Tag Archives for mini Stonehenge

Chocolate Henge and the Lizard People, Just as We Suspected!

sacrfice

henge and photos by Jeremy Dennis, with permission

Another foodhenge–some chocolate to fortify you for the work week to come. This one was created by Jeremy Dennis–not one you know, but the female cartoonist in the U.K. She certainly seems to have a twisted enough sensibility to belong on Clonehenge!

chocohengeShe calls the above photo a bloody sacrifice (as in the PeepHenge photo* we mentioned before). It is clear to the practised eye, however, that we’re looking at a healing, in keeping with the new thought about Stonehenge’s purpose as a sort of lithic Lourdes.

skateboardsProof of this appears in the photo on the left, in which we see the subject from the slab in the first photo skateboarding happily around the left-hand caramel coconut sweet. Tellingly, there is no blood on the altar stone. These rasta druid skater dinos aren’t killers. They just want to work on their ollies and add to their tricktionaries!

Those who want to know more about this henge can see it here. As for scoring, well, we must say there’s something brilliant about this while also a little discomfiting, but that’s not always a bad thing in art. Score: 6½ druids. Skate on, dudes!

* see the gruesome last photo on this page. Viewer discretion is advised!

Build Your Own Ancient Wonder (Or Can You?)

ancient-wonder

photo from a promotional website

A busy evening and a short post. We walked into a bookstore recently and saw this on a shelf. After a wry laugh, we picked it up and looked it over. Judging from the pictures, we have come to the conclusion that this is a rewrap of the little 7-druid kit we posted back on November 20, 2008. The boost in price is due to the inclusion of a beautifully illustrated book and the packaging for kids.  (Beware: we’re pretty sure, although not certain, that the book attributes the building of Stonehenge to druids. Aaaaargh!)

Anyway, our message to you is not to fall for the different-looking packaging. If it’s just the Stonehenge model you want, you can get it for less money by buying the smaller item. Score: No change in druids for the original model–still 7. Unfortunately the lovely art is balanced out by the tiresome assertions of druid-building. Don’t people know that’s like saying the Romans built the pyramids?!

We won’t even go into the question of whether anyone today can actually build an ancient anything . . . *sigh*

Butterhenge, Chicago

butterhenge

installation and photo by David Prince, with permission

Some days you just feel like a foodhenge! Luckily we’ve run across a few good ones lately. Butterhenges are not an uncommon form, what with the rectangular prism shapes that butter comes in, and its presence in most homes, including those where alcohol is also present. But this is no ordinary butterhenge, standing in the grasses of a Chicago park!

The artist, David Prince, sent an explanation that is too long to quote in its entirety, but he says the sculptural work tries to relate the experiences of daily life to the larger histories of prehistoric, geologic, and cosmic time. “I’m also interested in exploring time as something that can appear linear, cyclical, and disjointed. . .Butterhenge is a humorous investigation into these scales of time.”  He goes on to say, “I chose Stonehenge because of its relationship to butter in shape, and also its history as an archeological artifact, and its longer history as a part of a geologic process. In relating these two objects the results are comical, but hopefully lead to questions about what it means to pass through a human life on a human scale , and to question what it means for humans to fit into a larger scope of history.”

Fair enough. Probably that’s what a lot of these replicas are hinting at, although most builders never put it that way, even to themselves. It’s what makes this Clonehenge idea funny.  Score: 6½ druids. The words and the grass swayed us!

Challenge to readers: We would love to see a butter Stonehenge replica in which the butter was sculpted into Stonehenge-like shapes. See your henge featured on the prestigious Clonehenge blog! 😉

Dowdell Stonehenge Model, Wiltshire

earthwood-near-stonehenge

photo by Rob Roy of the Big Stones Website, with permission

From the book Stone Circles by Rob Roy, “A number of years ago, a very accurate model of Stonehenge was built by Albert Dowdell, now deceased, just five miles from the real thing. Jaki, Darin, and I managed to track it down from an old book. The new owners, a young couple who had only owned the place for a year or two, were delighted to show us the model, and have us in for a cup of tea. We were very surprised to hear that we were the first people to stop and ask about Dowdell’s model. The ‘stones’ were cast in concrete in just the right shapes, the tallest not much over six inches in height.”

We’re not certain whether this nice little model of Stonehenge still stands, but we are grateful to have a picture. We think it’s very well done for a small garden model, full of detail and with a sort of grace. Score: 8 druids!

Getting permission to use this picture put us in touch with the interesting people at the Earthwood Building School in upstate New York. More from them another day, but this passage on their site seemed to go straight to the heart of the phenomenon we chronicle here:

“After visiting Stonehenge, I knew that someday I would have to build a stone circle of my own. Why? The only explanation I can give is that I was compelled to build it, just as the Richard Dreyfuss character in Close Encounters of the Third Kind was compelled to build a large replica of the Devil’s Tower mountain in his front yard. Incidentally, compulsion is a reason I have heard given by at least two other modern stone circle builders.”

Aha! Compulsion does seem to be the key. And the Dreyfuss comparison is one we often think of as we work on this blog. Maybe the aliens are going to meet us at Stonehenge!

Taipei’s Interactive Larval Stonehenge, Taiwan

larval-stonehenge

photo from the Taipei Public Art section of the Taiwan government site

♥ ♥ ♥! Never before have we been so excited about a replica that we held it for a week not wanting to post it, just because we knew once we posted it nothing else would ever come close! Well, we were pretty excited about one other one once, but that was back when we were n00bs, people. We are n00bs no more!

