Severe Color-Line Puzzle Cutting

[Carter Johnson]

Here's an example of the kind of color-line puzzle cutting I enjoy most. The puzzle, from a calendar picture, is roughly 9.5 x 11 inches and has 162 pieces. Each little item in the "Garage Sale" forms the basis for one or more puzzle pieces. It's a tricky but simple way to cut that never needs a pattern and turns out a puzzles that people of all ages love to put together.

As usual, the photo of the back has been flipped horizontally to better identify the pieces. I strongly recommend this kind of cutting to anyone who wants to give jigsaws a try and who finds a picture with cutable images within it.. To that end, I'm happy to help any way I can. [email protected]

Have phun..... Carter

 

[StevieB]

As usual, very impressive and inspirational work Carter - I don't know how you find all these images as I never seem to! I have vowed to get back into scrolling for 2010 but am currently rebuilding my cellar/workshop so think it may be the latter half of the year before I can do much sadly.

Thanks for sharing!

Steve

 

[Eda]

Hello Carter,
This is so perfectly cut!

I have been cutting jigsaws for about 4 weeks now and I am an adept of colour-line cutting. I agree it is tremendously phun!
I don't do tabs like you do, however, all is push-fit style.
2 reasons for that:
- I feel reluctant to "spoil" the picture by deviating from the line.
- I am still struggling with finding the right tensioning and controlling the FD Superior Puzzle blade. The first and only interlocking puzzle I did was not cut square and so the tight-fitting pieces would not slot in and out easily if at all. Push fit is therefore more forgiving.

So far, I've found that push-fit colour-line cutting has also the following advantages:
- Planning the cuts on tracing paper is absorbing and creative. Trying to maintain the style of the picture and adding extra details on uniform areas such as the sky is an enjoyable challenge.
- The integrity of the picture is preserved.
- Its design is enhanced.
- A small card-sized puzzle of about 40 pieces cut in this way provide far more challenge and interest than a classic interlocking grid cut. There are fewer clues and you need patience to constantly reform and tighten as you go.
- The result is just beautiful and feels very rewarding!

However:
- For a beginner like me keeping the blade on the line is hard and nerve racking. (A Van Gogh painting with bold brush strokes is therefore more forgiving than a very finely drawn Japanese print.) Any deviation or mistake shows The skill is then to make it looks as if the deviation was intentional :wink:
- I imagine that putting a push-fit puzzle together would not suit an impatient, short tempered, careless kind of person...
- It works wonderfully for 40 to 60 pieces, but for a large puzzle you would probably need Carter-style tabs to have a chance to keep the puzzle together!

 

[Carter Johnson]

Hi Eda...... Thanks for your comments.

While "push-fit" is a legitimate style of puzzle cutting, you're right. It doesn't work well with puzzles with many pieces. In my opinion, you could cut locking tabs, but you don't have to have as many as you might think. Perhaps only just one or two per puzzle piece would be enough. Practice truly makes perfect in this regard and you can find yourself cutting precise locking tabs in no time.

I'm not sure what you mean when you state that your first interlocking puzzle didn't work well. I'm confused as to where you feel you went wrong.

If you haven't seen many of my other puzzles, here's a link to Picture Trail albums that show many of them. http://www.picturetrail.com/carterj

I truly enjoy helping others with this phun hobby so I'd be happy to respond to anything you might ask. email me at [email protected]

Carter

 

[Eda]

I'm not sure what you mean when you state that your first interlocking puzzle didn't work well. I'm confused as to where you feel you went wrong.

Carter

Hello Carter, thank you for your advice and encouragement.

I meant than the blade was probably not tensioned enough and I pushed it around in all directions as I cut. As a result the edges of the pieces were not always at right angle with the top surface and bottom surface all the way round. As the blade is very thin, pieces fit together very tightly, there is no room to compensate for angled cut. I found that many pieces did struggle to slot back in. Some would only slot in from underneath the puzzle rather than from the top, I had to lift the puzzle or undo surrounding pieces... it was almost like making a 3D construction.
I imagine that with a thicker blade the problem would not occur.
Also some pieces had many tabs or lumps and that probably did not help.

You are right, practice makes perfect, and I hope I'll master blade control in time. I keep tensioning it up as I cut but it tends to wander. I may be too cautious with it, maybe it needs to be extra taut.
It is also certain that I don't apply the right pressure in the right place at the right time at the right speed...

 

[Carter Johnson]

Keep it up, Eda. That tension should be quite high, giving off a high-pitched "ping" when flicked.

Have phun..... Carter

 

[Geoffrey]

Hi Eda Extra Tension sounds good but keep it in the Blade and not your self. Scrolling is a great hobby when you start to relax and have fun

Hi Carter very impressive and inspirational i have started to cut puzzles
like you do but oBoy them Tabs :roll:

Geoff

 

[chrispuzzle]

What a superb demonstration of the color-line cutting art! Wonderful stuff, Carter.

