Amber Wooden Jigsaw Puzzles

Rob Garner started doing fretwork in the 1950s but his interest in cutting jigsaws began in 2000 with an antique Hobbies Royal treadle saw. Research led him to Tom Tyler, the BCD and the British Jigsaw Library under Dave Cooper, for whom he was proud to make puzzles. Rob cut over 100 library puzzles in the period 2002-8. In 2002 he accepted a challenge from James Dalgety to create a jigsaw embodying as many as possible of the special techniques identified by Bob Armstrong. The resulting jigsaw, featuring a view of the Taj Mahal, incorporated 24 of the techniques. (BCD would love to see a good photo of this jigsaw.)

Rob cut jigsaws for BCD members and commissions, producing around 1300 jigsaws over 15 years. For the last seven years, he developed a special design & commissioning partnership with Nicki Barker, who gave a lecture about him to BCD members in 2022. Rob’s cutting set-up limited his puzzles to A3 size, with c500pc. He cut in several styles with line-cutting, but preferred cutting interlocking puzzles with earlet knobs. He usually added up to half a dozen whimsies, the heart, an R and his dog Rufus were his signatures. Rob also made 3D-enhanced jigsaws, although the enhanced areas tended to be smaller and simpler than those of Grandpa TJ & Puzzlewood. Rob stopped cutting in 2016-17 due to a health scare and sadly, passed away in summer 2025. Rob’s labels were usually printed red on cream paper. His early ones were giftboxes, but for most of his career he used red boxes remaindered by Wentworth.

I have created an album of his work on flickr.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/50241745@N05/albums/72157719696044053/

And a gallery, with mostly Nicki’s jigsaws.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/50241745@N05/galleries/72157719721992167/