I found these nice puzzles very recently and was immediately drawn to them. The mesmerizing patterns you can create with the cubes are endless and they can be extremely addictive.

Created by Pablo Cha from Uruguay, the Motif Cubes (also known as Nueve Cubes) are made from red birch hardwood and come in two different designs, red and white.


There's no special goal for the puzzles. You are presented with nine blocks in a nice wooden base, where each one has six different designs. Each cube measures 3.4 cm (1.34") and the base is 13.8 cm (5.43"). Your task is to simply arrange the cubes and form a unique pattern. There are billions of possible combinations (68,719,476,736 to be exact), although not all of them will yield a fancy pattern, as some of them will probably result in a senseless design. It's up to you and your creativity to come up with all kinds of patterns. They don't exactly need to be symmetrical, as long as it makes sense to you.

The quality of the puzzle in general is very good, but if you're picky with imperfections, then you're going to have a tough time letting go a few of them found in the cubes. As we're dealing with a wooden object, there's going to be some cubes that will appear to have a darker tone than the others, because of the cuts in the wood. This is more noticeable in the red motif, giving the fact that the wood absorbs that color much better. After playing with them for a while, I can say that this, in no way, affects of hinders your puzzling experience. You'll look at the pattern as a hole and not by a particular block, so any discernible difference will be neutralized by the whole design. These flaws could be gone if the designer should release a version in hard painted plastic, although you'd lose the beauty that only wooden objects can provide. Maybe something for the designer to think about, in the future...

The Motif Cubes were a very nice surprise. Simple, but beautiful, easy to do and yet so addictive and relaxing. There are so many possible designs that you'll always create something new, so it will be long before you're done with them. They're the perfect object for a work desk, especially when you're in need of killing some time or just plain bored. Although there's a minor flaw here and there in the wood color, don't let that stop you from having a good and enjoyable time.

I bought the Motif Cubes from the Birdkids' website (Red and White), but they also have an eBay Store if you prefer buying from there.

Added Note: If you're unable to find inspiration, just turn to bottom of the box and you'll find there some very nice patterns to stimulate your creativity... And to complicate things just a little bit, there's no visible edges of the individual blocks in the designs, so it's more difficult to recognize which cubes are needed to match the pattern you're seeing. It's an added challenge and a different way to tackle the puzzle.