Altered Puzzles

Every family has to set it's limits on something. And for my family, it's that I'm only allowed to do one jigsaw puzzle a year (usually at Christmas). I love puzzles! Big, wonderful, and here's the clincher... time consuming 1500 piece jigsaw puzzles. I've been known to sit obsessively for 7 hours straight muttering the mantra "Just one more piece, just one more piece." So imagine how much fun I had coming up with this week's art prompt: the altered puzzle.

 

"All Roads Lead Home"

$150

 

I started with a 24 piece child's puzzle from a thrift store ($2). Children's puzzles are great for this project because the pieces are over sized and thick. I randomly grabbed pieces out of the box and covered them in Japanese papers, maps, white paint and thread.

 

A collage of Japanese papers that have been hand painted were lucky enough to belong to the same corner of the puzzle.

 

 

Thick pieces of acrylic paint skins are fitted together here.

 

 

Maps became the unifying theme as I added roads to tie all the pieces together on the finished puzzle.

 

 

I'm starting to piece the puzzle together here. I love the red piece above, which was created using thick tangles of red thread. Several more white pieces were created using white thread.

 

What a fun project for people of all ages. Imagine doing this with a group of children (or adults for that matter) using a giant floor puzzle! Each person would get their own large puzzle piece to decorate. I feel a workshop coming on!