While creating the piece entitled "Puzzling" I accumulated a large number of "discs" that were produced from puzzle piece recesses created with a 3" diameter hole saw. I envisioned using them to form a double helix. So I carefully drilled small-diameter holes into the flat edge of each "disc," cut steel rods as spacers for each pair and epoxied the rod ends to the edge. Next, I smeared fast drying knife-grade polyester adhesive to the bottoms and began stacking them first in a right-handed helical arrangement. Midway up the stack I switched the stacking direction to a left-handed helix. I marvelled at how this chemist-turned-sculptor had created a model of B-DNA and Z-DNA out of leftover granite.

Five minutes after I finished taking photos, the sculpture tumbled to the ground. The polyester adhesive had delaminated under the weight of the helical stack. Some pairs fell far enough to break the epoxy seal holding the steel rod to the disc pair. I rebuild the piece twice more after adding hidden steel pins to hold overlapping discs vertically. Unfortunately, I learned after the second reconstruction that not all discs were of uniform thickness and that the separating rods did little to distribute the load on the layers below. Thus, the final product leans as the helix rises and is missing many of the rods interconnectng the two helices. In spite of my best effort, this piece is nothing more than a pile of rocks.