Eccentric's Corner/Q+A: The Jigsaw Provocateur

Puzzle maker Steve Richardson is that rare inventor who succeeds by intentionally frustrating his best customers.

By John Grossmann published November 5, 2013 - last reviewed on June 9, 2016

With a diabolical oeuvre of tricks—including split corners and interlocks that join with multiple pieces—puzzle maker Steve Richardson dreams up whimsical designs that belie the mental torture they inflict.

A computer systems designer prior to 1974, when a layoff provided him with the chance to return to his childhood puzzle passion, Richardson once boasted to the press that his company made the most difficult jigsaw puzzles in the world—and that's when his job became stumping customers, he says: "People started needling me: 'I thought these were supposed to be the world's most difficult puzzles.'" So he cranked up the difficulty of his designs.

Today, his 25-person Norwich, Vermont-based company produces over 1,500 different puzzles (including traditional ones) for which clients gladly pay upwards of three dollars per puzzle piece. Limited editions can go for $21,000. Backed with cherry wood, his puzzle pieces de resistance come wrapped in tissue paper inside a box bearing no picture for guidance. A teasing silhouette of a jester-like clown adorns the lid—a warning to all potential puzzlers that the contents elevate a tame fireside pastime into something more sadistic.

PROFESSION: Chief Tormenter of Stave Puzzles, aka the company president and designer of its fiercely challenging products.
CLAIM TO FAME: Has designed a puzzle with 10,000 possible solutions. Can count Bill Gates and Queen Elizabeth as fans.
Photo by Stave Puzzles, Inc.
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Steve Richardson
PROFESSION: Chief Tormenter of Stave Puzzles, aka the company president and designer of its fiercely challenging products.
CLAIM TO FAME: Has designed a puzzle with 10,000 possible solutions. Can count Bill Gates and Queen Elizabeth as fans.
Photo by Stave Puzzles, Inc.

What sparked your obsession with puzzles?

Steve Richardson
PROFESSION: Chief Tormenter of Stave Puzzles, aka the company president and designer of its fiercely challenging products.
CLAIM TO FAME: Has designed a puzzle with 10,000 possible solutions. Can count Bill Gates and Queen Elizabeth as fans.
Photo by Stave Puzzles, Inc.

What sparked your obsession with puzzles?

As a child I loved putting together my grandmother's wooden jigsaw puzzles. When I was 9, my grandfather gave me a scroll saw as a birthday present so I could make my own. I was always cutting myself. The day I got stitches, my mother threw it out and said, "Your puzzle career is over."

Little did she know!

When I went into the puzzle business my mom said, "What?" She was kind of a snob. She was also a quirky genius at flower designing—she gave me the ability to visualize in three dimensions, turn things around in my mind. After the company was a success, I asked, "Remember when you threw away my saw?" She didn't.

Do near-impossible puzzles draw a certain type?

Traditional puzzlers take satisfaction in making order; they want to cruise along. Those who enjoy diabolical puzzles tend to be very bright; they like trying to figure out the machinations. But half of the orders for trick puzzles are gifts—people buy them to put someone in their place.

Describe some extreme problems you throw at customers.

Champ, which depicts a sea serpent, is our most popular trick puzzle. It's just 44 pieces—but it goes together 32 different ways. If you assemble it by the look of its marbleized design, the head seems like it should end up on the left and the tail on the right. But in the correct solution the mouth bites the tail. It slowly dawns on people that one piece can fit in two places.

Bill Gates is a fan. Does he go for whatever's toughest?

Bill stood in my shop while I explained all about teaser and trick puzzles. He got it—but didn't want to be toyed with.

How does the psychological undertow you create drive interest in your designs?

I'm in the entertainment business. If I create a puzzle that's too difficult for anyone to do, we wouldn't be in business. So the key is to bait puzzlers enough so they feel that with time they'll figure it out. The challenge of putting something together gives people a great escape—worries go out the window. When people get a piece in, they have a rush of endorphins. It's addictive. They want to place another.

How does it feel to stump A-level customers?

I definitely feel an air of superiority—except when a tester blows through a new design. It gives me great pride to take on the best and the brightest, people who are smarter than I am, and put them through their paces with something I created.

Any humiliations?

I once offered $10,000 to anybody who could do a new 215-piece puzzle in under 10,000 seconds. It depicted an octopus that goes together 100 different ways, surrounded by a ring of coral that also goes together 100 ways. The permutations are daunting. Still, one of the challengers was ambidextrous, with a photographic memory. I almost had a heart attack when I saw how fast he was whipping it together.

Did he get it in time?

No. I had a booby trap at the beginning of the puzzle. I had lots of other traps along the way, which he slowly discovered, but he hadn't quite backed up to the very start when time was up. He kept working and it only took him a half hour more.

You've created your own puzzle: customers who require ever new challenges.

I have! I'm a walking embodiment of massive puzzle design failures—probably five for every success. But now I have this wealth of knowledge and can produce a design faster. Often, I'll realize, "Oh. I've tried that before and it failed."

Yet you also succeed. Do you get pleasure when you hear from stumped customers?

Yeah, it makes my day. Not many businesses enable you to let the dark side of your personality out and get paid for it.