Tag Archives for Etsy

Woolhenge: At First We Weren’t Sure How We Felt About It

photo by Thea on Etsy

Ooh, ha ha ha! First we have to catch our breath from laughing at our clever title. I’m sure that’s why we’re alone all of the time–people are afraid they would die laughing because of how funny we are.

Anyway, apparently there is this. When you think Stonehenge replica, it’s true that you don’t think of wool right away as a suitable material, but there is a certain logic to it. So many people who go to Stonehenge end up taking at least one picture of sheep, or making a joke about the sheep henge that is set up right near the stone henge. Sheep are very much a part of the Stonehenge experience.

The Etsy page says, “…what you see here is a model of Stonehenge depicted in wool, I used photographs from a book and my own pictures to try and depict many of the rocks’ crevices. The real Stonehenge is 24 feet (7.3 m) tall and made of stone but the tallest of these stones is 2.5 inches (3.5 cm) tall and made of wool, so it’s lightweight and portable.

 These “stones” are hand-sculpted and made out of eco-friendly North Ronaldsay wool (from British sheep that eat mainly seaweed). They are made using a technique called needle felting where I sculpt wool into a solid form using a little barbed needle and comes in a box, ready for gifting.”

We have to enter the modern world, we know, and get used to things like seeing the word gift used as a verb. But once we’re past that there are the sheep who eat mainly seaweed to distract us. Visions of aquatic sheep arise, with webbed hooves and gills, herds of them bobbing on the waves like rubber duckies… Does this have to do with the Japanese radiation? No? Too soon?

But the part we need to focus on here is “I used photographs from a book and my own pictures to try and depict many of the rocks’ crevices.” Not only has she taken care to place the stones roughly as they stand today (inner trilithon horseshoe facing the three consecutive extant lintels. We look for that in a replica), but she noticed their shapes and made a stab at that as well. We believe we recognise the individual stones in the second picture above. That is rather advanced for a very small replica. We also note that she nowhere mentions druids! Well done.

All in all, a superior small replica. Score: 7 druids. Although as Faithful Reader Simon Burrow pointed out, we should almost have a separate category of druid for the small henges, which tend to be scored lower just because they’re small. Okay, Simon, this would get 8½ druid dwarves! And a spell of transmutation. No, no. This is not an RPG. Yet.

Wool–another material added to the list, taking us ever closer to Rule 34S. If you think of some odd new way or place to make a Stonehenge replica, let us know. And until then, friends, happy henging!

Stonehenge Under Glass

terrarium-1

photo and mini-replica from dewgardencrafts on Etsy, with permission

It’s like a little herd of Stonehenge on a hill! You can almost imagine tiny mysterious druids that only come out when you’re not around and put up megaliths. Awesome! This item threatens the Taipei Stonehenge sculpture‘s claim to the Cutest Stonehenge title.

terrarium-23The terrarium in the photo above, sadly, has been sold. The one to the left, however, is still for sale on Etsy, “the place to buy and sell things handmade”, as are others, including the less poetic but intriguingly-named Butt Crack Terrarium . . . Oops! We’re too easily distracted. Let’s stick with Stonehenge replicas and let others blog the butt cracks!

These mossy models are in some ways preferable to many of the more complete and accurate small replicas. The moss implies the charm of the landscape, the essential Stonehenge factor so often overlooked by replica makers, especially those on the left side of the Atlantic. As much as it has been co-opted by astronomers, Stonehenge wasn’t just about the sky–at least that’s our opinion, if we’re allowed one.

And now we have some scoring to do. Score: 6 druids. It may not be accurate, but gosh darn it, we like it, and we can do whatever we want. It’s our blog!

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Bluestone Henge: Transported magically from Wales to you!

bluestone-henge

photo and henge by the good people at Lost Stones, with permission

We had a post on the controversies concerning  bluestones at Stonehenge almost written when the electric went out and Blam, it was gone. We’ll take that as an omen and cut to the chase!

Stonehenge’s bluestones are small with no lintels, forming an inner circle and an inner horseshoe. They were brought by glaciers or Merlin or winter sleds or water and log rollers from the Preseli Hills in Wales to the Salisbury Plain, over 400 km (250 miles). Why? Heh. We know but we’re not telling! 😉 Maybe they were thought magical, or healing. Maybe it was just how when cut they show star-like white spots as you see above.

No builders we know of, even those who claim they have the “most exact replica in the world!” (I know, right? And yet there are several.), bothered to match the stone types used at Stonehenge. This goes part way. These real bluestones come from the legal source in the Preseli Hills that supplies Lost Stones. This picture isn’t on that site, but ask. And check out their trilithons, baby!

We have plenty more to say here, but it’s time to go. Scoring: 6½ druids for taking geology into account. We like it!

*By the way, a friendly wave and hello to any readers blown our way by search-engine winds while navigating for more about the newly dicovered bluestone circle near Stonehenge. We invite you to have a look around the blog. We’ve posted photos or links to well over 200 Stonehenge replicas and there are more to come. We suggest a look at our interview and the list of Large Permanent Replicas for a start!