Over the last decade or so, I’ve been attending conventions such as FanX. For these, I’ve created customized tangram packs. These packs aren’t for sale. They’re for the visiting celebrities. The puzzles are designed to reflect characters that they have played, or ships or props from the TV shows or films they’ve been in.

Often, I have my kids be the ones to give the packs to the celebrities. It was a great icebreaking moment for them as they didn’t know what else to say when they met someone they were nervous to meet. For example, when my son met LeVar Burton, he was so starstruck that he couldn’t even say, “Hi.” I turned to LeVar and said, “He’s having a Community moment.” (That’s a reference to the show “Community” in which a character was so excited to me LeVar that he froze up and later regretted not being able to respond.) LeVar smiled and greeted my son. It made a great memory.

Over the years, we’ve met 100s of celebrities and given them packs. When I give them, I like to tell them, “You’ve shared your work with us and this is my way of sharing some of my work with you to say thank you for what you’ve done.” Most of the celebrities have never heard of tangrams before. Some had. They have all been appreciative. When David Prowse said that he’d be able to fiddle with them on his flight home, I pictured Darth Vader solving tangrams on an airplane. It made me smile.

When I gave Loretta Swit a pack and an 8×10 enlargement of her tangram, she laughed and said it was wonderful. She signed it and handed it back to me. I thanked her and explained it was for her to keep, but realized it was fun for me to have signed my tangram. I’ve since had several other tangrams signed by celebrities. It’s a fulfilling feeling to have them appreciate what I created in their honor. I’m sharing some photos and signed tangrams, below.