Puzzle Maker Interview: Bilge Bilgin, Anatolian Puzzles (Turkey)

There's More to Jigsaw Puzzles Than Pieces: Take it from someone who knows

Puzzle Book by Linda Richard

Here's Top 10 Takeaways from the book but there's plenty more!

1. Lighting is THE number one dilemma whether you are a novice or seasoned puzzler. If you don't have good lighting, the challenge can be increased to unpleasant experiences - even abandonment. You will determine which lights may work best for your puzzle workspace.

2. Space or working areas tend to be challenging for puzzles around 1000 pieces.  Some 500 piece puzzles have large size pieces and are the same size as a 1000 piece puzzle. You will need to plan and prepare an adequate space in case your puzzle takes longer than expected.

3. Look at puzzle boards and tables for ideas. You may be surprised how creative some puzzlers can be. Some have found the spinning table to be most convenient while others, like me, use furniture risers under the table legs so we can stand during our sessions.

4. Ergonomics and other physical situations are common among some puzzler's pains when it comes to puzzling. Sitting for longs spells of time and/or handling puzzle pieces are two main negatives to this particular hobby. To alleviate said situations, we suggest standing on a thick floor mat and or choose puzzles that have over-sized pieces which have been said to make a huge difference for puzzlers with arthritic hands.

5. Cloth mats or foam type boards? Besides the boards and tables mentioned above, there is the flip side of puzzle boards. Compare the pros and cons between the two before purchasing. There's some pretty creative ideas for puzzle boards included too!

6. Dealing with previously loved (used) jigsaw puzzles - the biggest drawback is the 'escapee' or the dreaded missing piece(s).  You may be surprised to know that even brand new sealed puzzles can be missing pieces. Find out what we puzzlers do about that.

7. Don't glue your most favorite puzzle first. Always try to glue a smaller, less liked puzzle first. It's a little tricky to regulate how much glue to use on the puzzle board type. Watch videos or try using a couple of other options mentioned in the book, like the 'No Glue' method or peel and stick paper.

8. Has a jigsaw puzzle business entered your mind? Are you a terrific artist but have no ideas how to put your work to jigsaw puzzles? There are resource ideas there for that.

9. Did you know there are really beautiful wood cut puzzles with cut figurines? Yes, they are known as whimsies. Sometimes whimsies can be found in normal puzzle boards but the wood whimsies tend to be very appealing.

10. A most important reason to buy this book now, rather than later, is to reap the maximum benefits of the 'brain released dopamine', which is said to decrease levels of stress due to the 'meditation-like' focus puzzlers use while having fun puzzling.

Want to know more? The first 8 Topics are available to read below!

• IF you are curious to know what all the 'hype' about puzzles is you surely will find your answer here.
• IF you are looking for a new hobby, there's plenty of info covered to help you decide.
• Do you have some free time coming up due to retirement or other situations that will leave you with space to fill in your daily routine? You will find that while assembling jigsaw puzzles time will escape you.
• Have you decided you need to find a way to bring your stress levels down?  Ask someone who does puzzles if they escape from their troubles and worries by doing puzzles - chances are pretty good they are going to say yes!

"There are no extra pieces in the universe. Everyone is here because he or she has a place to fill, and every piece must fit itself into the big jigsaw puzzle." - Deepak Chopra

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Reference: Linda Richard There's More To Jigsaw Puzzles Than Pieces (puzzlehobby.com)

Unbelievable Growth of Jigsaw Puzzle Market

Unbelievable Growth of Jigsaw Puzzle Market | Competitive Outlook By Clementoni, Anatolian, Cobble Hill, Buffalo Games, Robotime, Heye, House of Puzzles, CubicFun, Springbok Puzzles, Piatnik, Trefl, Disney, SunsOut, Ravensburger

Don’t Worry: Your New Jigsaw Puzzle Obsession is Perfectly Normal

Your New Jigsaw Puzzle Obsession is Perfectly Normal

A few years ago, one of my best friends and I attempted to do a 1,000-piece jigsaw together. I bought a puzzle version of Henri Matisse’s Femme au Chapeau from the SFMOMA store and the two of us began working on it during Nicole’s regular visits to my apartment. It was my first adult attempt at a jigsaw.

