It is, and it isn't.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

You wouldn't know it by the temperature or the weather, but it's jay season. The flock of piñon jays has been swooping around today, looking for a communal landing spot [and also, presumably, an abundant source of food]. They show up intermittently throughout the fall, come back in flocks once or twice in the winter, and typically vanish once spring starts warming up in any real way. 

Of course, we don't actually have those seasons anymore.

It's been a day. Terrible night's sleep, ongoing migraine for days now, had to be up early to have morning stuff done because J was stopping by to collect the donations for Sylvester's care [her elderly employer's now-departed cat]. We also were waiting for another visitor, and then, of course, the real problem: the well guy for what seemed to be a deficient well pump. 

It is, and it isn't. The good news is that we got out of today's mess for $100, because it was a matter of pulling out the pipe and getting rid of some sediment, then locking. it back down properly again. The bad news is that the water should have behaved much differently when I hit the breaker, and that means we have a leak in the well's pressure pump. Apparently it was fixed once, more than two decades ago. But it's probably been an issue for a good long while this time, and there's no way to tell how much longer it has. We're hoping we can delay it until spring, but if it goes . . . and the closest ballpark figure he could give me was $3,500. Could be a little less; might be a lot more. We cannot catch a break.

I'm at the point of needing to average one sale a day to break even, and I have no idea how we do that; we are so far behind on sales this year that I don't know how we make it if people don't shift into holiday-buying gear soon. Because at this rate? We can't. Not even through the month on basic expenses, never mind the fact that I have GOT to replace my laptop before the new year when prices skyrocket thanks to that asshole's tariff announcement.

I don't know what to do. I'm doing everything I can, as fast as I can, and here we are, new week, new month, and it's never enough. I need help, but there isn't any. What I really need is to bring in sales, but I can't force people to buy. And it's looking really grim.

And yes, I know we're lucky. The housing crisis worsens daily here. On that note, also 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! and they've given out all the existing tents already], 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 two photos linked by one work of wearable art, an incredible Deco cuff, here. This one really belongs with the necklace featured here on Sunday, so that's going to be our one other feature here today [also because I am beat and my hands are kiling me and I have SO much more work yet to do tonight]:

• "As the Night Falls," pendant saw-cut and scalloped freehand, with equally freehand texturization, 100s of strikes of the hammer, set with a mix of red flower and purple jaspers in the focal and ringed with carnelian and hematite; beads are amethyst; hematite; old red glass; ruby; lepidolite; sunset jasper; OLD natural hematite; onyx; and old black glass, here.

There's more on the way very soon; he's got something like four more cuffs [a green turquoise one and a rainbow moonstone one that, AGAIN, I hope to get posted yet tonight, for two of them], a couple of pendants [one set with incredible genuine spectrolite], potentially several new pairs of earrings, 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 AND now the well pressure pump, more medical, always prepaid taxes, etc.]. So: GO BUY! PLEASE. 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 far worse than the last, we really need to end 2024 on a better footing before 2025 and taxes take every cent, 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: The Mysteries of a Winter's Twilight

Photo copyright Wings, 2024; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's an edition of Red Willow Spirit for a season that should be early winter here, but looks and feel nothing like it now. It's two images linked by a single masterwork of wearable art, all of them manifest in the mysteries of a winter's twilight, reminding us that winter is a gift, a season to be nurtured, and one for gratitude, too.

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. It's December, and Christmas is literally around the corner, so get your orders in now. We need to bring in consistent sales much more than just weekly now 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.      

Everything's late.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

No, they're not clouds. They're contrails, blown apart. They're pretty; the sun turns them iridescent. But they suck up whatever tiny amount of moisture might be in the air, and as dry and warm as it is here now, that's a very bad thing.

Colonial culture is killing the planet in real time.

Everything's late because today involved errands, one of which had to be run today; since there wasn't a choice, we combined some others with it. But now I'm beat, and given my pain levels lately, I'm not worth much to anyone right now. And if nothing improves, just expect it to be this way through the end of the year: slow, late, and half-assed.

I'm at the point of needing to average one sale a day to break even, and I have no idea how we do that; we are so far behind on sales this year that I don't know how we make it if people don't shift into holiday-buying gear soon. Because at this rate? We can't. Not even through the month on basic expenses, never mind the fact that I have GOT to replace my laptop before the new year when prices skyrocket thanks to that asshole's tariff announcement.

I don't know what to do. I'm doing everything I can, as fast as I can, and here we are, new week, new month, and it's never enough. I need help, but there isn't any. What I really need is to bring in sales, but I can't force people to buy. And it's looking really grim.

