Maze Zing – Junk Drawer Jewels

Maze Zing mazes are made of real objects. Exactly like the Gone Fishin’ maze on his website, actually made out of actual fish hooks. Fish hooks! Created by Jeff Montanye, these mazes are testimonies to the man’s playfulness, patience, and ability to scrounge. The mazes in Maze Zing represent many small, but brilliant contributions to the World Maze. Montanye’s discovery that little bits of stuff can make great mazes, that different stuff has different properties which lends itself to different kinds of mazes, that the digital camera makes temporary things permanent…each and all opened new doors for maze play. And Montanye’s willingness to be guided by his cousins’ playfulness demonstrates once again how children can lead us into new forms of art and play, and how love can make it so much worth doing.
–Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Jeff Montanye is a photographer and avid toy and game inventor. [Reading his book], you’ll be impressed with the fact that visually appealing, clever and fun mazes can be done almost from anything. Just imagine mazes built up of hundreds and thousands small items like paper clips, fish hooks, golf tees, fall leaves, sea shells, and even wood cutouts or tooth paste!
–Age of Puzzles

Simply Amazing I tried to avoid using such a cheesy title for this post, but gosh darnit, that s the only way I can describe the work of Jeffrey David Montanye. He has combined his photography experience and love for mazes to create intriguing puzzles from photographs. I m not sure if the guy is a big kid, a veritable genius, or a dude with some serious OCD issues (maybe a little of column A, B, and C). Every maze is made up of hundreds or even thousands of a certain item. Here s the crazy part: the mazes are taken apart immediately after they are built and photographed. You just have to see them for yourself. Wicked cool.
–Kim and Jason, Escape Adulthood

Jeffrey Montanye is an avid inventor of toys and games. He has won ribbons and awards with his photography work and has had several toy and game inventions reviewed by toy companies and agencies. Jeff has an education and work background in electrical engineering and currently works as a computer network specialist. He also teaches classes on digital photography and computers and owns a small computer repair shop in New York State. His other interests include building remote control aircraft and model railroading. He has hiked the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Pennsylvania, a total of 1,100 miles. Among all his jobs and hobbies, his favorite is reading books to children.