Viesor Labs

Jigsaw puzzle is a well-known “timespending” for kids as well as for adults. Typically, this craft is considered as something that is done once and then stored somewhere from where it will be pulled out next time only during house cleaning or, even worse, moving out.

However, some people do preserve an assembled puzzle and put it in use for decoration. I would like to stress that this is a quite original and affordable way to create a decent and, most importantly, made with your own hands, art piece. It can be easily used in home decoration serving as a simple framed picture on the wall or a decorated table surface.

Spending time with your family or friends on solving it fills the result with a special meaning for those who were involved.

Modern tendencies in design dictate a necessity of having several “same family/theme” pieces aligned next to each other in some original way in order to create a uniform atmosphere in the room or on a wall. Unfortunately, the jigsaw puzzle manufacturers do not produce theme series of puzzles of sufficiently large size, that, when combined, could be a great tool for decorating walls in our homes. (At least, I have never seen one.)

However, there is hope… and this hope is in large size puzzles that could look pretty nice if framed just by themselves. In my opinion, a decent look could be achieved by choosing a large format puzzle, at least 1000 pieces, with a size bigger then 20″ (60cm). In this case, a large area art piece creates an atmosphere by itself and does not require any complementary pieces.

The choice of the aforementioned atmosphere lays completely on the shoulders of a person who designs the look of the room. A lot of the factors should be considered when choosing a puzzle to be an art piece - for instance, wall, furniture, floor or carpet colors, how lit the room is, what other art pieces are already present.

I should say, that most of the time it is very hard to make two art pieces of completely different nature look good when placed next to each other. By different nature, I refer to, for example, oil paint and photograph pictures. Most of the time such combination does not work due to their very different surface texture (rough versus smooth), and, thus, they reflect light differently. Therefore, do not try to put a painted portrait of your grandfather next to your recent photographs - choose another wall.

The process of preparing the “puzzle-based” art piece is well known:

• assemble the puzzle (nothing surprising here! right?! )
  

  Assembled Jigsaw Puzzle

• transfer it on a large piece of paper (bunch of newspapers will work. But, be careful two thick “cushion” could create a wobbly surface and the puzzle would not dry flat)
  

  Puzzle Transferred on Paper

• cover the puzzle with the puzzle saver/glue ( just follow the instructions on the can) - I would advise to use your palm instead of an included brush, as brushing, could take you hours. Contrary, just pouring the glue in a maze pattern all over the puzzle and using your palm to spread it takes at most 10 mins. But, please, make sure the glue you are using is not toxic (usually not). After, just wash your hands with soap and warm water.
  

  Applying glue to the top surface of the puzzle

• dry it, frame it. When purchasing a frame you obviously have three choices: buy an exact size frame (rarely possible); buy a smaller frame (you will have to cut the puzzle); buy a bigger frame and make it look good. I chose the last option - bought a simple and cheap frame at Walmart that was a bit bigger than the puzzle.
  

  Colored Background

  As you can see, I used the original printed sheet that comes with the frame and just flipped it. Obviously, white background did not look good, so I painted a black frame around it - so that this black frame would cover the gap between the frame and the puzzle (see insert on photograph). Next, I put the frame together and glued the frame joints with heat glue gun (very easy to re-work later). This step was specific for my type of frame - one where edges are fixed on the center piece by a tight fit and are hold by friction.

  

  Fixing Frame Corners

The advantages of creating a jigsaw puzzle art piece:

• due to its surface texture does not look like a boring printed art
• very affordable
• can serve as a memory of a get-together event
• if someone gets bored with it - just through it away and make a new one.

Here is what me and my wife created, and, later, decorated the walls with in our apartment.

Tags: art piece, home decoration, jigsaw puzzle