A spirited journey through the world of collectible artisan puzzles
Pairing craft cocktails with crafty puzzles


Drunken Dancing Fraulein
I’m turning upside down with this post as well and channeling my friendly dentist from down under, that madman of mechanical mischief, the Leonardo with a lathe, puzzle maker Stephen Chin.

Caterpillar Box
Nature is full of beautiful sounds, don’t you agree? Especially in Colorado, where artist Kagen Sound and his family reside.

Jack in the Box
Perhaps it is no surprise then that a puzzle box can serve as a biography of a life as well. It seems perfectly fitting that someone who has spent a lifetime with puzzles should write their own autobiography into the wood.

Dragonfly Box
Designed for the Karakuri Creation Group’s “Travel” themed exhibition, Sugimoto channeled his feelings and emotions regarding the theme for his Dragonfly into its movements rather than trying to create something more overtly travel related in appearance.

Birthday Surprise
The “Birthday Surprise” is a very limited edition, sequential discovery puzzle box which holds a surprising reward, should you be clever enough to find it, perfectly protected inside.


Quartet Box
The follow up puzzle to the Ixia Flower Box also utilizes the cutoffs from other productions that Juno hated to waste. He created little flowers on the Ixia box with them, and he created outright gears for the Quartet Box.

Tile A While
Thomas Cummings is at it again with a new design based on an old classic. Cumming’s clever creations to date have featured many varying styles of puzzle incorporated into the lid of each detailed box.

Bear Gets Ready
Yoh Kakuda makes wonderfully whimsical creations for the group, with boxes which almost always take the form of animals. For the travel theme, Yoh chose a bear who is getting ready for a trip of his own.

Bon Bons
Perry McDaniel, the premier purveyor of puzzling pastries, is one of the most precise craftsman I know who can create incredibly complex mechanism in the tiniest pieces of wood. He has outdone himself with his Bon Bon series, scaling things down to a diminutive box which resembles a bite sized bon bon.



Silver City
Self described French “Visionary Architect” Luc Schuiten penned a series of groundbreaking and provocative graphic novellas in the early two thousands, which formed the “Hollow Grounds” trilogy.

Lighthouse (Stickman No 20)
The West Quoddy Head Light in Lubec, Maine served as the real world inspiration for the Stickman No. 20 Puzzlebox, a detailed reproduction rendered in purpleheart, maple, walnut and padauk woods and imbued with Robert Yarger’s own flair and imagination.

Makishi Box (40 Move)
I’ve always loved lighthouses since I was a boy, which is admittedly not very unique. There’s something about the combination of a tower, a spiral staircase, a room with a hatch, the sea, the rocks, and just the height of it all which appeals to children in general.


Kuchinashi (Gardenia)
Shogi, often referred to as “Japanese Chess”, dates from over five hundred years ago, around the same time that Western chess was invented.


Unlocked Drawer
For this April Fool’s Day I’m turning to one of my favorite groups of fine folks, the local Texas talents of Kathleen Malcolmson, Perry McDaniel, and Robert Sandfield. Together they produced a classic little conundrum which purports to be nothing of the sort.