What is the MOD PUZZLE™?

It is artwork and a puzzle

This is regenerative design at its best. We speak the language of geometry and abstraction in our smaller puzzles (16 piece) The puzzles titled Infinite Diamonds or Omaha both show the possibilities of multiple forms being both geometric and abstract from the same 16-piece puzzle set.

It is changeable

Design a puzzle for your year, or for you mood or design direction. You can create a new puzzle yearly like setting your clock or celebrating midnight on New Year’s Eve. Transformation is important, in life and in art. We celebrate both. Get the kids and some cocoa and puzzle a new design every year. Make it a tradition. 

It is a mural or large format art for your walls

The Mural was a wonderful surprise with this puzzle.First objects, like flags, bicycle. Then came the people, people with diamond heads, people with shapes implying movement of the entire human form toward abstraction. It is of our people and murals that we are most proud; Proud that they are happy to dance in our puzzles Happy People or Joyful, or complex in The Game. Please remember the magic is always in what the artist does with the media, 4 grooves on angle and 2 grooves straight can create dancing human forms, or a bicyclist racing.

There are even more puzzles in the shop waiting to be cut, the murals were so large that we moved from a common, residential wall to a large gallery display. These are not Picasso’s Guernica in size, but a puzzle could be that large, and it would be fun to make a puzzle that large to tell a story. Full scale, mural-sized puzzles (80 pieces each) that are often too large to sell include The Brain and Tour de France, two of our favorites. I have installed The Brain in my workshop for everyday inspiration. If you can spare a 80” x 64” wall, and are interested in a mural-sized puzzle, give us a call!

It is Modular Oriented Design

The MOD PUZZLE stands for Modular Oriented Design. Modular Art being the art form created by joining together standardized units (Puzzle Pieces) to form larger, more complex compositions to create a new work of art, different from the original or ensuing configurations.

The media for the puzzle is oil on bamboo, a natural, environmental wood alternative. Why Bamboo? Bamboo has unique properties that make it perfect for modular art as a base material. Bamboo has a reflective effect due to its unique mineral content that pushes light in every direction. This is a unique visual presentation that is unmatched in other wood. Moving from wood to bamboo is a bit like the use of oil painting surpassing egg tempera during the Renaissance with heightened realism and new techniques.

Why the Puzzle?

There are many forms of puzzles with images or complex designs, for your table top or game night. The MOD Puzzle is a unique form, different from a dissection puzzle or a classic picture puzzle. There are only two face designs: Four grooves on angle, and two grooves straight. The use of only two face designs to create a multitude of puzzle forms is an exercise in minimalism. There are also only 5 puzzle piece shapes: 1 corner, 2 sides and 2 interior piece shapes. The puzzle format allows multiple assemblage as long as you stay within the discipline of our puzzle face designs and shapes.

The manufacturer: Smith & Fong – Plyboo

Smith & Fong Company is a California company specializing in the design and manufacturing of sustainably sourced and manufactured architectural products. Plyboo is our trademark for architectural products. When we’re not making puzzles, we manufacture beautiful, high-end panels in bamboo and palm wood.

We owe a great debt of gratitude to Archimedes and the Stomachion puzzle attributed to him. This was a geometric game often referred to as “Archimedes' box.” In November of 2003, Bill Cutler used a computer program to enumerate all solutions. Barring rotations and reflections, there are 536 distinct solutions. Stomachion is considered by some to be the oldest puzzle. Buy one for your desk.

We hope you enjoy our art and puzzle visions. We hope they are handed down to children or friends as wonderments and enjoyed for many lifetimes. We feel the puzzle is eternal in this form and hope you share our joy every day having it in your life.

 

— Angus Stocks, President of Smith & Fong Company