Montreal Gazette, July 29th, 2000

Need a break from skydiving, mountain climbing and jet skiing?  Then it might be time to consider a more tranquil pastime - like, say, doing jigsaw puzzles.  Puzzle lovers say there's nothing like it.

"It's a kind of addiction when I see a puzzle, I have to do it," said Sheila, who, along with her husband, Ian, owns Jigsaw Jungle.  -(Now moved to our Warehouse/Retail Outlet)-, the store carries 1,600 different puzzles.  They were both born in England, and began doing puzzles when they were toddlers.  "It's one of the interests that brought us together," Sheila said.

Their store has everything from puzzles suitable for children as young as 18 months old to killer puzzles.  These puzzling puzzles include double-sided and borderless puzzles, as well as puzzles with up to 18,000 pieces.  The store manager, another avid puzzler, offered the following tips to novices: "Start with the border; then separate pieces by colour and then by shape.  " Jigsaw Jungle is at -(2379 Guenette, Ville St-Laurent)-. For information, call the store at (514) 331-3389 or visit their International mail order Web site at www.jigsawjungle.com

Article by Monique Pola courtesy =>  - 29^th July 2000.

Montreal Gazette, January 22nd, 2000

Consider the following models now on the market. 

• Impossible Puzzles, which have no borders and feature repeating images. And as if that wasn't confusing enough, five extra pieces that don't fit anywhere are thrown in for good measure.
• WASGIJ puzzles, which, as their name implies, are reverse jigsaw puzzles.  The image on the box top is in fact the opposite of what has to be assembled.  In Sunday Drivers, for instance, the image on the box depicts a man coming down a road on a horse cart, but you have to imagine what the man sees in front of him and assemble that image.
• Mystery Puzzles, where, again, there is no image on the box to help puzzle makers.  Instead, you have to read a book of clues to come up with the surprise image
• Photomosaices, which are a collage of thousands of tiny images which, when put together, make up a larger image.

Sheila, a former secondary school teacher turned puzzle retailer, traces the move away from traditional puzzles to Wrebbit Inc., the Montreal based company that first introduced three-dimensional puzzles onto the market in 1991.  The company has since become the world leader in its field, selling 30 million of its trademark PUZZ-3D puzzles worldwide.

"It really changed the way people thought about puzzles, and it created a whole new breed of puzzle makers," said Sheila.

Once just a novelty on the crowded toy market, jigsaw puzzles appear to be reclaiming their place in the hearts of consumers, thanks in large part to renewed interest from older adults, many of whom are returning to a hobby they haven't enjoyed since their pre-teen years.

John says his fascination with puzzles happened by chance.  He was walking through a downtown shopping mall one day when he came across a salesman assembling a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle of a U.S. state capitol building.  Intrigued by the concept, John bought one for himself and proceeded to put it together with little difficulty. Eight years later, he has yet to stop, and today 
his three-room apartment is littered with more than 100 puzzles, 
including 80 of the three-dimensional type.  They sit atop dressers and coffee tables and cover almost every square metre of his floor They include miniatures, like a jukebox, a telephone booth and the Leaning Tower of Pisa (yes, it leans) to larger models of the Titanic, the Taj Mahal and his masterpiece - a 3,100-piece replica of the New York City skyline.

"There is just something special about putting together a puzzle, starting out with 1,000 pieces lying in front of you and then watching as it comes together," said John, 40.  "Once you get started, it's difficult to put down.  You want to see the finished product."

New York, New York assembled by 
Jigsaw Jungle customer John

Jigsaw Jungle owners display their 8000 pc accomplishment, the 2000 yrs puzzle by Heye.

Sheila, a former secondary school teacher turned puzzle retailer, says most people develop their passion for puzzle making as children; many schools and daycare centres use puzzles to teach toddlers how to recognize shapes and colours.  Today, she says, adults are intrigued by the large variety of images available in jigsaw format.

"It amazes me what they come out with each year," said Sheila, who, along with husband, Ian, owns Jigsaw Jungle International, which sells large quantities of jigsaw puzzles a year via the Internet and through retail outlets like Dorval.  'Almost anything you can think of, from classic paintings to cartoons, has been turned into a puzzle.  There's something for everybody, no matter what their interests are." 

Wrebbit's founder, Paul Gallant, who started the company from his garage in east-end Montreal, says his three-dimensional puzzles have attracted a new segment to the puzzle marketplace: men.

A decade ago, when flat puzzles ruled the marketplace, 80 per cent of consumers were women, he says.  That is not the case with the three-dimensional puzzles, where the market is more evenly split.

"It's probably because of the construction-like approach to it," Gallant said of the masculine appeal of three dimensional puzzles.  "When you build a 3D castle or a cathedral, you feel like you are actually building the walls and the roof."

Perhaps it's that sense of building something new that has attracted retired engineer Barrie and his wife, Jennie, to the world of puzzle making, although the couple prefers the traditional flat puzzles and sticks to those under, 1,500 pieces (a 13,200-piece image of a Tiziano painting is believed to be the biggest puzzle ever produced).  Their apartment is decorated with more than 30 puzzles, including 20 in their bedroom. For them, puzzle making has become a way to celebrate their other passions in life - Barrie's love of trains and World War II airplanes, and Jennie's fondness for pastoral countrysides.  "Many of our friends go out and buy paintings with elaborate frames and their homes end up looking like museums," Jennie said.  "I like a house to be cozy and warm rather than ostentatious, and puzzles are a cute way of doing that."

Jigsaw puzzles are available at most major department stores and toy shops in the Montreal area.

Specialty shops that carry large lines of puzzles include Jigsaw Jungle, with locations at the Dorval Gardens Shopping Centre. Puzzles retail between $10 and $280, depending on the size and quality of their construction. 

Puzzles - where to begin

 Looking to get started on your first jigsaw puzzle but you don't know where to begin?  Local puzzle merchants caution against starting out with anything too complicated.  Here are some tips for first-time puzzle makers. Start with a puzzle in the 500 to 750-piece range.  It's a manageable size and will fit neatly on the dining room table during construction. Choose an image with bright colours and well-defined objects, such as photographed images.  Paintings tend to be more difficult to assemble, since different parts of the puzzle often share the same colour shades.  "A lot of people like the image of a painting on the box, but they don't realize that, once in pieces, every piece can look the same,' says Sheila of Jigsaw Jungle International. Start by assembling the borders and then sort out the remaining pieces by colour. Once complete, puzzles can be glued together with a special paste and then framed or laminated to preserve the memory of your efforts. Perhaps the most important tip of all is to choose a puzzle that depicts an image you like. 

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