How to Put a 5000-Piece Puzzle Together

Jigsaw puzzles are a great way to pass the time. Puzzle enthusiasts look forward to putting huge puzzles together, but some people see a five thousand piece puzzle as a huge test of their patience. The number of pieces often makes people shutter. There are, however, strategies to help people put large puzzles together.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Prepare a space big enough to hold the puzzle. A five thousand piece puzzle will probably be large in itself, and you also want to have enough space to put puzzle pieces. A card table should be large enough, though it depends on each individual puzzle shape.

2. Study the picture to get a feel for what you will be looking for. Notice the details; the tiny images you can’t see until you look very closely. Consider the different colors and textures.

3. Open the puzzle box and place the empty cover next to the bottom. Sift through the pieces, taking out all of the edges first. Put the rest of the pieces in the cover for now. Once you have all of the edge pieces, put the frame together. Sift through the pieces again if you have to find missing edge pieces.

4. Once the frame is complete, sort the filler piece by general color. Even black and white puzzles have shades of black and gray.

5. Pick one large image to start with. Colorful images are usually easiest, so see your color coded groups. Faces and words are typically the hardest.

6. As you find pieces you recognize, even if it is just once piece that doesn’t connect to anything, place them in their approximate spot within the picture frame. It is easier to put the whole puzzle together if you can envision where the pieces should be placed.

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on 6/16/2008 Good article!