12-Nov-2024
Today, I finished the final coating on the triangular Japanese puzzle box. I’m about to do the final inspection on it. After that, I started working on a new project: the 3-sun 12-step puzzle box. The main design for this one will feature a natural wood finish, as shown in the photo. I may be able to add a few traditional Yosegi designs as well. In total, I’ll be making around 40 pieces. Today, I prepared the materials for the 3-sun box and crafted the frame panels and axis. I’ll begin assembling these starting tomorrow.
For both the 3-sun and 4-sun boxes, I use the same traditional Yosegi-sheet to create the top and bottom panels. As I’ve mentioned before, the supply of traditional Yosegi sheets has been declining due to a shortage of successors in this craft. Therefore, going forward, I plan to focus on making only the 3-sun 12-step and 4-sun 27-step versions for the traditional Yosegi design. I won’t have the resources to produce other step counts in this design. Additionally, I may continue making my long-standing 2-sun cube drawer in the Yosegi style, as it also utilizes this traditional yosegi sheet.
Today, I also worked on creating a three-colored checkered Yosegi pattern like the one in the photo. This pattern is for a 3-sun cube puzzle box that I plan to start making again this year. I decided to resume production due to a request from an overseas shop that remembered my previous work and found this particular design especially memorable. Since few others make larger cube puzzle boxes like this, I believe it will be well-received by customers.
This time, I’m making it with a 14-step mechanism, but I hope to add versions with 27 steps as well. This checkered Yosegi is slightly wider (about 10 cm) than my usual checkered sheets to fit the 3-sun cube box design. The three woods used are Mizuki, Rengas, and Walnut. I’m connecting multiple blocks of this Yosegi pattern, slicing it into sheets, and moving quickly to meet the goal of delivering it by the Christmas season in December.
