I’m just back from IPP38 and this year I participated in the Puzzle Exchange. I’m still kind of reeling at the fact that I came home with two boxes stuffed with great puzzles. Seventy-eight of us swapped puzzles with each other and there are some truly beautiful and ingenious puzzles in there.
My exchange puzzle was a sliding block puzzle which is a new genre for me. Here’s a picture of it:
One thing that’s always annoyed me about sliding block puzzles is how the pieces can get bumped out of position when I’m not working on solving it. So Model #055 has two placeholder pieces that are clear acrylic (in the picture the yellow of the underlying tray is showing through). Also, since the puzzle will get bumped around during shipment, I figured this would help keep the pieces in their initial positions.
I like sliding block puzzles and have several of them in my puzzle collection. Model #055 is pretty tough compared to the ones I own – it requires more moves than the classic Dad’s Puzzle, for example. The tray has markings that show the initial configuration of the pieces so it’s easy to start from the beginning if you want.
As usual, I underestimated how long it would take to make a hundred puzzles (ninety-six to be precise) and in the case of Model #055 I found myself spending two days peeling off the sticky backing paper, front and back, on the twelve sliding pieces and the two frame pieces. 96 * (2 * (12 + 2) ) = 2688 = tedium. But I think the result is worth the trouble. I’m really happy with how it looks and the reward of seventy-seven other puzzles totally justifies the effort.
Anyhow, that’s my update for today. Model #055 is available for sale on my Etsy store if you’d like to pick one up.