This might be a bit less coherent than normal – I am a bit sick and had to work
whilst ill. My thought processes are even slower than usual.
It would appear that
Dedwood crafts has become one of my new obsessions. I missed out on the early
productions because they were boxes and I “don’t collect boxes” but later
there were puzzles with interesting shapes and even robot faces which spoke
to me. Those voices never seem to go away and my chats with my psychiatrist
friend reassures me that they are “normal”. Admittedly, when we chat, I am
armed with needles and syringes and he is armed with an ECT machine but I am
sure that he is not frightened of what I might do with my weapons and is
telling me the truth.
Well, several months ago those voices told me to buy the Uplift puzzle
from Dee as soon as it came out. It’s just a bit embarrassing to be
writing about it now when it arrived at the beginning of October last
year. My excuse? Erm…it’s quite difficult! At least for me it was. This
has literally been on my evening armchair alongside me to be played with
ever since then. I attempted to solve it every evening for several months
without getting anywhere. Lord! I am rubbish at puzzles!
This fabulous creation is simply gorgeous…and huge! It is made from
quarter-sawn Sapele (with an incredible lustre and grain with a layer of
nicely coloured Cherry. The dimensions are 6.75″ diameter and 2.25″
thick. The aim is to open it up and find the hidden compartment (and a
surprise). The central area of the top section can rotate freely around
in circles and nothing seems to happen when you do spin it. There is a
button on the side where a section of the Sapele can be pushed in a few
mm. The obvious thing is to push the button whilst spinning the centre
around and of course, it does absolutely nothing. That is disappointing
and pleasing at the same time. After a little while trying the same
thing over and over again, it occurred to me that I hadn’t tried to just
lift the lid off. That little wedge on top just lifts off having been
held on by a magnet. Inside is the cavity – it’s the same size as the
wedge/lid and it’s empty. It is quite clear that there is a whole lot
more space inside for another cavity and that must be what we are
looking for.
Interestingly, the centre section can still spin around with the lid off
and the whole interior spins with it. This is a cue to start playing
with the button again whilst spinning the interior/centre. I got bored
of this after a week when nothing new happened and was left scratching
my head wondering what else I could do. Playing around with the magnet
on the lid, did reveal that there are more magnets inside but I was
completely unable to trigger any changes with it. Now what? It was clear
that the layers that are visible on the outside are also maintained on
the inside spinning part of the puzzle. There seems to be a little
movement between the layers but no change in position, orientation or
push of the button (with or without magnet placement) would change
anything. Desperation began to set in around February after about 4
months and Mrs S sniggering at me. I was thinking about submerging it in
gin when a slip whilst holding it caused me to almost drop it. The new
hand position I found myself in revealed something special for me. I
wish that I could say that I worked it out through sheer bwain power but
alas no!
After my little accident, I had more puzzle to look at! There were
cavities to explore and more movements that didn’t lead anywhere until a
poke of a finger got me one of Dee’s little tools (those of you who have
played with other Dedwood puzzles will have seen these acrylic rods. I
was making progress! With the appropriate tool poised, I found a place
to use it and…it did nothing. Nothing at all! Yet again, I was left to
try different orientations and combinations of moves with or without
button presses whilst standing on my head. Needless to say, I looked
very silly and totally failed to continue in my progress. Sigh!
After another few weeks of swearing at an inanimate object, I noticed a
rather subtle feature that had eluded me up to this point. Aha! What if
I do this? Aha! again. After five months I had finally found the hidden
cavity and my lovely little surprise. I have not shown Mrs S that
surprise for fear that she will beat me over the head with the puzzle –
she really doesn’t like what was inside the Uplift. Don’t
look if you don’t want to see what is waiting inside:
This would have scared the crap out Mrs S
Show/Hide
All in all, this was fabulous value for money for me. There weren’t very many steps involved but I found 2 of them almost impossible to find and a real diversion that had me fooled for longer than I am happy about! I cannot wait for the next release from Dee. I have still not managed to reset the Wardrobe to put it away which is upsetting Mrs S a lot!