IPP Exchange - Amidst the Greatest Puzzle Minds!

What a thrill to be involved in this exchange! This is an honour indeed. I've collected puzzles for a while, used them in my classroom, admired them in puzzle shops. But at IPP, I am surrounded by the people who are the brains behind all of this! This is an exclusive group of puzzle enthusiasts who meet from all over the world! I believe I was the only Canadian in attendance this year, last year I was one of four. This blows my mind that I am included in such an esteemed group. This conference is a highlight of my year.
I loved Meiko Kimura's puzzle this year. It is a sliding "block" puzzle called dogs and balls. Here she is with her son Susumu. The next day during the Puzzle Party (the part many look forward to because this is when we get to buy puzzles), Meiko quickly sold out (unfortunately I did not get there quick enough) of the puzzle that claimed the Puzzlers' Award and the Jury First Prize in the Design Competition this year. It is called Cast Loop by Vesa Timonen. It is an extremely clever puzzle. I believe it will be carried in stores soon by Hanayama. Here's the link to the design competition puzzles this year

http://www.puzzleworld.org/DesignCompetition/

If you go to this site, the other puzzle that took top honours was the Void Cube. This was an incredible puzzle! Since I am a lover of rubix cube (trying to get my time below 2 minutes 30 seconds consistently) the Void cube was a marvel! I don't know how the mechanism works as the middle is missing! Amazing, wished I could have purchased this. However, since this was only a prototype, it was way out of my price range!

Irina Novichkova has this very Aussie puzzle! It is based on a classic jigsaw trick movement, ThinkFun has a square version of this. The wonderful thing about Irina, is that she speaks basically no English, but it just doesn't matter. Everyone shares a passion for puzzles so this is the common ground at IPP.

Jerry Slocum and his assistant Jillian Hinchcliffe, George and Lee Krasnow all exchanging. The interesting thing about Jillian, is that she is now the very first ever Puzzle Curator at the Lilly Library at Indiana University. Last year after IPP, we all were invited for the Grand Opening of the Slocum Puzzle Collection in Bloomington. (It was here that I had the opportunity to meet Will Shortz!) It was a wonderful event. You should visit this library if you're interested in puzzles. And you will likely meet Jillian there! And those of you who collect puzzles know who Lee is. A very talented puzzle maker! And this year he made a the Nob Yoshigahara Award "trophy". I will download a picture of this later. It is a beautiful wooden bus (as all the Nob trophies are designed after Rush Hour) that comes apart and has a mini puzzle workshop in the back of the bus that is functional! It was amazing.

Here is a link to Jerry's collection at Lilly Library:

http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/slocum/

Here is Lee Krasnow's link:

http://pwdbp.com/?action=5364.showPerson

Henry Strout and George are exchanging here. If you take a look at Henry's hat, you'll see all mini functional puzzles pinned to it. I'd love a hat like that!

Here is George's link:

http://www.puzzlepalace.com/

Here is the display at George's exchange table. His puzzle was called U Tube. It is incredibly cool, I loved it as I said before. Because I have history with it through my work with SNAP Math Fairs. George asked me to display his puzzles in an interesting way. How do you like it?

I really enjoyed getting to know Markus better this IPP. The first night there we were vying for some puzzle rings Dick Hess was selling from his trip to India. I bought a beautiful puzzle ring from Dick that had small rubies. Markus is a very talented puzzle designer. Check out his website

http://www.markus-goetz.de/

One of my favourite memories is Markus showing me his website Java applets of some puzzles I know. It was cool.

This is Rikishi Yamada (Lixy) on the left and his assistant on the right. Lixy is an extremely bright young man who is very friendly and who I enjoy talking with. If you know ThinkFun's puzzle "Cover Your Tracks" new this year, then you know Lixy. He is the one who designed it. I think its cool that Cover Your Tracks (or his version Hide the Animals) was his exchange puzzle last year. I bought it so I have this first wooden version of Cover Your Tracks. Lixy's puzzle this year is also very interesting!

I love Iwahiro's puzzles. I didn't get to him in time at the Party this year, he was all sold out! His exchange puzzle last year was one of my favourites. It was a put-together polyhedra with spheres. This year he had a very clever packing puzzle.

Here is Iwahiro's link:

http://home.r01.itscom.net/iwahiro/main/eng_contents/eng_intro.html

Well, that's all for tonight! I really appreciate all the emails I'm receiving from all the people who are appreciating the blog. It's pretty cool that its even being a vehicle for me to meet new people! At first I wasn't even sure if anyone was reading it, so its very cool!