Custom Puzzles

I love working with people to help them create the perfect customized puzzle. Here are a few ways you can help me make the puzzle uniquely yours. Don’t feel that you have to make a decision on every point if it feels overwhelming. You can request what is most important to you and I can handle the rest.

1: Choose your image. You can choose something from my image catalog or provide your own image (you must own the copyright to the image, or it must be out of copyright). If you don’t see what you want, just ask and I might be able to find it. You can also request a wood grain puzzle (in which case you can choose the wood species from what I have available at that time). A marbled or painted puzzle is another option. For those, you would choose general colors.

2: Decide what size puzzle you want. For image puzzles, the largest my equipment can handle is 13″x19″. I think wood grain puzzles are best kept to 8″x10″ or smaller since the pieces look very similar.

3: Do you want any whimsies (special shaped pieces)? The more whimsies there are in a puzzle, the easier it is to work. However, whimsies often mean the puzzle doesn’t interlock as tightly. Larger puzzles can support more whimsies and multi-piece whimsies. Note that I don’t put whimsies in 3.5″ puzzles except for a heart in state puzzles to mark a special area.

4: What size do you want the pieces to be? I naturally cut smaller pieces than most puzzle cutters. The smaller the puzzle, the smaller the pieces are unless you specifically request something different. I think of tiny pieces as dime sized, medium pieces as quarter sized and extra large pieces as half dollar sized. Of course the size will vary throughout the puzzle, especially in relation to whimsies and color line cutting. The size of the pieces will also determine how challenging the puzzle is – lots of tiny pieces is obviously harder than fewer big pieces. Wood grain puzzles cannot support tiny pieces- they break across the grain, so the wood grain puzzles tend to have fewer pieces compared to the same size puzzle cut from Finnish birch plywood. You’ll see this discrepancy in the price chart below.

5: Do you want the edge to be straight, wavy, cut to look like the inside of the puzzle (with knobs, etc), or cut in a particular shape (the shape of a state, or outlining an object in the image, for example)?

6: Do you want the puzzle to have a lot, some or no color line cutting? Color line cutting refers to cutting the line separating colors in the image. The more color line cutting in a puzzle, the less it will interlock. Puzzles that don’t interlock are referred to as push fit puzzles. Push fit puzzles typically have an interlocking border but few of the pieces inside interlock. These need to be worked on felt or cork since the pieces don’t lock in place. I can cut a puzzle with a balance of color line cutting and interlocking pieces as well.

7: How challenging do you want your puzzle to be? This is related to choice of image, piece size (more pieces and smaller pieces will be harder) and cutting style (color line, interlocking, whimsies, etc.), but in general, do you want me to throw every trick in the book at your puzzle or leave it simpler, as something to do while chatting?

8: Finally, how do you want your puzzle packaged? Do you want me to ship it to you assembled or unassembled? If you want it assembled (I highly recommend this for wood grain puzzles and encourage it for marbled and painted puzzles), it needs to fit in a 3.5′, 4×6′, 5×7″ or 8×10″ box. If you want the puzzle shipped unassembled, do you want a small image on the outside of the box?

Base price chart

Note that the number of pieces is always approximate and depends on your choices above, particularly the shape of the puzzle, size of pieces, number and type of whimsies and style of cutting. The 3.5″ and 4″x6″ puzzles have very small pieces unless you request differently. The wood grain puzzles have larger pieces than other puzzles of the same size.

The final prices are determined at my sole discretion. Your custom puzzles could result in a higher price than the base price in the chart, but I will discuss that with you as we design your custom puzzle. ***Puzzles with lots of drop outs or with layers are more complex and thus will be more expensive than what is listed here.

Shipping within the US is included. I am happy to ship to other countries. In my experience it is $30-40, but you can sometimes ship more than 1 puzzle for that price.

Galleries and other websites may list my items with different (higher) prices based on their overhead.