And yes, I know we're lucky. The housing crisis worsens daily here. On that note, also 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 [BUT THROUGH MONDAY, BUY IT ELSEWHERE, SO THAT YOU'RE NOT CROSSING THE AMAZON EMPLOYEES' PICKET LINE; I HAVE THE SHIPPING ADDRESS IF YOU PURCHASE ITEMS ELSEWHERE]. 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! and they've given out all the existing tents already], 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 one of Wings's photos, in shades and spirits that complement yesterday's featured work. There is indeed purple in the image [and a lot of other twilight shades], but it's the red that predominates, and it illustrates a phenomenon for which one of his works is actually named. So here, it's that work, and [unusually, because it's one of his gemstone-bead necklaces, and I usually feature it with the coordinating earrings], a pair of silverwork earrings that matches beautifully, and a ring, as well [all at lower price points than most of his work, so I'd love to sell them all]:

• "Snowfire," a personal favorite, with fabulous beads of smoky quartz; fire agate; sardonyx; rainbow moonstone; amber; sunstone; Indonesian silver; iron pyrite; and black moonstone, here;
• "Firelight," a gorgeous pair of traditional concha earrings, small but powerful, with freehand score- and stampwork in a radiant pattern, sterling silver set with fiery carnelian here; and
• "Beneath the Sun's Red Eye," one in Wings's signature series of two-stone wrap rings, this one set with a pair of wine-red translucent squares of garnet, here.

There's more on the way very soon; he's got something like four more cuffs [a green turquoise one and a rainbow moonstone one that I hope to get posted yet tonight, for two of them], a couple of pendants [one set with incredible genuine spectrolite], potentially several new pairs of earrings, 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! PLEASE. 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 far worse than the last, we really need to end 2024 on a better footing before 2025 and taxes take every cent, 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: The Medicine of a Snowfire Sunset

Photo copyright Wings, 2024; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a Monday Photo Meditation for a time of dangerously unseasonal warmth, and an effort to persuade winter to return. It's a revival of memory and an appreciation of the gifts of the cold season, a tribute to the medicine of a snowfire sunset that once heralded a winter's night 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. It's December, and Christmas is literally around the corner, 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.        

Never enough.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

Sunny, channeling the RCA-Victor pup. I told him he's over a month late for Halloween, but it's a nice idea.

Seriously, I have no idea how he got that black ring around his eye. If I had to guess, he was chasing a rodent that escaped into one of those black rubberized pipes, and shoved his eye up against it, thinking if he could see it, he could get it. Whatever; it's cute, and he's completely unbothered by it.

I wish I could be so unbothered. The dogs have it made, but we have to be the ones to make sure they're taken care of it, and ourselves, too. And that's hard to do with no sales. Our hits at an all-time low for this time of year, virtually nothing but bots and crawlers and scrapers and hackers [all of whom get blocked, but keep trying anyway]. But we are so far behind on sales this year that I don't know how we make it if people don't shift into holiday-buying gear soon. Because at this rate? We can't. Not even through the month on basic expenses, never mind the fact that I have GOT to replace my laptop before the new year when prices skyrocket thanks to that asshole's tariff announcement.

I don't know what to do. I'm doing everything I can, as fast as I can, and here we are, new week, new month, and it's never enough. I need help, but there isn't any. What I really need is to bring in sales, but I can't force people to buy. And it's looking really grim.

And yes, I know we're lucky. The housing crisis worsens daily here. On that note, also 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 [BUT THROUGH MONDAY, BUY IT ELSEWHERE, SO THAT YOU'RE NOT CROSSING THE AMAZON EMPLOYEES' PICKET LINE; I HAVE THE SHIPPING ADDRESS IF YOU PURCHASE ITEMS ELSEWHERE]. 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! and they've given out all the existing tents already], 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 one of Wings's newer works in its category, and a personal favorite. It's a necklace built around a phenomenal stone in the colors of twilight, ringed with fiery carnelian and cool metallic hematite and suspended from an equally spectacular strand of beads that catch all of their colors. What you notice first, though, is the purple. And there are three cuffs in current inventory set with purple in one way or another:

• "At Angles to the Night," a fabulous Art Deco cuff cut big and bold, with a wide solid sterling silver band and long, sweeping lines scored freehand all along it; the focal is, we believe, a really unusual [and OLD] manifestation of orbicular sugilite in quartz, finely beveled and set into a hand-made bezel framed with hand-made sterling silver ingot ball beads at the corner, here;
• "Desert Spirits," another newer cuff formed of two strands of heavy-gauge sterlng silver triangle wire, chased with freehand stampwork along all four outer angles, and set with a spectacular cabochon formed of a slice of cholla cactus immersed in swirling purple resin, here; and
• "The Arrow of Twilight," a sclassic slender cuff of heavy-gauge sterling silver deeply stamped freehand in a repeating pattern of arrow points, implying a sense of motion, and with four highly domed round cabochons of deep purple amethyst across the top, here.

There's more on the way very soon; he's got something like four more cuffs [one hopefully going up tonight, and it's incredible, with a stone like pure foxfire; another with old green turquoise in an electric shade], 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! PLEASE. 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 far worse than the last, we really need to end 2024 on a better footing before 2025 and taxes take every cent, 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.                                          

A Space of Light and the Mysteries of Night

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a masterwork for the magic and medicine of those moments as the night falls here in this land of stark extremes and breathtaking beauty. It's a necklace, pendant wrought freehand of extraordinary materials on a stunning strand of beads, embodying twilight here as a space of light and the mysteries of night.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. It's December already, and Christmas is now just around the corner, so get your holiday orders in now for timely shipping. We need to bring in consistent sales more than weekly now 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.