What became apparent fairly quickly was that Nicole—a calm and gentle human—had the appropriate disposition for completing the Femme, while I—infuriatingly impatient—definitely did not. When Nicole came over, I didn’t want to sit and do a puzzle, I wanted to go to a bar, or a restaurant, or a movie. After investing about six hours in the jigsaw, and realizing it was going to take at least six more, I unceremoniously quit.

The Femme languished, half-finished, hidden under a table cloth on my dining table for the better part of a year, until Nicole finally gave up on me. When she arrived one day with a roll-up puzzle mat and whisked it away to finally complete the thing, I couldn’t have been happier to see the end of that project.

Fast forward to 2020, shelter-in-place day 60-something, and I have completed three 500-piece jigsaw puzzles in the last week. I finished three others in the month before that. And there are rules. If I start one on my own, my boyfriend is forbidden from helping me finish it. If we start one together, we generously take turns letting each other place the last piece.

Our obsession is now so full-blown, we braved a San Leandro Walmart last Saturday night in the desperate hunt for a new jigsaw. We found the shelves so woefully empty it was as if we were in the toilet paper aisle. (I eventually managed to find one solitary jigsaw hiding among the board games; we snapped it up.)

The next day, when we went to pick up a pizza from Pi Bar in the Mission, we found the owner gleefully doing a giant puzzle on the long table in the window. When I complimented her progress, she said, “A customer just came in here and said that separating up the pieces according to color was cheating!”

“No it isn’t!” I exclaimed, genuinely aghast.

“But looking at the picture is,” my boyfriend chimed in, complicating matters.

We’re not the only ones treating puzzles this seriously. Jigsaw mania is in full swing everywhere. In the first weeks of shelter-in-place, Google searches for puzzles shot up precipitiously. Last month, Rohnert Park toy store Fundemonium (which offers curbside pick-up and delivery) reported its jigsaw sales had tripled, compared to the same period in 2019.

By the end of the Great Depression, manufacturers were producing 10 million puzzles a week (a WEEK!), many of which were rented out for a nickel a night from small lending libraries. Amateur puzzle makers proliferated to fill the demand and unemployed skilled workers began hand cutting wooden puzzles in their attics and garages.

That DIY spirit followed an earlier jigsaw craze kickstarted by a Massachusetts woman (her name lost to history) who started cutting small-piece puzzles in 1907 out of magazine covers. (Before this, jigsaws were made of big pieces and seen as almost exclusively for children since their invention in 18th-century Europe.) The Massachusetts puzzle maker originally sold them to benefit a children’s hospital, but the trend proved so popular, it spread all the way to England by 1909. The popularity of puzzles got another boost during World War II, due to a shortage of accessible forms of entertainment.

So why the return to jigsaws in 2020? Why, during shelter in place, are so many of us acting as if all our electronics are broken?

During the financial crisis of 2008, board game sales increased by 6%, but that boost came mostly from the likes of Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit and Settlers of Catan—group activities. Though still good options for families sheltering in place together, smaller households, now isolated, simply don’t contain enough people to play these types of games in any satisfying way. There are no such restrictions with jigsaws.

Their appeal lies not just in providing a cheap, time-consuming source of entertainment, but in the sense of order they bring upon completion. As puzzle historian Anne Williams told CNBC last month, “It’s something you can control [and] it’s also a challenge over which you can prevail.”

Personally, I find the exercise of sorting through pieces and constructing puzzles similar to meditation. Jigsaws require a singular focus that temporarily provides my brain with a reprieve from outside anxieties. What’s more, the image is completely irrelevant. After emerging from a couple of hours working on a puzzle, no matter what it is, I feel significantly more relaxed than when I started.

This weekend, plans are in place to retrieve my old nemesis, the Femme au Chapeau, from Nicole’s house. When it left, I swore I never wanted to see it again. But the prolonged distance from my beloved restaurants, bars and movie theaters has given me a brand-new focus that feels mentally beneficial. It has forced me to find joy in the slower, quieter things in life. And it has allowed me to discover patience I didn’t know I had.

In 2017, a jigsaw enthusiast named Angelica Pajkovic wrote about what she experienced while doing puzzles, for the Mindful Word.

“My perception of time, along with my ability to think of anything but the task at hand, is completely lost,” she explained. “I’m living in the moment, and no external or internal factors can distract me.”

By Rae Alexandra

Original Blog Post at KQED: https://www.kqed.org/arts/13879872/dont-worry-your-new-jigsaw-puzzle-obsession-is-perfectly-normal