Dancing with Microcubology

A few months ago when I met Richard Gain again at James Dalgety's Puzzle Museum, he told me that he had a few more designs nearly ready to come out from the relative newcomer to the puzzle design world called Jeff Namkung. Jeff  has specialised in interlocking solids in the form of cubes most of which do not require rotations to disassemble - he has named them all after dances! Now you know that I just cannot resist these puzzles! I obtained one of the early ones called Quickstep as soon as it was announced and reviewed it here. Richard also said that he had some more of the Jos Bergmans puzzles coming too - I was beside myself with anticipation!! Weeks passed with not a word and I forgot about it.

In early March an email went around to all the Puzzle Paradise addicts subscribers that Richard had made and dyed another batch of cubes and put them up for sale. I immediately ordered 2 of the most interesting ones and because I was too excited/lazy/stupid to read the whole page I clicked on the PayPal buy link and paid for them with the American postage fee. After a little email conversation during which I admitted to being an eedjit, we decided to make it 3 puzzles with the UK postage. A few days later I was pleased to receive both Whirlwind and Pirouette by Jos Bergmans and Jive by Jeff Namkung. Then a couple of weeks ago he announced that he had made yet more!! So what was I to do except buy them too!! So now I have 5 Namkung's and 2 Bergmans' to play with - how exciting!!! This review I will focus on the Namkung puzzles. So "I'm askin', are you dancin'"? There will be a few of you Brits who will be old enough to remember where that came from!

Is Wood Puzzling?

Recent Puzzlewood Delivery

Is wood puzzling?? Of course it is!

Puzzlewood is a brilliant site run by the fantastic puzzle collector and puzzle craftsman, Bernhard Schweitzer. He manufactures some wonderful puzzles for various people to exchange at the yearly International Puzzle Party and afterwards puts them (and some others he finds or makes) up for sale. Recently he announced the availability of another batch and being my usual indecisive self I couldn't choose which to have so I bought them all! Luckily his prices are very reasonable - although the present Mrs S may not agree when she noticed quite how many puzzles I had bought over the last 3 months!!!

A few weeks ago I received this first batch from him - Yes!!! there are more coming!

Quickstep from Microcubology

Quickstep Front

Quickstep Back

Some of my favourites types of puzzle are the interlocking cube type puzzles and for this reason I get quite excited when I have an email from Richard Gain, the man at the helm of Microcubology. I have bought a copy of almost everything he has produced. You can buy from his Shapeways shop or you can buy dyed versions from his Etsy store. He also has been known to sell via John Devost's Puzzle Paradise auction site. I personally am not that keen on the undyed puzzles and tend to order them pre-coloured - they certainly look pretty good on the shelf - as you can see from my fairly extensive collection!

I have to keep them labeled!

Richard announced this new puzzle via his YouTube channel. It was designed by Jeff Namkung, a relative newcomer to the puzzle design scene. he had apparently been influenced by Jos Bergmans. In the few months he has been designing, he has published 10 different cubes, all named after dances! The inspiration for this cube was the Mayer's cube from Pentangle which required 7 moves to extract the first piece. Jeff took this idea and produced a MUCH more complex cube of order 11.5.3.3! Yes! You read it right - 11 moves to extract the first piece! With a 5 piece puzzle!! Richard got permission to produce this and has done a wonderful job with it.

After it was announced, I immediately started watching for them and jumped at the chance to buy one within an hour of them arriving in stock - I really am quite addicted to them!!! Richard gives you the option of paying a few £££ less to get them in the unassembled state and I took the risk of this. Not to save the money! When you tot up the amount I have spent on puzzles in the last year (shudder!!!) then you will realise that a few 'quid' won't really help my finances very much. I chose it unassembled because of the extra challenge this provides. Three of the smaller cubes had been bought this way and I really loved the extra difficulty.

Trust the Craftsman to Make a Good Choice

More Moves Aren't Always Best..... Except sometimes they are!

Breath-takingly gorgeous - Delirium 13

I've been on a bit of a burr whirlwind recently and have really enjoyed myself! Below I will be discussing some recent puzzles I solved with the theme of trusting the craftsman to make good choices. Many people are either attracted to or repulsed by high level burrs and I have flip-flopped between both feelings. I do own some incredibly high level burrs and am proud to have them in my collection but am aware that I don't have the skills to solve them. They make great talking points and look gorgeous on my shelves but after the first few, I really stopped buying any more. Most of the burrs I have bought recently have something much more interesting to them in terms of solve process or have a very interesting shape/look. I really want to have a chance of actually solving the puzzle to get maximum value from my purchase.

Of course, there has to be an exception that proves my rule and above is that exception! It is the Delirium 13 puzzle designed by Stéphane Chomine and then altered slightly and beautifully crafted by my good friend from South Africa, Johan Heyns. This fabulous construction in African Rosewood, Pau Marfim, Cedrella and Burmuru for the frame with Rosewood and Cherry for the burr pieces even came with a tool to allow me to dismantle the frame and reset if needed. With 5461 moves for the first piece I might just need that there tool! So why did I buy it and go against my edict that high level burrs are not something I should be collecting? Well as well as wanting to support Johan, it should be noted that this is not just any old burr.... it is an N-ary puzzle and is very similar in process to Bill Cutler's Binary Burr. The upshot of this is that once the logical sequence is fathomed, then it is just a matter of stamina and getting through to the end without getting lost. Despite such complexity this puzzle moves beautifully and so far has been great fun to play with. Of course, I have NOT finished it - I have attempted it twice now and each time managed probably about 2500 moves and miraculously found myself back at the beginning. Doh! I have absolutely no idea at what point I got turned around but it seems to be easily done and I never recognise it until I am right back to the start. Definitely NOT terribly bright!

Dancing with Eric! (As well as Richard and Chen!)

Batch of 4 - yes 4! puzzles from Eric

Recently I acquired a rather lovely little group of puzzles from the workshop of the great Eric Fuller! When I got the email about his new "stuff" (luckily not in the middle of the night this time!) I very quickly bought 3 of the puzzles which I had never seen before and decided not to buy the 4th. As with many puzzlers I had buyers' remorse - not the "I shouldn't have bought that" or "I shouldn't have spent that much" sort of remorse! No! No! No! My remorse was I should have bought the other one too!! So, I contacted him quickly the following day and luckily he hadn't sold out and agreed to add it to my order if I would pay the extra plus postage! Needless to say I was delighted, even if my bank account wasn't!

Which one did I not buy? Which was beneath me? I hang my head in shame and say that it was the Slow Waltz puzzle. I had already bought it in printed plastic from Richard Gain, solved it and written about it here. Having danced with Richard on several occasions, I was thoroughly happy. After placing my order from Eric, I went back to the plastic Slow waltz and Wow! I remembered how fabulous a movement and how difficult a puzzle it is - I had to have it in wood! Mine is in Canarywood and Cocobolo.

Two versions of Slow waltz