Who is
Dan Haycock?
I am Dan Haycock. I'm an artist, writer and electronic musician from Milton Keynes, UK.
This site contains information about all of my various projects, as well as artwork galleries, writing extracts, music samples and an online store.
I'm currently available for freelance illustration and graphic design work.
Feel free to email me if you have a project in mind, or if you'd like to commission me to produce a piece of artwork.
DanHaycock42@hotmail.co.uk
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Blog
Making the Puzzle Cube
A few years ago I saw a Chinese puzzle ball in a museum in London, and thought I'd have a go at making one.
The puzzle ball is a series of concentric spheres, carved from a single piece of material: normally jade or ivory, but also sometimes wood.
Modern puzzle balls are often injection moulded from resin or plastic.
Traditionally, puzzle balls are made on a lathe, then L-shaped chisels are used to carve out the inner spheres. They are also elaborately carved with figures and symbols.
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Since I didn't have any L-shaped chisels, I had to work out my own way of making one. Also, being fairly new to sculpture, mine lacks any surface carvings.
1: First Prototype
I started with a rough lump of scrap wood as a test piece. I realised that the easiest way to separate a free-moving middle section would be to drill under the edges diagonally, then carve out the corners by hand.
I drilled through the edges of my scrap piece several times, so that I could get a feel for how much space I needed to allow.
It looked terrible.
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2: Second Prototype
Another prototype: this time I properly marked out some circles, allowing a decent distance from the edges in the hope that they wouldn't split.
The edges splintered quite badly, but I managed to carve out a central sphere which freely rotated within the main cube.
At this point I realised that I'd need to start by separating the central sphere, then work outwards. If I started with the outer sphere, it would just move around when I tried to drill and chisel the inner one.
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3: Third Prototype
This time I marked out circles on all faces, then drilled down within each circle with a forstner bit, so that I could drill through and separate the central sphere first.
I succeeded in separating the central sphere, but abandoned this prototype after noticing that starting with inset circles would leave much stronger edges on the outer spheres.
Also, I decided that I needed to build a jig so that I could drill through more accurately.
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Final Product
This time I started with a much larger cube, made out of some decent hardwood. I began by drilling down with forstner bits, making stepped cones on each face. This alone caused some difficulties, and I ended up having to enlarge each step of the cones on a lathe.
Then I built a jig so that I could mount the whole cube at a 45 degree angle. I sat it on a pillar drill for more accuracy, and drilled through each edge as with the prototypes.
I then used a standard wood chisel to cut through and separate each sphere, starting at the centre and working outwards. The larger size of the cube meant that I could comfortably separate three inner spheres.
Originally, I'd intended to make a true puzzle ball, but decided that I liked the aesthetic of having it set within a cube, so left it as it is.
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You can check out more images of the finished cube, along with some of my other wood carvings, in my sculpture gallery
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