Boxes and Booze 5/27/17 Boxes and Booze 5/27/17

Acorn Box

A toast this week to my alma mater and the class of 1992 who are gathering back on campus for our twenty-fifth year reunion. Haverford College is a special place set in the beatific landscape of the Philadelphia suburbs on a unique arboretum campus.

Boxes and Booze 5/20/17 Boxes and Booze 5/20/17

Whisky Bottle

Happy World Whisky Day! This holiday really takes me back. All the way to Babylon and Mesopotamia in 2000 BC! Evidence of fermented, distilled grain (whisky!) exists from archaeological sites in the middle east dating all the way back to those ancient times.

Boxes and Booze 5/13/17 Boxes and Booze 5/13/17

Travel Pillow

Boxes and Booze is on the road, traveling a bit over the next few weeks. It seems like a good time to bring out my travel pillow. This one is from Kyoko Hoshino, one of the very few women crafting puzzle boxes today.

Boxes and Booze 5/6/17 Boxes and Booze 5/6/17

Shrinking Box

The idea of a box which needs to literally shrink in order to open is simply fascinating to me, and apparently to Hiroshi Iwahara, who designed it, and Tatsuo Miyamoto, who crafted it, as well.

Boxes and Booze 4/29/17 Boxes and Booze 4/29/17

Pinko Ringo / Ze Orange

This time the fruits of his labor have yielded an orange, complete with a silver stem. It’s a lovely piece of art and would be perfectly satisfying as an exceptionally skillful bit of wood turning, complete with textured skin.

Boxes and Booze 4/22/17 Boxes and Booze 4/22/17

Pyramid

Here at Boxes and Booze we seldom get boxed in, and certainly not into a corner. Take a standard cube, for example, with its six faces, eight vertices and twelve edges.

Boxes and Booze 4/15/17 Boxes and Booze 4/15/17

Gordian Knot

The legend of the Gordian Knot dates back to ancient Macedonia, when a prophecy telling of a man driving an oxcart into the capital city of Phrygia came true and Gordia became king.

Boxes and Booze 4/8/17 Boxes and Booze 4/8/17

POH

It’s sakura (cherry blossom) season and the lovely pink blossoms are resplendent across Japan and in Washington DC here in the US. The blossoms call to mind the beauty and magic in the world, as does this charming puzzle box from Yoh Kakuda of the Karakuri Creation Group.

Boxes and Booze 4/1/17 Boxes and Booze 4/1/17

Roll Box

At first glance, it appears to be a handsomely made chest with a wooden-hinged lid, locked shut at the front. There is a prominent bar on the front decorated in a contrasting, directional wood pattern which seems to be telling you something. Indeed this is a sliding bar with a little keyhole.

Boxes and Booze 3/25/17 Boxes and Booze 3/25/17

Two-Dimensional Secret Box

One of the Japanese Karakuri Creation Group artists who has delighted in pushing the boundaries of what is possible is Hiroshi Iwahara.

A spirited journey through the world of collectible artisan puzzles