We were contacted by a customer last summer who wanted to have a puzzle custom made. We chatted awhile on what would make a good puzzle, he decided on a photograph he took himself from a trip to peru. He did not have a lot of request for figurals, he did want a date put in , other than that he said " do what ever you would like", "and take as much time as you need" a designers dream!!! I went right to work.
The Photo arrived, Kodak did an excellent job at enlarging the picture. I adhered it to the Mahogany, than started the process of formulating the theme. Erik's words he wrote of his climb to the top of the mountain and the photos he sent, gave me allot to work with for inspiration. I knew the theme would be Inca, as this was the Inca ruins of Macchu Picchu.
The words of Erik rang through my designing mind, about how the trip was surreal, and the feeling he had standing on that mountain. I knew I wanted to create a moment in time for this puzzle. My though was when he opened the puzzle tin and all those Inca figurals tumbled out, he would be whist away to the time of the Inca, and as he put the puzzle together the figural pieces would disappear into the background leaving only the ruins.
and so the cutting began........
About three weeks into the project, tragedy struck. Every day I would look at the picture for inspiration as I did research on everything Inca. One night as I was leaving the office I took the photo (already mounted to the wood ) off my desk and leaned it against the wall next to my desk. The next morning I went to get my inspiration I noticed a heavy metal book end had fallen of the shelf right above the photo and gouged a thick scratch all the way down the middle of the puzzle. My heart sunk! I contacted Erik and ask where I could send to replace the first photo and to admit my irresponsibility to him. He laughed and said "no worries" and had another photo sent to me in a few days. I adhered the second photo and sat it on my desk, as I looked at the two Macchu Picchu's I came up with a new plan, after all I did not want to waste the first one.............
The edge pieces was where I was going to make the puzzle tough, Erik is a seasoned puzzler, so I did not want to disappoint.
For all those pieces from the first photo, well I created a terrace Inca grouping with the high priest on top and the farmers on the bottom, as it was in their culture. This terrace is connected to the main puzzle by one piece glued to a piece underneath it, so it does not slide around.
All the figural pieces had meaning in the Inca life, and this wooden jigsaw puzzle was chocked full of them.
After nearly a decade of thirteen hour days, I took some time off from
work and took an adventure well outside my comfort zone: trekking the
Inca Trail. Looking back even a month later, the trip and the sights I
had seen even when viewed in a picture began to seem remote almost
unreal.
I wanted a custom puzzle made from a picture of Macchu Picchu that
would help bring back those memories. A couple of parameters, I wanted
something big (20 w x 16 h) to help capture the scope of it, I wanted
the date: March 2006, and I wanted to be surprised by the creativity
of the puzzle maker.
Dee delivered, big time.
My picture of these ruins comes to life and helped remind me of my
vacation as a puzzle with Incan themed imagery taken from other
pictures I took as well as Dee's own research into the period and
Incan culture.
No ordinary traditional wooden jigsaw puzzle, this behemoth clocks in
with: close to 900 pieces; four layers; upright silhouette stick
figures representing aspects of Incan culture; an insane(-ly difficult
to put together) square-spiral left-and-right edges (what was I
thinking starting on square pieces?); a smooth top-and-bottom edge
with non-interlocking edges and a dove punch out at regular spaces
along the length; multiple enlarged silhouettes themed to Incan
imagery; and more.
What a puzzle. What a way to bring back the memory. It was made more
fun by working on the puzzle with a number of friends and family and
also getting a chance to talk again about my adventure again.
Regards,
Erik
We had enough left over pieces to make this Inca deities puzzle. It did not fit into the main puzzle but we threw it into the same tin.
It is great when we get a chance to do a
"over the top"
puzzle. This puzzle took two months create.
Erik did not get a chance to work it for another two months. I was dyeing to hear from him , to see if he enjoyed the challenge!
Here is what he thought.........
