On the Eighth day of Christmas

My true love gave to me
Eight Twisted Tangles

Seven wooden puzzles 
Six Stars-a-shining
Five Puzzle Rings
Four Revo Mazes
Three Diamond Puzzles
Two Crystal Dolphins
And a Santa on a tree.


Ok, I've made no post in this song that wasn't a puzzle-but now I do.  The Pink Tangle at the top was a purchase years ago.  The rest are either gifts from Richard at various times of going to his studio or  the annual Tangle .  Tangles are the creation of my friend Richard X. Zawitz.  I've known Richard for about 19 years now I would have to guess.  On a very causal basis.  (No, no sex stories here I'm afraid)  I met him for the first time at the HKTGF when I first attended.  I've helped on occasion at one of his toy booths, and always make a point of going to see Mr. Tangle when there is a fair.


He's a nutter if I ever saw one.  As it turns out though, his Hong Kong art studio is just down the block from Uwe's Hong Kong office.  I love taking guests to HK over there to see his work. And of course, I love going to the fair to get the annual Tangle.  I have loads of them now.  So many that I've begun to give them away to friends whose children have learning disabilities. I believe in these things for focusing attention.  You can read all about Tangles and their creator here. 


I can't wait to see what he has in store for this years tangle!

On the Seventh Day of Christmas

My true love gave to me
Seven wooden puzzles

Six Stars-a-shining
Five Puzzle Rings
Four Revo Mazes
Three Diamond Puzzles
Two Crystal Dolphins
And a Santa on a tree.

I suppose technically there are 8 wooden puzzles on the tree (I forgot about Santa) but we won't count him today. Ok so starting with the train. That was an IPP Exchange puzzle called Blocked Box 2 from Henry Strout.  This one tickled me because the first puzzle was working out how to open it. Solved and solved.  And it rolls around on the floor. Now how great is that?

There is a Japanese Kumiki dog on there and a pig of the same vein albeit made in China.  The coffee cup and spoon is caled a moku*moku*puzzle made by artbox.  None of these are terribly challenging but were fun little puzzles to put together.

At the base of the tree there are two wooden puzzles that belong to the bug.  One is a rather poor rendition of  the Hummel "Stormy Weather" figurine, and the other is a set of Japanese dolls.  Both were naked and she colored them with markers.  Sadly, these puzzles are such poor quality that they simply fall apart when moved.  Both usually sit on her puzzle shelf all the way to the back and rarely move.

The final one is a trick opening card case. I bought this in Japan a few years ago and finally decided to use it on my last trip.  (Asians and business cards-they just go together so I thought I'd use a pretty case, and have some fun at the same time)  This one is nifty because if you slide the panel as is always first in these types of boxes, the cards disappear!  Magic!  I got a lot of surprised looks when I played dumb at that conference, and a lot of laughs when I closed it back then opened it again to take out the card.  Fun stuff.  I highly recommend this one.  It will hold around a half a deck of standard sized playing cards, so it's a bit big for the purpose I use it for, but it still works.

:-)  I had a nice chuckle today.  I was posting my annual puzzle year in review over on TP (pretty boring activity wise this year) and when I was doing so, I posted something about Dave in a dress.  Well, when I read Kevin's blog and it just plain serves me right :-)  (It's not the first time someone has said that about me Kevin.  Apparently I'm a bit too down to earth and not girlish enough.  Being called a bloke because I have a brain and like to use it. Not an insult at all!  I'm pleased to join the company!) err, people who use their brains, not blokes.  Or is that blokes?  Oh heck...I'm going back to my glass of vino!  No brains this evening.

Happy New Year All!

On the Sixth Day of Christmas

My true love gave to me
Six Stars-a-shining

Five Puzzle Rings
Four Revo Mazes
Three Diamond Puzzles
Two Crystal Dolphins
And a Santa on a tree.

A tree is not a tree unless it has an angel on the top. But in this day and age, even a blog with signs of religion in it would be bashed so a star will have to do...But then I could argue that there was a star guiding a certain someone...to my house on Christmas Eve.  And that is why he sits on the bottom of the tree :-)

In this photo there are three Crystal puzzles and three 3^3 stars.  The yellow and blue crystal puzzles are once again made by Beverley and the other four are made once again by Yong Jin.  You see, that copy company can make puzzles that are different, innovative, all their own.  They just choose not to. Lazy people that they are.  I guess it is easier to make a mold from a mold.  But that doesn't explain the smaller sized puzzles.  Well, easy enough to do.  There is this machine that takes a 3D photo of something.  After that, it turns it into computer language and the operator simply inputs a number and a new size is born.  OK, maybe not that easy, but essentially that's it.

Back to YJ.  They made these stars.  Earlier they made a set of hearts that were released for Valentines day.  That same heart was later copied by Dian Sheng.  Do we see a pattern here?

Bram's puzzle rings from yesterday.  Wow!  They are not the easiest of puzzles to solve that's for sure.  I now have 3 of them and one of these years I'll get around to grabbing up the others.  I have sixth sense, weave five, and Take five. They don't solve at all in the same way a traditional puzzle ring does.  Bram talks a bit about it here.  And no, I still haven't taken it apart fully!