“I consider my work from two points of view. One is simply the puzzle. I strive to create a beautiful puzzle like a chess player looks to play a beautiful game. The solution has to come unexpected and must require some amount of logic. I like to give subtle clues to solving the puzzle. The second thing I consider, is the piece as a sculpture. I often go through a few prototypes to render what I consider a balanced sculpture. I like the puzzle to be pleasing and meaningful to look at even when no attempt to solve it is made. I like my work to suggest a puzzling quality both in its appearance and function.”

Kagen Schaefer has been making puzzles for Cleverwood since 2002. He specializes in fine wooden puzzle boxes of his own design. Kagen has been  involved with the arts as a serious part of his education since the 4th grade.

This is a box Kagen made for storing his plane. The pattern on the lid of this box is not an overlay - not a veneer. In Japanese terms this pattern is “Muku” - pure.
Kagen’s skills as a woodworker are evident in this box. While not a puzzle box, the lid of this box demonstrates the quality of his work. Look again at the design on the lid. The more you know about woodworking, the more you realize how difficult it is to do what he’s done with that pattern. It takes a mathematician to design such a  pattern. And then to actually produce it in wood takes superior woodworking skills. The walnut and maple braided pattern is one of Kagen’s signature inlays.  He makes the inlay “brick” from scratch and the process of constructing it is one of his most prized trade secrets.

Charlie first met Kagen while exhibiting their work at the Colorado College Art & Craft Fair in Colorado Springs, Colorado USA in 1996. Kagen was a student participant, exhibiting the lamps he had made. (Kagen also won the show’s T-shirt Design Contest that year.) Over the years since then Kathleen and Kagen have kept in touch, discussing their mutual interest in puzzle box design and woodworking techniques.

In 2000, Kagen Schaefer graduated Colorado College with a BA in Mathematics with Distinction. At Colorado College, Distinction is awarded by vote after the candidate gives an hour long lecture on an advanced mathematical topic to the entire mathematics department. Prior to that, Kagen earned the very difficult International Baccalaureate - an international high school advanced placement program. Click here for a list of Kagen’s other accomplishments.

Kagen has been interested in puzzles for a long time~

“I have been designing puzzles since middle school. As a kid I was always fascinated with 3-D puzzles, mazes, mathematics, and origami. It didn't take me long to realize that it is even more puzzling to become the puzzle designer rather than the solver. In second grade I began to design my own origami models and draw my own mazes. Wooden puzzles have always been at the back of my mind to design. The only obstacle was wood. Since I had no means of sculpting wood I was shy to design around it. In middle school I realized that mat-board made a wonderful substitute. I used an exacto knife, a ruler, and a bottle of white glue. With these simple tools I designed and built many models of boxes and other puzzles. I even built a rolling ball mechanism into one.
There was one design which I could never prototype out of mat-board but I was certain it could work if made from wood. I didn't get a chance to make this until I went to college where I was granted the privilege to work the shop. In one month I completed my first Pinwheel Puzzle Box. Since then I have been designing and making puzzle boxes from wood.”

In 2001 Kagen entered his 83 move Unnamed Puzzle Box in the first International Puzzle Party Puzzle Competition in Tokyo Japan. Charlie had previously demonstrated a prototype of Kagen’s remarkable Pinwheel Puzzle Box for the puzzle enthusiasts at IPP 20 in Los Angeles the year before.

$450.00 - In Stock