Eda, I'm intrigued that you are looking at push-fit puzzles, which of course are the earliest type. One idea that I've seen is to include a frame for a push-fit puzzle which helps keeps all the pieces together when it's complete.

Cutting tabs to a regular size and shape - and pieces of more or less the same area - is one of the most subtle skills. Although it is not necessary to have everything uniform, the ability to do it means you are choosing when and where to make variations, instead of being at the mercy of the blade!

 

[Eda]

Eda, I'm intrigued that you are looking at push-fit puzzles, which of course are the earliest type. One idea that I've seen is to include a frame for a push-fit puzzle which helps keeps all the pieces together when it's complete.

Hello Chris,
Funny you should say that, that is exactly the direction my thoughts have been going.
Directions, should I say.

:idea: 1 : Save the outer trim in one piece as a frame, and possibly glue it onto a bottom plank, like many children jigsaws (George Luck style. Are they called tray jigsaws?)

:idea: 2 : Similar style, but cutting the frame inside the picture itself.

Advantages with ideas 1 and 2: You could neatly and efficiently store an extensive collection of made up puzzles, admire them or show them off at will.
Problem with ideas 1 and 2: Devising elegant and secure individual storage. Grip seal bags are secure, economical and space saving, but not particularly presentable.
:idea: Frame set into a custom-made shallow box with a sliding lid? (Not within my skills so far.)

:idea: 3 : Cut a strongly interlocking border 1 (small jigsaw) or 2 pieces (larger jigsaw) deep as part of the picture and do the inside push fit fashion. I have been scratching my head over a Valentine with a strong central motif on a cream background and that could be the answer to that one.

:idea: 4 : Combine push fit and interlocking as in some vintage puzzles. Wentworth do that combination to an extent but without following the colour lines.

Cutting tabs to a regular size and shape - and pieces of more or less the same area - is one of the most subtle skills.

I could not agree more! Hence the push fit idea... :wink:

 

[Carter Johnson]

I've never understood why puzzle pieces, especially in a color-line-cut puzzle needed top be a similar size and shape and that knobs had to be similar. Why? Variety is the spice of puzzles!

Carter

 

[StevieB]

Public perception mostly, and the desire of the human eye and brain to prefer symmetry and regularity. Most stamped puzzles have regular sized pieces and regular tabs, so thats what people expect from all puzzles. If you have one odd piece its amazing how the eye is drawn to it again and again when doing a puzzle and searching for a different piece.

As for symmetry, that would seem to be more of a basic instinct. Take a classical definition of facial beauty and you will find that the face is much more symmertical than the norm. You can take the left side (or right side) of the face and flip it over, put them together and still get a very good likeness of the original person. Try that with Joe Average and you end up with something far from beautiful! The minds love of regularity and symmertry would seem to stem from our hunter gatherer days, where any shape which broke the regularity of the horizon was usually a predator. you either took notice and survived, or didn't and didn't

Steve

 

[Carter Johnson]

All the more reason why a puzzle with varying sizes and shapes of pieces is more interesting and phun!

C

 

[chrispuzzle]

I don't think pieces need to be the same size and I don't think tabs all need to be uniform.

But I think if you want to cut really good puzzles, you have to be able to cut the size and shapes that YOU want to cut and not to be forced into cutting shspes you don't really like because you haven't yet developed the skill to control the line.

The best cutters, like Carter, cut to the line they planned. That includes being able to cut uniformly sized pieces if you choose to do it.

 

[Eda]

Do you know what would be so sad and boring, guys?
If all puzzle cutters agreed that there was One True Way To Cut Puzzles to the exclusion of all others.
Diversity of styles, that is the fun bit.

The first Wentworth puzzle I bought delighted me no end. When another one turned out to have the very same cutting pattern I was somewhat disappointed. When I ended up with several puzzles cut with exactly the same silly pattern (even if within that perfectly good pattern all pieces are different from each other and have perfectly clever figurals) I decided to leave Wentworth alone.

I like puzzles with big pieces, puzzles with medium pieces, puzzles with tiny pieces.
I like easy puzzles and I like tricky puzzles.
I like regular grids and I like random cuts.
I like puzzles with figurals and puzzles without figurals.
I like push fit, I like interlocking, and everything in between.

 

[StevieB]

That is because Wentworth is a bulk supplier to a mass market. If you want individually cut puzzles with distinct clever cutting you need to look at someone like Staves Puzzles in the US. This will give you the challenge you seek, but you do pay for the priviledge of going bespoke. Check out youtube for some good video of both stave puzzles and a factory tour - well worth a look.

Steve