How are Jigsaw Puzzles Made
What is a jigsaw puzzle?
A jigsaw puzzle can be described as a puzzle made up of small tiles of different shapes that can interlock with one another. Each of these tiles has a small part of a picture on it. You are required to assemble all the pieces so that the complete picture is created.
How to Create a Jigsaw
In older times, jigsaws were created by painting a picture on a flat, rectangular piece of wood, and then cutting that picture into smaller pieces with a jigsaw. This gave the puzzle its name. The early jigsaw puzzles were created in London by John Spilsbury, a mapmaker and engraver.
Nowadays most jigsaw puzzles are created out of cardboard since they are easier to cut and cheaper to produce. A huge photograph or a printed copy of a painting is glued firmly on a stiff cardboard before the process of cutting it into pieces begins. This board is then placed inside a press. The purpose of this press is to place pressure on the board and a set of sharp blades of the desired shape is made to cut through the board. This process is very similar to when cookies or biscuits are cut to a desired shape with help of a cutter before they are cooked.
You can create a small jigsaw puzzle of your own at home. All that you require are a few things listed below:
A stiff rectangular cardboard
Sharp blade or scissors
Two pictures of a scenic beauty or anything that interests you
A pencil
Some glue
Creating the Jigsaw
Creating the jigsaw at home is not as tough as it may seem. With a little practice, you can create jigsaw puzzles having large number of pieces of various shapes and sizes.
Step One
Take the rectangular board and cut it with the help of the scissors so that it is the same size of the picture.
Step Two
Place one of the pictures on top of the board and paste it carefully so that there are no wrinkles. Leave the pasted picture to dry out completely.
Step Three
Take the pencil and draw shapes on the picture. You can draw shapes of irregular sizes but draw interlocking shapes. Also, keep in mind the number of pieces that you would want to cut the board in.
Step Four
Carefully start cutting the pieces one by one with the help of the scissors or the sharp blade. Make sure that you cut the pieces neatly.
Step Five
Once you have cut the board into the desired number of pieces, you can place them in a box and your jigsaw puzzle is ready. You can ask anyone to look at the uncut picture and assemble the pieces with its help.