This is the real thing! In fact, it’s probably the only thing we will ever post on this blog that could also be posted on Cute Overload. Or as close as we’ll get, anyway! And look at its functions. It has sensors to sense your approach, speakers so it can talk to you, mirrors . . . we’re not sure what they’re for. Maybe they’re one way mirrors and someone stands inside and talks–who knows? There’s even a hologram involved somehow! Go to this page and click on the right-hand square that has VR in it, and you can get a better look.

Taipei has some great public art. We had no idea. A giant chess board with chess pieces, for example. We can’t help but wonder what got into whom in order for this Stonehenge (yes, that IS the work’s title) to happen. We’re in awe, the kind that includes humourous disbelief! Scoring? Seriously? How? We’ll give it 6 baby druids–that’ll have to do.

Stonehenge in Silver

silversculptatsiteThis replica is a meticulous copy of Stonehenge rendered in sterling silver. A page on the site says “The replica was on display at the English Heritage visitor’s center at the Stonehenge site for three years. It is now available in a limited edition to interested collectors.”

Believe me, we would like to make fun of this tiny silver Stonehenge. But it’s hard for us to deny that it is a beautiful thing. The minutely detailed stone-for-stone silver model of the monument is mounted on a base of gleaming black granite so that it looks like a piece of exquisite jewellery.

Yes, we know that it is still rather peculiar that people would bother to do this. And, yes, we know that the thing has no real use or reason for being. But that could be silver-draketrilithionsaid of most of the things we post on this blog.  Our inner magpie was aroused as soon as we laid eyes on this.

The artists, Drake and Waldon Lewis, are brothers from California. They don’t say on their website how much a copy of this replica would cost, but we imagine it is a pretty penny. It would make a great centerpiece for your Stonehenge collection. Score: 8 druids. It would be hard to resist placing tiny red ants among the ‘stones’ and taking pictures!

silver-sh

Lego Doctor Who: The Secret of Stonehenge

lego-dr-who

from the Lego Doctor Who by thegreattotemaster

How can we resist posting this one? The strange genius who generated this objet d’art lives in Iceland. This salt ceramic dough henge is just the sort of odd thing we like. Here is the video of the 2nd episode. The link for the first is here. (The haziness of the video, by the way, is an indication of pre-dawn in the story. The light improves as the clip continues.)

As we said, we sense there is some kind of strange genius going on here and, if he continues on the path he’s on, we expect great things from the totemaster!

Note the trilithon, bluestones–this builder has taken time to look at Stonehenge. Score: 7 druids, and, yes, they were awarded partly for attitude!

Dominohenge: Not to Be Toppled

domino

photos and henge by errordactyl and brother, with permission

As we’ve said before, anything vaguely rectangular and three-dimensional eventually becomes the material for a henge, and dominoes are no exception. Here’s a link to another one [link] with added amusing comments.

We like the one above because someone actually looked at Stonehenge (see photo below) and noticed the trilithons grouped in the center and that many of the lintels in the sarsen circle are down. The use of two dominoes for each upright was thoughtful, too.

domino-2We can’t quite make out what the little coloured figures are but we’re going to take them as bluestones. If you want, the glass can be a UFO. Why not?

Score: 6½ druids. We’re glad that errordactyl thinks  Stonehenge is f***ing awesome. But we’re not sure we agree with the commenter on the other dominohenge who implies that Stonehenge would look better if it had dalmation-type spots. Don’t give the vandals any new ideas. And leave the toppling to the pros!

Wood Block Henge, and The Story of Garden Henge

bored-friends

photo by David Lewis, with permission

“Garden Henge was a very mysterious place. No-one knew who had built it, or how long ago it had been built, and there were all kinds of stories told about strange things that happened at Garden Henge at night.” It may be made of wood and open to the public, but I think we all know the reference being made in this charming bit of a children’s story. To clinch it we have the pictures. We challenge anyone to name another circle of uprights with lintels or with trilithons in the center. Stonehenge has no peer!

This henge is made of blocks from a wooden tower play set by Garden Games. It is like a giant Jenga game, for those of you who are more familiar with that. Jenga blocks, too, end up in their share of henges. As do blocks of all kinds, sometimes with unrealistically peaceful stuffed animals!

We found the story simple and charming, with just the right balance of peril and comfort for a young child. The toppling arch is a good reminder of why people are kept away from Stonehenge most of the time. Score: 7 druids for the story and the henge.

Sad that the real situation of Stonehenge keeps it from being the sort of thing that children might stumble upon in a story, hide under in a storm, and get spirited away to another time and place in the time-honoured tradition of the children’s fantasy tale!

Dating with Stonehenge

dating-stonehenge

henge and picture by Blake Meyer, completely without permission

Okay, it’s late on Valentine’s Day. A certain someone is crashed out and we may or may not have had a lovely Beaujolais with a bit of chocolate. We have been waiting to hear from this henger for a long time,  possibly an absent blogger of a long-dead blog. We hereby break our own rules and repost without permission. A request from the blogger will delete this post.

In the meantime, here’s an  interesting replica of unknown inspiration. The post says: “ . . I cut the large pieces of cardboard (courtesy of the dining common) into the correct shapes and I folded and duct-taped large crinkled pieces of paper on a few of them . . . Then I spray-painted the Stonehenges (I did buy the paint), and stapled them to scrap wood from stage for stability. And VOILA! STONEHENGES! They were a big hit at the outing and now they reside as decoration in my room.” And he’s right–that Erika is cute!

Bravo, Blake! Your mysterious “Stonehenges” are a hit with us! Score: 7 druids for a bl***y good job making a Stonehenge out of scraps just lying around! We hope you have gone on to larger, more permanent replicas, and that you’ve hung on to the lovely Erika!