Japanese Karakuri Creation Group artist Yoh Kakuda weaves magical tales in wood. Each wonderful creation tells a story, but some are simply more magical.

Whenever I am visiting a destination where there is a lighthouse, I find a way to fit that into the journey and see it with my own eyes. So here we are again taking a little tour, or detour, to another.

I have a fascination with lighthouses, and I’m not alone. There is something evocative about them, the lonely sentinel keeping watch, keeping an eye on the sea and offering a guiding light to the lost or weary traveler. The lighthouse guards us well, but, who guards the lighthouse?

“Lighthouses are endlessly suggestive signifiers of both human isolation and our ultimate connectedness to each other” - Virginia Woolf

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.

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.