beaded Blue

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a Monday Photo Meditation for a distinctly unseasonal January drawing to a close, and for the beauty of even recent winters denied us now. It's an image that Wings shot at the midpoint of a January five years ago, showing a world newly awakening to the beauty of a frost-beaded blue.

Sunday, January 28, 2024

Not done climbing.

I shot that just over an hour ago. Already, the snow is visibly melting. The mercury has gone from 49 to 51 in a matter of minutes, and it's not done climbing.

The high right now? Should be 20, at most.

People don't grasp the scope and scale of this collapse, nor how it's accelerating.

::Sigh:: fitting start to the week, unfortunately, since everything is falling apart around me, and the expenses are not done climbing, either.

And the only way out of this is SALES.

We have had one sale this whole month (in the first couple of days of it), and nothing since, and that's not gonna cut it, especially with my Patreon down $250 again this month. We're already paying out $200+ every 8-10 days to have the tank pumped, because the water has nowhere to go [and believe me, we're conserving as much as we can]. The next will be on Tuesday, the day after tomorrow. All this nonsense comes in one of our two most costly months of the year as it is, and in the same quarter as taxes, and no amount of tearing my hair out is going to make all this reconcile, but here we are. Amid the constant, unremitting physical pain and the ugly new developments and complete and utter lack of an immune system in a place where no one mitigates the pandemic in the slightest, leaving me almost entirely housebound.

I got the first five pieces of Wings's new work up yesterday: the ring and four pairs of earrings, here, here, here, here, and here. I had thought he wold have two additional pairs of earrings yesterday, but it turns out that it wasn't two, it was four, and he swears he'll have them done for me to get up yet today. Several of them will be in the $350/pair range; three pairs are more elaborate and will be somewhat higher. I am at my wits' end after our worst year in recent memory last year and this year starting off so badly on so many fronts, and I need help sharing our links and his work. As always, all the links are listed below, and sales are the most important:

Sales here;

Testimonials here;

Patreon here;

Ko-fi here.

The Blues of the Winter Storm

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a work for the gifts of water and sky, of the storm in the stars and the new world born therefrom. It's a pair of earrings wrought in an old traditional style, set here with the blues of the winter storm, of newborn stars and worlds healed, reborn, and reclaimed.

Saturday, January 27, 2024

Just a dusting. Again.

But it's the fourth night in a row of just a dusting, which is better than nothing at all.

Now, if only I could bring in four nights straight of a dusting of sales.

We have had one sale this whole month (in the first couple of days of it), and nothing since, and that's not gonna cut it, especially with my Patreon down $250 again this month. We have taxes upcoming, and we talked to the excavator guy yesterday, and that mess will likely be early March (unless the weather suddenly turns thirty degrees colder and stays that way). By that mess, I mean scoping out the drain from the septic tank to the leach field, and seeing whether there's a block that can be cleared or we need a whole new field in a different place. From the sound of it, he says that it's unlikely in the extreme to be the former. I have no idea what a new leachfield is gonna cost us. But as it is, we're paying out $200+ every 8-10 days to have the tank pumped, because the water has nowhere to go [and believe me, we're conserving as much as we can].

I'm so overwhelmed with physical pain and bureaucratic health care bullshit and the upcoming nonsense with taxes, and I can't focus on any of it because the need to make sales is so extreme. Our outlay this month has been absolutely staggering, and it's cut into everything else. And no, I'm not going to have my new symptoms checked; I'm having enough trouble coping with all the existing ones, and we do not have the money for a whole bunch of travel, never mind the damn tests. Just to cover leachfield and taxes, I have got to bring in more income somehow. But there's no getting blood from a stone, and it's really rocky around here right now.

But I am determined to get Wings's new work up today. There's the ring, plus four pairs of earrings, and possibly two additional pairs of earrings yet today. Half of them will be in the $350/pair range; the other half are more elaborate and will be somewhat higher. I am at my wits' end after our worst year in recent memory last year and this year starting off so badly on so many fronts, and I need help sharing our links and his work. As always, all the links are listed below, and sales are the most important:

Sales here;

Testimonials here;

Patreon here;

Ko-fi here.

Braiding Winter Earth and Dusken Sky

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a work that captures the contradictions and the interrelationships of our current patterns, of what is at once a braided earth and a fast-altering world. It's a pair of earrings that capture the beauty of our evening squalls, of braiding winter earth and dusken sky, and of a little healing in a world increasingly in need of it now.

Friday, January 26, 2024

No real chance of rain.

Fog this morning. It turned into flurries that continued until early afternoon; not enough to stick, just enough to be visible in the air. Now, in quite literally just the last minute, the wind has kicked up hard from the north, and that's going to make it very, very cold.

There's no real chance of anything, rain or snow, in the forecast for another week, and that's going to be dangerous for the land.

Speaking of no real chance of rain, that's been the case on the sales front pretty much since the start of the year. We have had one sale this whole month (in the first couple of days of it), and nothing since, and that's not gonna cut it, especially with my Patreon down $250 again this month. We have taxes upcoming, and we talked to the excavator guy today, and that mess will likely be early March (unless the weather suddenly turns thirty degrees colder and stays that way). By that mess, I mean scoping out the drain from the septic tank to the leach field, and seeing whether there's a block that can be cleared or we need a whole new field in a different place. From the sound of it, it's unlikely in the extreme to be the former. I have no idea what that's gonna cost us. But as it is, we're paying out $200+ every 8-10 days to have the tank pumped, because the water has nowhere to go.

As always, all the links are listed below, and sales are the most important:

Sales here;

Testimonials here;

Patreon here;

Ko-fi here.

Friday Feature: Beneath an Animating Sky

It's our Friday Feature at The NDN Silver Blog, with a trio of works from the same category, all of them sharing multiple elements in common. It's three cuff bracelets wrought in stunning silverwork symbolism and set with extraordinary stones, all of them brought together to remind us that our world lives beneath an animating sky, one of creation, of birth, of hope.

Thursday, January 25, 2024

All dark skies now.

The blue skies at dawn have vanished; it's all dark skies now. No snow here yet, although the peaks are getting some already. It's supposed to arrive down ehre this evening and extend into tomorrow. As always, we'll see.

At the moment, everything else is pretty dark.

We have had one sale this whole month, and that's not gonna cut it. I'm so overwhelmed with physical pain and bureaucratic health care bullshit and the upcoming nonsense with taxes, and I can't focus on any of it because the need to make sales is so extreme. I also can't afford to have even a fraction of the health care work done that I need to have. The lymphedema is back in a big way in my right breast [this is the one they thought was a sign of inflammatory breast cancer a couple of years ago, but concluded, eventually, that it was just the lupus, because they simply couldn't tell what it was]. I have a new mass in my neck, aside from the existing one that they thought, before that, was medullary thyroid cancer [again, because they couldn't figure out results of the multiple biopsies]; it's probably been there, but the chemo has taken down the swelling, and now it's very much perceptible. No, I'm not going to Santa Fe for testing; I can't afford it, and literally everyone in this state has COVID and goes unmasked, and with no immune system at all anymore, I can't afford to contract that, either. Besides, our current expenses are far more than enough. After last week's hideous outlay [in our third week without a single sale, and with my January Patreon payout still $250 short] I have got to bring in more income somehow. But there's no getting blood from a stone, and it's really rocky around here right now.

As always, all the links are listed below, and sales are the most important:

Sales here;

Testimonials here;

Patreon here;

Ko-fi here.