Red Willow Spirit: Starlit, Stormlit Blues

Photo copyright Wings, 2023; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's an edition of Red Willow Spirit for the collapse of season and climate and the stubborn rise of beauty, medicine, and hope. It's three summer images linked by two newer works of wearable art, all fo them full of the promise of starlit, stormlit blues.

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 enormous expenses in the middle of our worst sales year in a very long time, 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.       

More hot dry wind.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Pretty skies this morning. More like late October than late-middle August, though. I noticed this morning, too, that the trees across the highway faded drastically overnight; a lot more yellow and gold than yesterday.

We've still got scattered cloud cover, but it's unlikely to produce anything except more hot dry wind. Also more fire nearby, and therefore more smoke, which is why everything in the photo is so hazy.

I managed to get two big things paid last week, and we paid the third big one today (over $100 more than I was expecting, thanks to rates raised drastically since last year). I think  we'll be okay though the end of the month, but with my Patreon down by a few hundred a month coupled with the platform's carelessness in switching to a new payment processor without notifying anyone (and thereby causing a lot of banks to label the whole platform as fraudulent), it seems that I can probably expect a much lower payout yet on September first. We have to make up a LOT of ground financially over the next four months.

As I've been saying, there's a lot of new work on the site: Last week, I posted Wings's six new works (2 rings; 4 pairs of earrings [one of which is sold]); all items share the same price point, $425 each. And, of course, there are the new gemstone bead trios, one completed just yesterday and featured here. The other night, I got the new cuff posted here, and it's incredible; selling that alone would do a lot right now. He also has several new pairs of earrings in the design stages. Sales have been terribly slow all year, and now we are quite literally at the point of not being able to make it if we can't keep pace weekly with steady sales (never mind the dental stuff; he's unilaterally decided to push that back yet again). Given the Patreon mess and my health issues, I don't have any way to solve any of 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 (apparently the sponges are unavilable, but the other two things I need that I can't get here are the Bar Keeper's Friend coffeemaker cleaner and descaler; we're entirely out of both); 
• 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: End-of-Summer Indigo Blues

Photo copyright Wings, 2023; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a Monday Photo Meditation for the sense of melancholy that accompanies the truth that calendrical midsummer has already become early fall. It's also a reminder, from nine years past very nearly to the day, to acknowledge and honor the beauty and medicine that attend rare phenomena amid all the mourning, like the sort found in these rare end-of-summer indigo blues.

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 enormous expenses in the middle of our worst sales year in a very long time, 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.      

At this rate, we'll be glad for winter.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

See all that white behind the hay barn and the trees? That's not clouds. That's smoke.

Smoke from two new wildfire starts just this weekend, one from a couple of days ago west of Jicarilla, and one just today west of Los Alamos. It's been all haze all the time today, and all wind, too, and the air periodically stinks of forest fire.

It looks like we won't be getting any rain from the West Coast hurricane. Just hot, windy, smoky, and miserable. At this rate, we'll be glad for winter.

I just hope we manage to get back to a normal sales pattern between now and then.

I've managed to get two big things paid this week; we have to pay a third big one tomorrow, and a sale lat night means that I can do that without worrying about it now. I think (think; hope) that we'll be okay though the end of the month, but with my Patreon down by a few hundred a month coupled with the platform's carelessness in switching to a new payment processor without notifying anyone (and thereby causing a lot of banks to label the whole platform as fraudulent), it seems that I can probably expect a much lower payout yet on September first. We have to make up a LOT of ground financially over the next four months.

As I've been saying, there's a lot of new work on the site: The other day, I posted Wings's six new works (2 rings; 4 pairs of earrings [one of which is sold]); all items share the same price point, $425 each. And, of course, there are the new gemstone bead trios, one completed just today and featured here. The other night, I got the new cuff posted here, and it's incredible; selling that alone would do a lot right now. Sales have been terribly slow all year, and now we are quite literally at the point of not being able to make it, never mind the dental stuff (he's unilaterally decided to push that back yet again). 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 (apparently the sponges are unavilable, but the other two things I need that I can't get here are the Bar Keeper's Friend coffeemaker cleaner and descaler; we're entirely out of both); 
• 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 Dark-Lit Blues of Indian Summer Nights

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's Wings's all-new gemstone bead trio of works, completed only this afternoon and designed to honor the moons that light the way of this season of newly-unseasonal conditions. It's necklace, pair of earrings, and coil bracelet animated by the spirits and beauty of the dark-lit blues of Indian summer nights, here six weeks early but no less real for that.

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 enormous expenses in the middle of our worst sales year in a very long time, 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.     

And still, the work has to get done somehow.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Look at that sky. You'd never know that half the Southwest is in flames, and half is being flooded as I write (or will be very soon). We should get some of the rain, but I'm guessing it won't be anything nearly as heavy. On the other hand, it might be enough to put out the fire just west of us.

It's hot today, and yet, it still feels like fall: Indian summer, that point at the very end of September (and increasingly, into October) when the heat returns for one last suffocating round even as the air becomes impossibly arid and clear.

And to think that all of these disasters were preventable.

It's hard to feel like we're getting anywhere amid all the constant grief. The colonial world can invent all the polysyllabic words it wants, but what it comes down to, for us, is grief, raw and not in the least abstract.

And still, the work has to get done somehow.

I've managed to get two big things paid this week; we have to pay a third big one on Monday, two days from now. If I could make one more sale this weekend, I'd feel a lot better about all of it, because there are just too many demands on us, and not enough coming in to cover it, especially with my Patreon down by a few hundred a month. Worse, the platform's carelessness in switching to a new payment processor without notifying anyone has caused a lot of banks to label the whole platform as fraudulent, so I've been advised by patrons that I can probably expect a much lower payout yet on September first. I'm not going to mince words; I'm scared.

As I've been saying, there's a lot of new work on the site: The other day, I posted Wings's six new works (2 rings; 4 pairs of earrings [one of which is sold]); all items share the same price point, $425 each. And, of course, there are the new gemstone bead trios, other work. The other night, I got the new cuff posted here, and it's incredible; selling that alone would do a lot right now. Sales have been terribly slow all year, and now we are quite literally at the point of not being able to make it, never mind the dental stuff (he's unilaterally decided to push that back yet again). 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 (apparently the sponges are unavilable, but the other two things I need that I can't get here are the Bar Keeper's Friend coffeemaker cleaner and descaler; we're entirely out of both); 
• 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.                 

After Flood and Flame, a World of Beauty and Harmony

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a jeweled spiral for the elemental forces at work this day across this land mass, one for a storm-tossed wildfire sky. It's a piece coiling with power, and with the lessons humanity still refuses to learn, reminding us that after flood and flame, a world of beauty and harmony awaits, if only we will build it.

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 enormous expenses in the middle of our worst sales year in a very long time, 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.