All Jigsaw Puzzles

All of Jill's jigsaw puzzles are customized to meet the specifications of her clients. She works collaboratively to create one-of-a-kind designs in a multitude of styles. The design of the cuts is hand generated and, consequently, no two jigsaw puzzles are alike. Quality jigsaw puzzles are designed to artfully combine the image with the design of the cut pieces to enhance the enjoyment of the user. The artist controls the puzzle's skill level by varying the number of pieces and the complexity of the cuts. Typically, the more pieces the puzzle is cut into, the more difficult it is to assemble. Jill can make her jigsaw puzzles even harder to assemble by avoiding straight-edged border pieces. The lack of a straight border makes the edge pieces harder to locate. The artwork used in Jill's puzzles is constantly changing to keep pace with current consumer tastes.

Jill encourages her clients to use sustainable products in their puzzles in order to minimize their carbon footprint. Consequently, most of her jigsaw puzzles are made with MDF, which is easier to manipulate than wood, less expensive, doesn't react to climate, and can be veneered with wood grains to mimic harvested species.

High-quality customized wooden jigsaw puzzles are gaining in popularity. Jill's designs and cutting styles are fully interlocking and appear seamless exhibiting pieces of a similar shape, with squared or rounded tabs coming out on opposite ends and corresponding blanks cut into the intervening sides to receive the tabs of adjacent pieces. Other fully interlocking puzzles have pieces with tabs and blanks variously arranged, with each piece having four sides. Jill's clients appreciate her uniform-shaped fully interlocking puzzles, which are the most challenging to assemble, as the differences in shape between the pieces can be subtle. In addition to variation in the size, shape and intricacy of the individual pieces, the stylistic diversity evident in Jill's work makes her jigsaw puzzles highly collectible. Additional features in her recent collections include:

• Flocked jigsaw puzzles - These puzzles showcase surfaces that are textured in which Jill uses a pre-flocked MDF. Flocking is the process of depositing many small fiber particles (which are called flock) onto a surface. It can also refer to the texture produced by the process. The flocking of a jigsaw puzzle can be done for the purpose of increasing its value in terms of its tactile sensation, aesthetics, color or appearance (the velvet-like finish exhibits low reflectivity). Clients who have specified that Jill add flocking to a puzzle have done so for health and rehabilitative reasons more so than aesthetics as it aids in identifying pieces tactilely or texturally from others.
  
  Flock is precision cut lengths of nylon or rayon fibers, varying in length from 0.5 to 3mm, which are applied by electrostatic means as an attractive seamless fabric-like coating which covers almost any surface. The type of flock selected is dependent upon the article and the finish required (suede or velvet). The range of available colors is extensive as evidenced by its use in jewelry boxes, display trays, and camera equipment. Flock manufacturers are even able to cater to those who require special shades.
  
  Originally, the flock finish was used to provide a decorative effect to a wide variety of items. Today, additional advantages of flock include: the reduction of condensation and mechanical noise, heat and sound insulation, the improved texture of surfaces (e.g., to mask substrates such as MDF, chipboard, fiberglass, and vacuum formed plastics).
  
  
• Layered jigsaw puzzles (also called architectural or tower puzzles) - these designs exhibit different levels in graduating size. Jill's largest layer puzzle to date had 36 distinct layers and 1190 pieces. A multi-layer puzzle typically has a base with a perimeter and a cavity in which the pieces are set. Jill's layered puzzles can have pieces of different thickness and height or be layered using the same thickness. Depending upon the theme, these puzzles can be very challenging for children over the age of twelve. The puzzle can be is cut in multiple layers, with or without color applied to the pieces. The number of layers and shapes vary depending on the design and pricing varies depending on the complexity of the puzzle.
  
  
• Functional art jigsaw puzzles - these are designs in which Jill has created a jigsaw puzzle that can serve multiple purposes. They typically are embedded in tabletops and serving trays and are aesthetic as well as useful. The lexicon of functional art is often interchanged with phrases such as "contemporary decorative arts" or "fine art objects." The term "functional art" is rooted in the notion that the works originated as functional objects - a teapot, a clock, a wooden chest of drawers, a lamp, a glass vase, a rug - and have abstracted their original purposes to become works of fine art.
  
  Stemming from the Arts and Crafts movement, many of today's functional artists began as pure craftspeople 30 or more years ago. Others use the styles and techniques of the past but reinterpret them. Jan Peters, director of del Mano gallery in Los Angeles, describes the transformation from craft to decorative art as follows: "A vase becomes a vase becomes a hollow vessel." Leslie Ferrin of the Ferrin Gallery in New York says, "It's not pure craft. It's a very specialized area in contemporary craft...The pieces may have a vestigial reference to function but are no longer conceived of as functional objects...The only vestige, sometimes, is the materials."
  
  
• Three-dimensional puzzles - Many of Jill's puzzles appear to be three-dimensional due to their optical and vibratory effects taking their cue from the ancient Greeks who used a technique known as entasis, (which incorporated a slight convexity in the columns of the Parthenon to compensate for the illusion of concavity created by parallel lines). Jill's three-dimensional designs comprise multiple layers and/or pieces that actually convey height, depth, and volume. Clients that are looking for unusual puzzle designs often request those that have interlocking parts. When assembled, these designs create a recognizable form (i.e., cube) or structure (i.e., a building). Typically a 3-D puzzle will require one to solve it in a particular order, as some pieces will not fit in if others are already in place. Assembled 3-D puzzles can serve as sculpture.