With Valentines Day coming up, it was the perfect opportunity to share the charm of a handmade heart, along with the puzzlement that "matters of the heart” can sometimes bring.
Crafter Ed Drachenberg was on hand at the Humboldt and District Gallery to guide his apprentices through the process of making a heart shaped wire puzzle. The puzzles are fashioned with cutters, pliers, a little solder and a little know-how.
It’s been a while since he’s perfected the design, but like the proverbial bicycle, Ed hopped back on and brought his design and a tutorial for others to enjoy.
“I used to make these 40 years ago when I worked in a research company, and we had a lot of visitors and families with kids,” Drachenberg said. “It gave them something to do on the way home.”
Ed’s wife found an envelope that contained one of the heart puzzles, and he dusted off his skills, warmed up the soldering iron and decided to bring the craft to others.
It’s one thing to create the puzzle; it’s quite another thing to solve the removal of the heart once it’s been assembled. It takes more than a quick inspection, to figure the twists and turns required to solve the riddle of the heart.
“It’s like any of those wire puzzles, there’s a trick to it. And once you figure it out it’s no big deal, but I hadn’t seen it for 40 years, and it took me a while to get it solved again.”
Patrons young and old enjoyed the construction exercise brought to them by the Humboldt and District Gallery.