Few things in life are as rewarding as putting that perfectly-fitted final jigsaw piece in place. After hours of pouring over your luxurious wood jigsaw puzzle, you can finally take a step back and enjoy the masterpiece you’ve assembled. Your completed work, with its intricate art and vibrant colours, is so much more than a hobby. Puzzling is an art form, a mental exercise, and a skill to be honed. Here are a few expert tips and tricks to solve a StumpCraft wooden jigsaw puzzle.
Tip #1: Ignore the Edges
Solving a wood jigsaw puzzle will often require that you set aside your existing puzzle solving strategies and ignore the borders. You will discover that we often hide edge pieces and corners and we include many straight lines within the puzzle as well.
Tip #2: Colour & Shape Sorting
This is a fairly standard puzzling technique, either used to sort pieces by colors or by shape. You can use this technique extensively, constantly refining as you work through a puzzle. Beyond colour sorting, you may also be able to separate pieces by "texture" (bubbles, leaves, hair, text, etc.) or painting brush stroke style.
Tip #3: Switch your Perspective
Puzzling requires both the ability to hone in on fine details (like the pattern of leaves on your puzzle piece) and the ability to understand the bigger picture (like tackling broader patterns or colour schemes). Being able to see the puzzle as a whole can help if you’re stuck in one small section, and paying close attention to detail can help you zero in on subtle clues.
Tip #4: Work in Sections
Instead of trying to solve the entire puzzle at once, break the puzzle down into smaller, more manageable sections. Working with one area at a time helps your brain process information in bite-sized chunks rather than an overwhelming jumble of puzzle pieces. Dividing the puzzle into smaller sections also helps give you built-in breaks so you can take a quick breather and come back to the puzzle with fresh eyes.
Tip #5: Don’t Use the Reference Image
Your mileage may vary on this one but in general, we suggest that you do not overly rely on the reference image when solving. The image can get in the way as you end up often searching the reference image for quite some time trying to find where the piece goes within the frame, rather than using techniques like colour sorting to find the pieces that go together. This is often the habit that is hardest to break.
By using the tips outlined in this blog post, you can hone your jigsaw puzzle skills and overcome any puzzle challenge. After all, puzzling should de-stress you! For even more tips to solving you can visit our FAQs for more tips.
Happy puzzling!
I do the puzzle in “blocks”(tip 4) and use the reference image to locate them within the puzzle “space (tip 3)”. Works for me.
Another “tip” might be to not knock yourself out at a single sitting. When it gets hard to find the next piece, give it a rest – go empty the dishwasher, put on a load of laundry or make the kids’ lunches for tomorrow🙃.
The 500+ size is just perfect for me (but then I am retired and have lots of time)