The day at Coddington started with a visit from Simon and Peter Stocken with some of their very complex wooden puzzles. The highlight of these was a large framed 3D puzzle of Sir Walter Raleigh returning from his travels and bursting through the canvas! Simon created this for the Queen for her Golden Jubilee in 2002 and calls it “I’m Home, Ma’am”. He told the group of a catastrophic collapse of the puzzle while touring it in the US. It has over 2,500 pieces and Simon sadly bagged them all up to bring home. Several years later he rebuilt it and then deconstructed it, taking a photograph each time he removed a piece and then strung all the pictures together to make a construction manual for the puzzle and a fascinating video, now to be found on Youtube by searching for “Sir Walter Raleigh – I’m Home Ma’am”.
The Show and Tell theme was “Fascinating Cuts and Beautiful Places”. Among the puzzles shown were a Jeremy puzzle of a town market street with their characteristic animal whimsies, a Michele Wilson 350 piece aerial view of Balinese terraces, a Heather Prydderch pre-Raphaelite “St.Bride carried by Angels” and a Howard Smeeton panoramic “Glen Affric” puzzle.
Thanks to Jackie and David who organised the meeting in the lovely hall at the local community centre and for bringing along a wealth of puzzles both for attendees to assemble during the day and to present at Show and Tell. Thanks also to all who baked or brought the lovely cakes that everyone enjoyed!