An old collector friend of mine recently got in touch with me to find out how I was doing with the cross country move, and to see if there's anything that he can do to help me along the way. He ended up gifting me back some puzzles of mine that he's had in his collection these past 20 years, instructing me to sell them and use the money to keep pushing forward with my moving plans. Such a sweet gesture! The story behind these puzzles is that back in 2005 I had the idea to try selling my work through an art gallery, and so arranged a hometown solo show at the Pacific Grove Art Center which I called "Pursuits of Perfection". I spent the better part of a full year fabricating over 100 copies of various Stewart Coffin style puzzles for the purpose of displaying them behind glass in an attempt to market my work to art collectors in general, rather than puzzle collectors per se. Over the course of this project, I took my craftsmanship to a whole new level of perfectionism by developing a new fabrication technique which uses CNC drilled holes and friction fit steel dowel pins in order to join the individual blocks of wood together rather than glue. The whole thing was a big experiment, and in the end I came to a few conclusions:

• The pin technique is great, but I should have used glue in addition to the steel pins.
• No other sales agent will ever be as good as I am at explaining / demonstrating how these puzzles work.
• The "fine art" industry is kind of a scam.
• All of the extra effort that went into the show itself (above and beyond simply fabricating the puzzles) was not worth it in the long run, aside from an ego boost.
• I could have boosted my ego with just one puzzle behind glass, rather than 100 of them.

At the end of it all, the gallery sold one or two of my least expensive pieces, and then I promptly sold all of the rest of them as a single lot to the patron who helped me finance the project. There were naturally some puzzles in this group that turned out better than others, yet they all hold a special place in my heart because of the time and attention to detail that went into the whole project. In many cases, these puzzles were the finest examples of my craftsmanship of certain designs, several of which I have never reproduced since.

As to be expected, these puzzles have "aged" over the course of the 19 years which have gone by since I first made them, yet their condition is still overall quite excellent aside from that the vibrancy of some of the wood grain colors has faded with time. I've refurbished them all prior to listing them for sale here, which means specifically that I've pulled apart the pin joints and added glue in order to address that lesson I learned along the way. I've been somewhat selective about which pin joints I've serviced in this regard, making the decision on a case by case basis as needed. I've put notes in each listing about what degree of refurbishment work I've done.

In addition to coming up with the pin technique over the course of working on this project back in 2005, I also decided that I wanted to stop signing my work with pen/ink because I did not like the way that it looks. I felt like I would be "defacing" the puzzle piece with blurry handwritten pen-strokes, and so none of the puzzles in the Pursuits of Perfection edition are signed or marked in any way. In the years following, I experimented with laser engraving the puzzle pieces instead, but eventually settled on providing separate certificates of authenticity with each puzzle so that I could still physically sign something without compromising the perfection of the puzzle itself.

Part of the refurbishment process includes that I've made new certificates of authenticity for each of these puzzles that I'm selling here.

Here's a list of all of the 3D printed plastic puzzles that I have in stock for sale. Several collectors have asked me this past year why I "switched over" to 3D printing, instead of focusing on the woodworking that I'm so well known for. Here's some thoughts to share on that topic:

• I love how 3D printing allows me to share some of my best design ideas with people in a way that is detached from the "preciousness" of fine-art collectible objects.
• Having a portfolio of work that's always available and in stock lets more new folks enjoy my designs.
• I think that people can more easily enjoy puzzle designs as toys when they know they're not super expensive / afraid to break something.
• I get personal satisfaction from having such a broad selection of my work in active production, and available to such a broad audience due to the low cost.
• I haven't stopped woodworking.
• I also do CNC metal machining in addition to woodworking.
• Admittedly, less of my time gets put toward woodworking or machining projects when I'm also running a 3D printing production operation.
• Running the 3D printing production operation helps me finance the other stuff that I do (wood & metal) because:
  • 3D printing machines run unattended for long stretches of time, which facilitates my multitasking.
  • I can do "lean manufacturing" which allows me to adapt and pivot my approach as needed without sacrificing any existing production plans.
  • The machinery is cheap and also easy to resell, which makes it quick to scale up/down production output as needed.
  • It gives me an income source that does not depend upon my having an industrial workspace, which has been helpful during recent workshop moves.
  • It's a backup plan in case I ever lose my fancy workshop, for whatever reason.

With all of that said, I am proud to present the following puzzles. Please see the contact page for my email address. Please email me to place orders.