Trying a 3D wooden puzzle

Trying a 3D wooden puzzle

• Thursday, 31 October 2024

My family and I went to our local garden centre a few days ago to buy a Christmas tree. We don't do real trees - personally I think they're too much hassle, though they look gorgeous - so we got a lovely pre-lit one with nice spruce branches for a touch of realism. I can't wait to photograph it once it's up and decorated. We've picked up a few new baubles too in recent weeks, I even got some cute glass ones from the V&A.

Just before you get to all the Christmas gubbins, there's this little display of 3D wooden puzzles. There's all sorts from globes to Ferris wheels to book nooks. I've noticed them before, but during this visit I decided to pick one up. I got the Rolife Merry-Go-Round to start with, it was small and reasonably priced so I thought it'd make the perfect beginner project.

I finished it in about 1.5 hours and it was a lot of fun to work on. It felt satisfying building it and putting each little piece together. I felt very accomplished afterwards, but there was a hiccup...

One of my horses suffered a grave injury. The poles that connect the horse to the merry-go-round were very flimsy and thin, and you kind of have to push the connecting pieces together quite firmly, and unfortunately the pole snapped at the bottom. 

I then super glued the pieces back together and held them close with a bulldog clip, but then the bulldog clip glued itself to the wood so I had to yank that off, resulting in the above mess. I managed to reattach the horse but it now looks like, uh, that. But luckily for me, I can just spin the merry-go-round around and put the unsightly horse at the back. No-one needs to know! (Except for you reading this.)

This is the finished product! I think it's very cute. I reckon it would look fantastic painted, but there's no way in hell I'm deconstructing this thing.

My mum has since bought me the Japanese Sakura book nook for Christmas, so expect more disasters in the future.