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Decide on the amount of money you can spend and select an image you like, either from our galleries or from another source. Then contact us, with suggestions about the words or shapes you want incorporated in the puzzle as silhouettes or dropouts. We will cut the puzzle to your instructions and mail it to you anywhere in the world.
An A4 size image cut into about 150 pieces will cost between $80 and $300 (approx US$60 and 200). For methods of payment click here
Because each puzzle is individually cut, we vary the size of the puzzle, the number of pieces and the style of cutting to suit you.
Click here for more information
The pleasure of doing a puzzle depends in part upon the image being pleasing to the puzzler, and in part on the puzzle having the right degree of difficulty. Aesthetic judgements are personal, but we can generalise about the degree of difficulty.
Challenging puzzles will have some or all of the following features:
1. An intricate image with a lot of fine detail.
2. Lots of pieces - difficulty increases exponentially with the number of pieces. Handcrafted puzzles, however, are much more challenging than cardboard puzzles with the same number of pieces.
3. Pieces with complex shapes that fit together in hard-to-predict ways.
4. No accompanying picture. Puzzles are best done 'sight unseen' and for this reason handcrafted puzzles are almost universally supplied without an accompanying picture to guide the puzzler. AuPuzzles are supplied either intact (but with a warning that the puzzle should be dismantled before the puzzler sees it) or dismantled.
5. Be cut to include the following features; colour-line cutting, dropouts (empty space within the puzzle), false edges and corners, near-identical pieces, false fits, and irregularities in the shape of the puzzle border.
| Many puzzles have irregular shapes, for example, the puzzle of the moth cut in the shape of a moth. Joining the border pieces of puzzles such as this with irregular edges is more challenging than joining the edges of rectangular puzzles. |
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By using the techniques listed above, the cutter can make puzzles of the same image that have different degrees of difficulty.
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You can specify an easy or challenging cut, as well as the silhouette pieces or dropouts you want incorporated in the puzzle. |
Some people, for example those who are sight disabled or have limited dexterity, may find the cutting style and size of our pieces frustrating (it depends upon how much and what type of challenge they want). We can cut larger pieces and use a simpler cutting style for these puzzlers, and are always interested in discussing other variations for other disabilities. Please contact us.
