Videos posted on you tube.

 This is just to note that yesterday I uploaded seven videos to You Tube that showcase my puzzle passion.  All you need to do is type "You Tube Dennis Mott Jigsaw Puzzles" in the google search bar and it'll pop up to at least a few of them.  They were all filmed in the last couple of weeks and my two bedroom apartment was jammed with puzzles I had out on display.  In my living room I had made a ten foot display board that I laid over my couch and had on it seven 1000 piece puzzles and a couple of 2000 piece puzzles.  Behind the couch I had two long folding tables that held two 1500 piece panoramic puzzles and in the corner of the living room on my two work tables I had eight of my thirteen completed MC Escher puzzles showcased.  In the other corner and on another work table I had three other puzzles on display plus a collection of empty jigsaw puzzle boxes that pretty much represented the number of puzzles I built in 2011.  I think all together the number of unframed completed puzzles I had in the living room were 23 and I also had 14 framed puzzles on my walls and in my windows of my living room.  Here's a few photos.

I also had puzzles on display in my two bedrooms.  In my bedroom I exhibited my two 3000 piece puzzles that were built in the past year.  One is "The Bombardment of Algiers" and the other is a Clementoni Landscape puzzle of "The Dolomites".  These puzzles are just about four feet wide so the only way to store my big ones is under my bed.  Also because I do not glue my puzzles storing my puzzles is a challenge all by itself!  For the big puzzles I sandwich them between stiff davy boards or foam boards and seal them with tape or staples to keep them secure.  This way I can handle them vertically when I have to move them around.  For the smaller ones (1500 or less) I build my puzzles on paper and store them in the drawers of my storage cabinet in my second bedroom which I have made into my workroom for framing.  The five drawers of my storage cabinet contain around 150 completed and unglued jigsaw puzzles.  In my workroom I had three 1500 piece puzzles showing - two Gustav Klimnt puzzles and Botticelli's "Primevera".

Please check the videos out.  Enjoy.

Continuing the passion

Just reviewed my first posting and apologize for the misspellings.  I promise to be more accurate in my proofreading before hitting publish in the future.

It felt good to write though and to express some of the thoughts and feelings I have about jigsaw puzzles.  They are a huge part of life now and with any luck they will play an even bigger role in the years ahead.  I hope that my future will be filled with building, framing, and selling puzzles to the point where it is my whole life and not just the time I put in after doing my 40 hour work week.  I want to make this passion more that just a "hobby".  I want to wake up in the mornings and know that I'm either building a puzzle today or working on framing one or putting some of my framed works on display.  To me it would be awesome to set up a booth at a festival somewhere, displaying my work while working on building a puzzle at a portable work table.  There are so many types and quality of puzzles that completing a 1000 piece puzzle in one summer day is totally possible.  It would also be cool to do the same thing at a coffee shop.  It is a dream and goal just like beginning a blog was.

Currently I am also working on a video showing a number of my framed and unframed puzzles on display.  I have essentially made my two bedroom apartment into a gallery of jigsaw puzzles.  My main room is approximately 18' by 14'.  The wall in front of me holds most of the framed ones.  In the corner it connects with the long wall which is basically all glass; sliding glass doors opening to a small balcony and then one large window that ends at the other corner.  The wall that continues from that corner is covered with a four foot by twelve foot long mirror that fills the entire wall.  The fourth wall is the back edge of the kitchen and is mostly kitchen counter ending at the hallway leading to the bedrooms.

On the wall in front of me I have hung nine framed jigsaw puzzles.  In the corner on an easel behind a shelving unit is a tenth framed one.  On the glass wall I have three framed plexiglass ones that hang in the windows. These plexiglass frames are bordered in translucent amber or blue and each contain two jigsaw puzzles sandwiched back to back - so one faces the living room and the other shows on the balcony.

Above are the ones facing the living room.  Below are the puzzles facing the balcony.

