A spirited journey through the world of collectible artisan puzzles
Pairing craft cocktails with crafty puzzles
Paleolithic Puzzling
The Paleolithic era Tuc d'Audoubert cave is located in the south of France. The masterpieces of this cave are two clay bisons, the best preserved examples of clay modellings in the whole of European cave art. They are 15,000 years old, and have become iconic.
Monolith
Just when I was beginning to get melancholy for having to say goodbye to Wonderland and head back through the looking glass to reality, aliens have landed to distract me. A giant silver monolith has appeared out of nowhere and may hold the secrets of the Universe, if only we are clever enough to decode them.
Apricot II
Should the east winds blow,
Carry to me the fragrance
Of apricot bloom;
And though your master is gone,
Never forget the springtime.
- Sugawara no Michizane
Spider Chrysanthemum Box
“Thou mightest beter meten the myst on Malverne hulles
Then geten a mom of heore mouth til moneye weore schewed!”
Secretum Cista
The provenance of the name, “Secretum Cista”, is rather auspicious and steeped in mystery. From the Latin, “Secretum” has many translations, notably “secret seal”, or more simply just “secret”.
The Turing Chest
Art Deco meets Japanese tradition in this masterpiece by Nicholas Phillips. Nicholas is an American furniture maker and woodworker, who holds a PhD in theoretical physics and worked as a mathematician with NASA for much of his life.
The Apothecary Chest
Robert Yarger is a modern day puzzle box apothecary, producing the equivalent of such enrichment in wood.
Writer's Block
At the risk of becoming boxed in, I present a box which turns things inside out for me, as I find myself inside of it. The creative woodworker Tracy Woods Clemons, from Rochester, New York, has been making her designs in wood for many years.