Sapele Balance Stones, Set of Five

Five stones that are not stones. Each one is shaped from sapele, a dense African hardwood with a ribbon grain that reads red-brown in daylight and deepens with age, then hand-polished and finished with natural wax until it has the weight and coolness of a river pebble. Small magnets set into the wood let them stack in ways real stones never would: a cairn that leans, a pebble balanced on a pea, a tower that should not stand and does.

Senser Woodcraft shapes and polishes each piece by hand, so the five vary slightly in size and no two sets are quite the same. They arrive nested in a foam-lined black box, which makes them one of the easier serious presents to wrap.

We keep a set on the studio desk. It gets rebuilt several times a day by whoever is thinking, which is the best argument for it we can make. A quiet object for a desk, a mantel or a windowsill, and a better thing to fidget with than anything that needs charging.

Set of five in solid sapele with inset magnets and a natural wax finish. The set weighs about 1.2 pounds and the largest stone sits comfortably in a palm. Keep them dry, and keep the magnets away from bank cards. Made by Senser Woodcraft.