HENGE Pendant — Ancient Stone Circles and the Idea of Suspension

Around the world, ancient stone circles still stand. In southern England, massive stones were raised upright and balanced across horizontal lintels — structures known as henges. How did people lift stones weighing several tons and hold them in the air? The answer was not brute force alone. It was an understanding of gravity, balance, and the point where weight finds stillness.

We kept thinking about that principle. Not the engineering, but the idea behind it — the moment when something heavy stops being heavy. When a structure finds its center of gravity and appears to float.

This fascination with stones and suspension is not limited to one culture. In Japan, iwakura (磐座) are sacred stones believed to be dwelling places for kami — spirits or deities. They are found on mountaintops and in forests, left undisturbed for centuries. In Zen temple gardens, karesansui (枯山水) — dry landscape gardens like the one at Ryoan-ji in Kyoto — use carefully placed stones surrounded by raked gravel to suggest water, mountains, and vastness within a small, enclosed space.

In both traditions, stones carry meaning beyond their physical weight. They mark boundaries between the everyday and the sacred, between stillness and movement. That tension — between heaviness and the appearance of lightness — became the starting point for HENGE.

he HENGE pendant translates this idea into something worn on the body. A polyhedral glass form, made using our approach to pate de verre, is pierced by a silver pipe that passes through its center. The glass is not attached to the surface — it is supported from within, suspended along the axis. The result is a small structure that appears to float.

The glass sways gently in response to body movement, and the way it catches light shifts throughout the day. It is a quiet, contained piece — but one that carries the idea of weight made weightless.