I saw a Facebook post about a puzzle cut to entertain different age groups. It reminded me of an old puzzle I cut over 20 years ago before I decided to start a small business making jigsaw puzzles. I thought I would try to find it and share it here.
As a little background, when we lived in Nebraska while I was still in the Navy, we were expecting our third child. Our two daughters were told they would have to double up in one bedroom instead of each having their own room. To soften the blow, we offered to paint their room the way they wanted. They chose pink and white. I may be wrong, but I think the bottom half of the walls was white, and the top half was this bright pink. Maybe it was the other way around. Oh my gosh. When we were done, you had to wear sunglasses to enter the room! It was the brightest pink I have ever seen. I did not know pink could be so bright! And the white was a glaring gloss Arctic white of some sort.
To try to soften the effect, we had applied a wide wallpaper border to the paint line where the pink and white met, and a matching skinny wallpaper border where the wall met the ceiling. Two months after our third child was born, the Navy in its wisdom moved us early! Fortunately, we did not have a problem selling the house, but I was concerned.
We had leftovers of the wallpaper border that we moved with us. A few years later, I decided to use some of it to make a puzzle. This puzzle is about 20 inches long and 8 1/2 inches tall.
This puzzle was used quite a bit through the years. I dug around in the storeroom and found it to put it together for pictures for this blog post. I was rather surprised to find that only one piece was missing. Other than the missing piece and one piece that was chewed on, it has really worn well.
Here is a picture of the left side, showing the large pieces for the youngest to work.
Here is the right side, showing the smaller progression of piece size.
Even then, I was employing a little color line cutting.
I personalized it by cutting the initials of each child’s first name (H, E, and B).
Here is the backside of the puzzle. The wood grain is readily apparent, so it is not Baltic birch. I believe it is a cabinet grade 1/4″ birch plywood. You can also see I was not signing or dating any of the puzzles I made at this point. I really have no idea how many puzzles I made and gave away before I started keeping track.
Here is the back side of the color line cutting on one of the unicorns. The mangled piece on the left of the leg has clear tooth marks in it from somebody chewing on it.
This is shared as an example of a puzzle cut from something different: wallpaper!
Happy Puzzling!
Bob