I do believe I have just gotten my posting for this evening. (sorry-other place)

OK, well, I am sure we all have them. I wonder what yours are. Mine? They are many! I have an apple that Tom gave me with a ring, a madness cube from Smaz, a really cool one from DaYan, a Fisher's golden cube (keychain sized) from Tony, a rhombic dodeca thingy from Dave, a twisted 2x2x3 from quicksolver....the list goes on and on and on. But tonight, I got a puzzle surprise that beats all puzzle surprises.

Well, 2 of them really. The first was actually not for me, but rather a gift for my little bug. Thank you so much Puzzle Daddy! She was beaming!

The second comes from a dear lady we all fell in love with when we met. I took a few fuzzy photos of it on my iPad.



And the best photo on the puzzle!

Now you know it happened. It's on a cube!

Enjoy my video of this one.
What a wonderful gift. Thank you. It is awaiting a plastic box so the dust bunnies don't attack it!

And please, what is your sentimental puzzle?

I think I know who you got this puzzle from...
Really nice gift!
It must be placed in a very special place!

This is ... priceless!

Sometimes the most valuable gift costs so little.

I was also fortunate enough to receive a puzzle with pictures from IPP from the same friend.


Dave

P.S. Yes, mine has the picture of me in a skirt as well...

And the other three sides, Dave?

Those are top secret...
But I'll tell you this much: Rox's and Dave's cubes only differ on two of their six faces.

The puzzle that I am probably most sentimentally attached to is one that I only received this Christmas as a gift from my other half's mum.

She actually knitted me a puzzle!


Knitted Puzzle Cube by Puzzleparadox, on Flickr

Knitted Puzzle Cube by Puzzleparadox, on Flickr

The amount of effort that went into it is phenomenal. And I could never ever part with it.

Cool....looks like pieces from the game Tetris.

It is a soma cube. A very beautiful one.

It was originally meant to be a Soma Cube, but one of the pieces was accidentally mirrored. So it ended up becoming a totally new puzzle design. It's easier than a standard Soma as it has 323 assemblies rather than 240, but a great puzzle nonetheless!

At last I also have one of these, made possible by the dear lady as quoted by Rox, with several very dear friends on the pics.

Georges, I am happy to see that you have finally joined the SCOC (Sentimental Cube Owners Club).

Several of my puzzles have sentimental value to me, as they all come with a special history of how they got into my collection and the people they brought me in touch with along the way. But if I'm going to pick only one of my puzzles to present here, I believe the one that would best fit this thread is my most recent installment in the Elemental series: My Aluminum Heart with a friendship design.

Like for my previous Elemental puzzles, I wanted a custom design which would combine my interest for puzzles with one of my other major interests or influences in life. Previously we had covered fractals (my Elemental Neon ) and music (my Elemental Argon), and the heart shape of the Aluminum seemed perfectly suited for a friendship theme. To make a long story short, I ended up sending Dave this sketch of a picture I saw when I was very young and which influenced my view on true friendship (I used to imagine that the little girl in the picture had just lost her own balloon, so the little boy is sharing his):



Of course the balloon didn't really fit, so we ended up merging it with the shape of the heart. But it's still there if you know how to look for it:



As always Dave has done an outstanding job on the puzzle, and the image is beautifully inked in gold on red transparent acrylic with red mirror top:



And as usual a miniature version of the same image is inked on the back plate. Dave also kindly included a special inscription which perfectly matched the theme of the puzzle:



Here is a picture of the Aluminum Heart together with my Neon and Argon for size comparison:



I have also uploaded a video of these puzzles with a quick demonstration of their movement, as well as a more thorough demonstration of the Neon.

Anyway, I guess my Aluminum Heart is now my most sentimental puzzle since it reminds me of how my interest in puzzles has brought me some great friends who almost feel like an extended family. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who make this such a nice and friendly community. And of course, a special thanks to Dave for making me yet another beautiful puzzle.