Community Puzzle

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The Community Puzzle^® that can be built to any size. Think of it as a Community Quilt for kids (of all ages). The puzzle set of 48 pieces is all white, costs $13.99, and comes with: 24 center pieces (4" x 4"), 4 corner pieces (2" x 2"), 10 border pieces with a nib (or a tab) on one long side (2" x 4"), and 10 border pieces with a hole (or a pocket) on one long side (2" x 4). The completed puzzle measures 20" x 28".

The puzzle pieces are interchangeable and fit together in any order. Just add more pieces for a larger format. If used for teamwork projectzz, each person decorates their own puzzle piece, in their own style, yet utilizing a common theme. Any size group can participate, all you need to do is get enough pieces (they come in sets of 48 pieces including the borders and corners) Biggwood boasts of their largest puzzle, thus far, being over 10,000 pieces, but there is absolutely no limit. Any size group can participate. All you need to do is choose a theme and have enough pieces for everyone. You just need a place to put it together - remember - the pieces fit anywhere so it's not hard to assemble and it couldn't be more user friendly.

General Suggestions:

Have several groups work together on a larger project such as all the classes in a school, all the dens in a Cub pack, or all the classes in a church Sunday school.

Have special related people add to the Community puzzle - Other school staff, parents, community leaders, ministers, etc.

Create mementos of birthday parties, retirement parties, family reunions, block parties, holidays, or any occasional group of people gathering to have fun and learn.

Consider giving a piece to each family member to create a clan collage.

Celebrate a special birthday or event by having friends, relatives, or classmates decorate a puzzle piece about a special memory. Present the completed puzzle or have each individual mail their decorated piece to arrive on the person's special day.

More ways to use the Community Puzzle: family reunions, retirements, holidays, staff development and training, store openings, 4H, YMCA, bridal and baby showers, senior citizens and geriatrics, community festivals and museum events.

General Instructions:

1. Puzzle Piece -- labeled with top, bottom, right, and left. We suggest tracing around a full sized puzzle piece and labeling the top, so each person can have a chance to practice their artwork, or try different ideas. This practice puzzle piece will also help keep everyone’s artwork oriented so none of the pieces will be upside down when you put The Community Puzzle™ together. Use the white side of the puzzle piece for the artwork. Encourage everyone to use the whole surface of their puzzle piece, including the “nibs” (the tabs that stick out the sides of each piece) This will help each piece flow into the next when The Community Puzzle is assembled.

2. Full Set Planning Diagram (below) -- We thought you would like to see the full layout of your puzzle. This layout shows one possible configuration for 1 set of 48 pieces (including borders and corners). The puzzle can of course be turned either way. For larger projects (The biggest to date was over 10,000 pieces) just keep adding pieces to reach the desired size and then add borders and corners. If you use more than one set, you will end up with extra border and corner pieces. Just recycle them. One good plan is to make the border pieces all one color, but if you want to include artwork on them, you will need to plan the correct orientation, including how many of each style of border pieces you need for your planned layout. Just trace around each style to create your own practice pages. Be sure to label the “top”. Note that while all 4 corner pieces are alike, each corner is rotated differently, and that there are 2 styles of border. One has a nib on one long side, and the other has a pocket on one long side.

3. Color Marker Testing Area - Use blank areas on the back of the "finished" puzzle box or the extra sheet provided with the instructions to test your markers. They are made of the same coated paper as the actual puzzle pieces. We suggest using quality permanent markers, but any markers, crayons, colored pens or pencils will work. Various paints give nice results too, though paint may be messier! You might also experiment with gluing beads, pieces of colored paper, small magazine pictures, etc. onto the pieces. Whatever you use to decorate your puzzle pieces be sure to test your methods without wasting any of your actual puzzle parts.

Preserving Your Completed Puzzle:

Once completed, you may want to permanently display your Community Puzzle. To hold the pieces together, turn the completed puzzle upside down, and coat the back with a quality white glue. Don’t use too much, and try to keep the glue from leaking through the cracks to the face of the puzzle. While the glue is still wet, apply layers of newspaper, craft paper, or poster board, and let dry. Trim excess paper from edges as needed. Especially with larger puzzles you might want to actually mount your puzzle to a sheet of plywood.

To preserve the face you could coat it with a spray UV protectant, available from an Art Supply Store. This will protect the surface, and cut down on fading. Follow the directions on the can. You can also use one of the commercial puzzle coating materials sold for regular jigsaw puzzles. Be sure to test whatever material you are using on the test puzzle piece mentioned above to make sure you don’t have some adverse reaction between the coating and the markers, crayons, or other materials you used.

The Community Puzzle

Item Code = CP-EC

The Community Puzzle^® is a registered trademark owned by Biggwood Inc., Hamburg, NY 14075