How It’s Made
Laser Cut
Every component of our wood puzzles and mandalas are laser cut from premium Baltic birch. This gives each panel and puzzle unique characteristics due to wood grain. Each Unusual Suspects puzzle takes a little over 2.5 hours to cut each and every component. There were many options for manufacturing, but laser cutting achieved the precise edging we needed for the mechanisms. And who can resist those roasty toasty edges. (Mmmmm burnt wood!)
Screen Printed
Unusual Suspects is currently our only screen printed puzzle! After we finish the cutting process, we send the puzzles to a local professional screen printer. Silk screens were burned with all the artwork for the panels and dials. The printing process takes just shy of a week from delivery to picking back up each wave for assembly. Screen printing allows for a super precise rendering for our artwork!
Hand Assembled
Every puzzle is hand assembled by our head human Justin. Assembly for the 250+ pieces – on a good day when the Dr Pepper and crawfish are flowing – is just shy of 4 hours. Then comes the curing time for the adhesives, which adds about a full day. Once everything is all set up, final testing begins! Check out the video for a time warp assembly of Unusual Suspects!
Field Tested
The last step in the process is testing. All the previous steps are for naught if the mechanisms aren’t functional or calibrated. We don’t take every puzzle out for cocktails, but we do ensure that every puzzle is 100% functional and ready to play!