These are the ones framed in plexiglass.  This one directly above is  a 500 piece Galison Art puzzle of a Tiffany Stainglass.  The other side is the same puzzle - I just did two instead of one.  The whale is a 1000 pieces and backed by the 1000 piece leaping dolphins.  The other amber plexiglass one is two Lynn Lupetti 750 piece puzzles by Ceaco back to back.  One is called "The Voyage of Light" and the other "The Innocent Architect".  She one of my favorite children fantasy artist and I love doing puzzles of her work. 

I have to end this post now because I have to get ready for work.  Maybe someday I can say I have to go build a puzzle.  As always, "Enjoy!"

Explaining the Passion

This begins my first post on my blog about my love for building and framing jigsaw puzzles.  I have loved jigsaw puzzles since my childhood.  Getting a puzzle at Christmas was always a thrill and always a challenge.  I remember never having enough space to build a 500 pc puzzle & I would try find enough room on the small desk in the bedroom I shared with my brother.  I could never spread out the pieces like I do now and I'd be searching through the box for the edge pieces or the right color ones or the right shaped ones.  Eventually I would get it done and I'd drag my parents up to my room and show them my masterpiece.  They were all Milton-Bradley ones back then but each and everyone I received, I loved.  The challenge was always there and it always seemed like a way to focus on nothing else but looking for the right piece, the right shape.  And like now, it was always hard to pull myself away from the table  - "just one more piece" - going like a loop in my mind.  This passion that I have now and this dream that I want to fulfill began in that dark bedroom, searching for that "one more piece", and feeling so proud when I got it done!

But childhood doesn't last forever and before I knew it I was a teenager, a young adult, and then a married man and a new father.  As I grew into my life this passion for puzzles went into hiatus as new interests filled my life and my time was taken up by the demands of work, marriage, and parenting.  As my son became a teenager and as my first marriage began falling apart, I started building puzzles again.  I was probably in my early forties when my joy for puzzles got reignited and it's only become more inflamed as the years have rolled on.  I remember a really lovely 1000 pc puzzle of male lion with his golden mane of hair being the first one that I ever framed.  I that time I glued the puzzle, got a inexpensive IKEA frame to put it in, and then we hung it on the fireplace.  It looked good, but it also looked like a jigsaw puzzle in a cheap frame.  Since that first one, my framing has progressed and I have become more professional since that time.  I also do not glue my puzzles anymore which makes framing a lot more challenging.  I'll explain more on that later in a future post.

When my first marriage ended, shortly afterwards I fell back in love and with her I was able to enjoy a new love and a new life.  She also accepted my passion for puzzles and enjoyed building them with me.  That was ten years ago and during this past decade I have built the majority of my puzzles in my collection.  I probably have close to 200 completed puzzles at this time - from 300 pcs to 3000 pcs, from famous artists to landscapes, from grey wolves and other nature ones to children fantasy and whimsical ones.  From high quality museum ones  (Educa, Ravensburger, Clementoni, Ricordi Editions, Piatnik, Pomegranate, to name a few) to cheaper ones you can pick up at your local drugstore.  I enjoy all kinds but am definitely partial to famous and classic artists - DaVinci, Van Gogh, Monet, Klimnt, Dali, Degas, Renior, and so many others.  When I look at a Ricordi Edition brochure of the puzzles they produce, I want to do them all!

By far my favorite in challenge and art is MC Escher.  I have twelve different MC Escher built in my collection, all produced by Selegiochi.  I also have fifteen unbuilt Escher's by Selegiochi and Pomegrante.  I was fortunate around five years ago to frame three of my Escher puzzles for a friend - (Drawing Hands, Hand with Globe, and Reptiles).  I hope they are still intact and that he continues to enjoy them.  My goal this year is to frame the rest of my Escher's and so many more.

This is my intro.  My first post.  My first time reaching out to people who may share this passion and who may be willing to support me in my dream to frame a hundred of my puzzles for a gallery showing.  This is intro just to get the ball rolling.  Thanks to all who will read this and as I always say - "Enjoy!"