I'm always impressed by the sheer variety of puzzles made and designed by Jean Claude Constantin. It's not just variety of designs, but materials as well. Many of his creations are made from wood, but today's puzzle is a wire one, except for the handle which has a wooden bead at the end for a better grip.

Sonne, German for Sun, has an interesting shape where eight sunbeams with different lengths block most of your movements, as you try to free the handle from the wire frame. To make things even more complex, there's a companion ring following your every move and prevents you from moving freely around the frame. There's a second ring as well, although this one's constrained to a single position on the frame and you can't move it. It's up to you to find a way to remove both the handle and the companion ring.

What's great about the puzzle is that its size is ideal for handling it. Measuring about 18 x 15cm in length from end to end (approx. 7" x 6"), it's large enough to maneuver it quite easily.

Difficulty-wise, the Sonne is a bit challenging at first, but soon you'll start to understand how it can be solved. PuzzleMaster rates the puzzle as a level 7/10, which I consider fair, taking into account the number of steps involved to solve it. It's not something you solve in a matter of seconds, as it takes time to figure out the best path to follow without getting blocked by the companion ring all the time.

As a puzzle friend told me recently, in order to solve puzzles like these, you need to imagine the puzzle already solved and trying to put it back as it were. It makes total sense, and looking at the puzzle with this in mind it's easy to see where you need to go and how exactly the handle should be removed. Now all you need is to find a way to get there. I was going around in circles for a little while before I was able to move the handle to where I wanted it. The different lengths of the sunbeams certainly didn't help, but after 15 minutes or so the companion ring fell off and the handle was finally free. Putting it back turned out to be easier than I thought.

Closing Comments:

From all the wire puzzle family, the ones that don't involve strings or a rope are among my favorites, because you can't mess them up. To me, they're just less intimidating. The Sonne puzzle is a very nice challenge if you like this sort of puzzles. I didn't find it frustrating to solve in any way, and I like to just fiddle with it.

Availability: The Sonne puzzle is available at PuzzleMaster for just $10 USD.

Links:

Jean Claude Constantin - Official Website

Jean Claude Constantin at Puzzle Place