To call himself an artist seems somewhat strange to Scott, since he has devoted nearly all of his adult life to developing a career in structural engineering. Nevertheless, he hopes he is not insulting the true artists of the world by posing as one in his spare time!

Scott currently lives in the Seattle, WA area with his wife and son (a wonderful small family!). He was born and raised in a small town in central Wisconsin, and attended both Michigan Technological University and Washington State University to study civil engineering. He currently works full time as a consulting structural engineer, mainly on projects involving concrete design for shipping container terminals and other waterfront structures in the international group at the firm he works for.

Scott first discovered the world of puzzles when he checked out a book from the library which included a re-print of an article Mr. Stewart T. Coffin had published in a 1984 edition of Fine Woodworking Magazine. A description and directions for making a Pennyhedron puzzle were included in the article, and even before finishing the article he compulsively found himself in the garage making his first attempt at one of Mr. Coffin’s fantastic puzzles.

The first Pennyhedron was a shabby attempt—made from a re-sawn 2x4 and hardly finished. The puzzle warped badly and soon opened on its own. This led him to delve into the world of exotic woods in search of a more dimensionally stable wood to use for puzzles. He also began searching out Mr. Coffin’s other puzzles and downloaded a few of his books from John Rausch’s Puzzle World website. Puzzlemaking has turned into a very interesting and challenging hobby—which includes elements of mathematical recreation, wood behavior, precision machining techniques, as well as handcraftsmanship and fine wood finishing. These are a few of the varied areas which keep him challenged and interested!

Scott has been making puzzles since about 2003, and wishes to express his gratitude to Stewart Coffin, Rob Stegmann, and the other puzzle designers who have allowed him to reproduce their work.

To contact Scott Peterson, please post on his dedicated forum.