Take your bed for granted? Don't.

Photo copyright LoreleiHI, 2014; all rights reserved.

Have you ever had to sleep without a bed?  I don't mean a night or two in a sleeping bag as a kid, or even as an adult. I mean an extended period with no bed at all.

I have. It's terrible.

When you have disabling conditions, like I do, it's downright murderous.

My beautiful, big-hearted sister River has a diary up at over at the Great Orange Satan for a woman who is a friend to both of us:  LoreleiHI. Lorelei has, among other things, hip dysplasia that makes sleeping on an air mattress a problem; now that the air mattress is punctured (by the claws of her roommate's cat) and going flat, it's impossible. She has other disabling conditions, too, and decent sleep, rare at the best of times, is a priority. That's her in the photo above, snuggling her service dog, Púka.

Lorelei is one of those folks who is bright, beautiful, big-hearted, and incredibly talented — and who the universe handed a very short straw from jump. She has faced, and survived, things that are unimaginable to most people. But she needs a little help now. So please, let's take a shot at easing some of her very great physical pain. Let's get her a bed — not another air mattress, which is a very bad choice for people with the kinds of chronic illnesses that we have (yes, that's hard experience talking), but a real bed.

Please go share River's diary with your networks. And if you can afford to kick in a few bucks, please do that, too. For those who want to go straight to her PayPal account, here's her e-mail address to use:

loreleihi at live dot com

Chi miigwech.

Geronimo!

Photo copyright Aji, 2014; all rights reserved.

It's #TBT at The NDN Silver Blog, and we've gone all the way back to southern New Mexico in the late 19th Century. With a few detours to Mexico, Arizona, Florida, Alabama, and Oklahoma.

The featured piece is a stunning pastel of incredible depth by an Isleta Pueblo artist, a portrait of Goyathlay, who the rest of the world knows as Geronimo. The post itself is about the man and his history.

A few words about things I didn't cover there: Toward the end of the post, there's an embedded link that takes you to history brochure published by The Inn of the Mountain Gods, the casino and resort of the Mescalero Apache Nation, where Goyathlay's descendants live. If you're even in New Mexico and have a chance to get down there, do:  It's stunningly beautiful country, in the shadow of the second-highest peak in the state, their sacred White Mountain (Sierra Blanca, on the maps). Great ski country, too. The Inn itself features very good food, incredible Native art, and at certain times of the year, performances by the Apache Crown Dancers. If you've never seen them, put it on your list of things to do.

Second, there's a bit in there about the history of his name[s], and some discussion of Saint Jerome. In an odd confluence, Taos Pueblo's Catholic patron saint is Saint Jerome, and the big celebration at the end of each September is the Feast of San Geronimo.

Third, the artwork: It looks like a watercolor, but it's pastel, and incredibly realistic. It's done on kaba paper, a kind of paper made from the compressed wood of a kind of Japanese birch tree, and it's perfect for this particular piece. It's fully matted and framed, and the frame itself is similarly suited: It's reclaimed barn wood, rustic but very strong, just like the heart of the subject within its boundaries.

So please go take a look. If you like it, please share via the social-media buttons at the bottom of the post, and at the bottom of Wings's main page.


P.S. You can credit blame me for the quality of the photo. Wings would never take something so amateurish.

Forces of Nature

Photo copyright Wings, 2014; all rights reserved.

Today at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a brand new showpiece. 

Of course, the piece itself is only a part of it, but it's absolutely spectacular. The rest ain't bad, either.

So come and learn about metamorphic rock, about staurolite, about azurite and malachite, about elements and symbols and forces of Nature and how Wings ties them all together in one incredible piece of art.

Shares from the post itself, and from the main page, are very, very much needed.

Kim:

Also, too:  "Go away."

#stalker #fakeshaman #racistculturalappropriator #fedup

Treasures, But No Fairy Tales

Photo copyright Wings, 2014; all rights reserved.

Okay, so some folks associate it with fairy tales.  We take you to another level.

It's Turquoise Tuesday at The NDN Silver Blog, and today, it's an exploration of what is known as Sleeping Beauty turquoise. As always, we walk you through the thumbnail version of the history, leaven it with some of the old stories and symbolism, and finish it off with some really incredible imagery. It's worth taking a look just for the photos alone — not only the silverwork, but the very stones themselves.

Please share with all your networks, on- and offline: both the post itself and the main page.

Thanks.

Inventory Notes

Photo copyright Wings, 2014; all rights reserved.

There are some newly-available pieces on the Web site. 

Not new pieces, although I'll be posting one of those soon, too. These are pieces that had been marked "Reserved" as a favor to people who wanted to buy them. With one exception (and this is someone who discussed reserving an item with me just last week and has made arrangements, so that piece is safe), all of the others have just been returned to available inventory.

Some of these have been reserved, literally, for months. We can't afford to keep merchandise off the market when even partial payment is not forthcoming in an at-least-somewhat-timely fashion. We're actually very understanding about this sort of thing; we've worked with people over some very long periods so that they can get the pieces they want. But we can't hold things indefinitely with no contact and no deposit or partial payment of any sort.

So, a few items are once again available for sale: items in the Necklaces, Pins, and Rings Galleries, and a photograph from Wings's recent show. If you were interested in one of these, now's a good time to snap it up.

Lines of Demarcation

Photo copyright Wings, 2014; all rights reserved.

That's the topic of today's post at The NDN Silver Blog. It's a musing on what a threshold is, what we think the word means, what it represents culturally and how and whether to cross it, what it means if we don't.

It's also a highlight of a photo with some really rich depth and texture, the kind that makes you want to touch it.

Take a look. If you like it, or even if it just makes you think, please share it via the social-media buttons at the bottom of the post itself, and at the bottom of the main page.

Thanks.

[And probably not around much online again today. My to-do list keeps growing, while my time and other resources keep shrinking, so I'll be juggling while running.]