As jigsaw puzzles have made a comeback lately, due to “the great confinement",” I thought it apropos to talk about another branch of my artistic family tree. My maternal grandfather, Paul Cushman, was a restaurant manager and dairyman at Producer’s Dairy in Brockton, MA. He died in 1959, so I have no memories of him, but he did leave a trunk full of one of his many hobbies - handmade wooden jigsaw puzzles.

Made from prints taken from the weekly rotogravure newspaper insert, he would laminate them onto birch plywood and hand cut them into amazingly intricate pieces with a jeweler’s saw. He then packed them (without a reference picture, of course) into shoe boxes affixed with a custom label. During the Depression, he rented these “Crazycut Puzzles” out for extra income. Now, these creations are, by far, the most challenging puzzles you can imagine. Contours of objects in the picture are sometimes cut along, or not. Pieces often don’t completely interlock, but require a third piece. He had many tricks up his sleeve, it seems. The more maddeningly difficult he made them, the longer they would remain rented out, I suppose.

All I know is that I took seven or so out of the attic about two weeks ago and went to work. Many hours later, I’ve only completed two of the smaller (8”x 12”) ones, including “Boston Tea Party” above. I began the third, larger puzzle last Friday and have only managed to find the outer edges so far.

But, that’s the point, isn’t it? There certainly is time aplenty on hand - and no facemask, antibacterial spray or gloves required.