Community Puzzle

This is another in the "stuff we made" series. While were not directly involved in the creation of this large community puzzle on display in the lobby of the school where we did a craft show this weekend, I did design the original community puzzle. The challenge from a local school back in 1993 or so? was to create a universal puzzle piece (about 4"x4") that could each be decorated by kids, teachers, and staff at the school, and then put together in any order. The first one was cut on our CNC router from MDF, and was a great success... I found a small picture of the original.

For that one, each person decorated the piece with something about their family.

I decided that this was a great product idea, and I decided that making them from real puzzle board was a better idea, and the Community Puzzle was born. The largest one to date that I know of was 16,000 pieces. The folks at St. Gregory's School, chose to create one large image shown above. The folks who did the one below, each did their own puzzle piece in their own style, and then put them together. I sold the Cummunity Puzzle to a friend back in 1998, and it was quite successful. It was then sold again in 2007 to a company that specializes in training programs. They are still available at a very reasonable price, and are great for schools, church groups, parties, weddings, etc... everybody just gets creative, and you end up with a very memorable puzzle! I've got a few still sitting around that I'd let go for $10 each plus shipping.