How I make puzzles

It all starts with a blank sheet of wood. I use only the finest quarter-inch Baltic birch or bamboo plywood, which gives your puzzle superior strength and solidity so it can last for generations to come. The wood has a pleasing thickness that helps the puzzle take shape as each piece clicks into place.

Next, I affix a picture to the wood using a hot press. This hot-melt glue process is the best way to permanently adhere the picture and is the same process used in framing shops and art galleries for mounting prints and photos.

I use ultra-fine Swiss blades with a thickness of only 0.007 inches. These Swiss made blades make for a very enjoyable tighter fitting puzzle that shows almost no cut lines, while the smoothness of the cut still allows the puzzle pieces to slide in and out effortlessly.

As I cut each piece, I am looking at the picture, making constant changes to make the puzzle more interesting and tricky. I may choose, for example, to follow the edge of a color in the print (known as “color line cutting”) or create a false edge where the colors look like those on the edge of the picture. I enjoy using a variety of different ways to create tricky edge pieces that appear to be interior pieces.

While doing all this, I also endeavor to make every piece beautiful and unique. Often while cutting the puzzle pieces I find myself considering how people responds to certain shapes. With this in mind, I attempt to make every puzzle piece into a pleasing artistic sculpture.

I enjoy cutting figurals (also known as “whimsies”), which are pieces cut in the shape of animals, people or other items. I endeavor to make each figural relate to the theme of the picture of the puzzle as well as symbolically place them within the puzzle itself. For example, a bird figural might be found flying in the sky.

Your puzzle comes disassembled inside a lidded wooden box with a secure metal clasp. The Puzzlemonk logo is hand wood burned on the box, along with the puzzle's name and the number of pieces.  I usually glue a small picture of the puzzle inside the lid for reference, but is not the exact duplicate of the puzzle so that it will not give away all of the secrets.

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