One piece at a time
By Krista Johnston
The Perth Courier
Each piece of a puzzle has a unique purpose. Just like life, all of a puzzle’s individual parts must link together to create the masterpiece and if one is missing, the puzzle becomes incomplete.
For Forde Mitchell, this analogy rang true at an early age while working as a prospector and geologist in Canada’s far north. Although the 21-year-old found his work to be quite fascinating, it wasn’t long before he fatefully bumped into the girl of his dreams and decided he could no longer be away for months at a time.
Now married 53 years, the couple has spent much of their lives travelling across North America, while Mitchell worked as a patent agent and salesman, solving a number of industry problems by introducing new and innovative products to the market.
After retiring to Lanark village from Hudson, Que. nearly 14 years ago, Mitchell opted to merge his love of problem solving with his desire to introduce imaginative ideas to the world and, in doing so, has started his own online business, called New World Puzzles.
“When I retired, I happened to see a program on television about making wooden jigsaw puzzles and I thought, this would be a great way to be self-employed,” he said. “It took a lot of learning, but now I’ve been doing it for 10 years and my plan is to sell them on the Internet or maybe on eBay or in retail outlets.”
Mitchell’s handcrafted wooden puzzles are not like your regular “run of the mill” jigsaw challenge.
Not only do the puzzles in his gallery feature the outstanding images of Lee Valley Tools’ catalogues, but the pieces are 100 per cent interlocking, so you can pick up the completed puzzle by the edge and hold it up in the air, or even hang them on your wall.
“I cut each puzzle by hand at home. That’s where my expertise comes in,” he said. “Some people say they can cut for one or maybe two hours at a time, but I can cut for six hours with no trouble at all.”
Mitchell’s New World Puzzles are available in a variety of different sizes and formats, including the two-sided jigsaw puzzles, which offer two images from his gallery, along with paint-your-own puzzles and silhouette designs.
Each distinctive work is also printed on a high-definition photo paper with top-quality archival inks and dry mounted on quarter-inch, five-ply Baltic birch plywood.
“I want to (create) innovative puzzles that are unique, challenging and lots of fun,” he said. “Jigsaws are always full of interesting surprises.”
If you would like to learn more about New World Puzzles or see some of the designs first-hand, log on to Mitchell’s website at www.woodenjigsawpuzzles.ca.