A spirited journey through the world of collectible artisan puzzles
Pairing craft cocktails with crafty puzzles
Nuclear Option
In the 1930’s, Columbia University physicist Isidor Isaac Rabi set out to determine the nuclear spin and associated magnetic moment of atoms in his molecular beam laboratory.
MRI puzzle by Benjamin Heidt
The Piano Has Been Drinking
It’s time to celebrate another new designer here on the pages of B&B, someone familiar to many by way of his surprisingly complex and mind boggling printed puzzle boxes but being featured here for the first time and at long last.
Mass Appeal
“I guess we all need to try being optimistic and keep striving to make things better. After all, there is really no other choice. At least that is the way I see things.”
- Stewart Coffin, Reflections, 2022
Into the Vortex
The vortex theory [of the atom] is only a dream. Itself unproven, it can prove nothing, and any speculations founded upon it are mere dreams about dreams. - Lord Kelvin
Brass Monkey 5
What’s heavy and made of brass, has six pieces that fit together, looks the same as four other things and is totally different?
The Joy of Hex
From the mischievous minds at play in the Two Brass Monkeys workshop in merry old England comes their most raucous achievement yet, a set of twelve hexagonal burrs stick puzzles that are sure to make you blush.
Humpty Dumpty
Over the next few weeks I’ll be taking you on an adventure down the rabbit hole. Many have heard tales of this fabled project, and it is time to celebrate the makers. It all begins at Christ Church, Oxford, in the afternoon on Jul 4, 1862.
Canfield-Shaker
I’m about to shake things up here at Boxes and Booze – figuratively, literally and otherwise.
Berkeley Lighthouse
“Lighthouses are endlessly suggestive signifiers of both human isolation and our ultimate connectedness to each other” - Virginia Woolf
Humpty Egg
Let’s start simply, by mentioning the fact that the talented Dr. Stephen Chin, diabolical dentist by day and wily woodturner by weekend, is rather fond of making puzzle eggs.
Sequential Discovery Board Burr Box
This particular “six piece” board burr, which is actually nothing of the sort, is handsomely crafted from American Rock Maple and Utile “plywood”.
Caged Block Box
Bill makes beautiful furniture in the Scandinavian and Shaker influenced style, ascribing to the moto that form follows function. He also likes puzzles, and has a successful puzzle shop called Black Dog Puzzle Works where he offers his hand-made challenges in elegant hardwoods.
Ned Kelley
Behold the infamous tale of Ned Kelley, the notorious Australian bushranger and outlaw wanted for a series of police murders in the late 1800s. Kelley and his gang’s evasion of police capture for over two years ended in a famous gun battle in which the outlaws wore makeshift iron suits and helmets which have become iconic.
Little Game Hunter
Fancy going on an African safari, anyone? The allure of the classic game hunt is the stuff of novels by the likes of Isak Dinesen in my book, and the only shooting I’d be interested in is with my camera.
Chubby Crocodile
When it comes right down to it, who really cares what the difference is between a crocodile and an alligator. I wouldn’t want to meet either one hiding in the water.
Brass Monkey
The burr, for the uninitiated, is an ancient mechanical puzzle likely dating back centuries. There is correlation with the classic six piece interlocked burr, a fusion of six sticks with internal notches that fit together in a specific way, and Chinese joinery techniques from the fourth century B.C.E.