Jigsaw Puzzles and Stuffed Animals are great gifts for any occation.
A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of numerous small, often oddly shaped, interlocking and tessellating pieces. Each piece usually has a small part of a picture on it; when complete, a jigsaw puzzle produces a complete picture. In some cases more advanced types have appeared on the market, such as spherical jigsaws and puzzles showing Optical Illusions.
Jigsaw puzzles were originally created by painting a picture on a flat, rectangular piece of wood, and then cutting that picture into small pieces with a jigsaw, hence the name. Jigsaw puzzles have been around since 1760. Jigsaw puzzles have since come to be made primarily on cardboard.
Some typical images found on jigsaw puzzles include Ocean and beach, Disney characters, and animal jigsaw puzzles. Castles and mountains are two traditional subjects. However, any kind of picture can be used to make a jigsaw puzzle. Completed puzzles can also be attached to a backing with adhesive to be used as artwork.
The most common approach to building a puzzle is to start by separating the edges from the inside pieces. Once the edges are built it can become easier to move inward. For those new to puzzles, it is recommended to choose one consisting of multiple areas with contrasting designs and colors. This enables the narrowing down of potential portions of the puzzle where a particular piece will fit. Some people like to use the picture on the box to help solve the puzzle. Once you have completed the edge, if you can find the location of a particular piece on the picture, you can place it down inside of the overall puzzle at approximately the place it belongs. If you do this enough times, you find pieces eventually will start fitting together.
Another approach is to sort the pieces by color, and work on one color at a time. When you get to large areas with the same color (such as the ocean or beach in many landscape puzzles), you can go by shape, or you can place all the pieces in a grid and approach the problem by taking a piece that already has an anchor (such as an edge piece) and trying it against all the pieces laid out. Many large jigsaw puzzles have redundancy in their cut pattern. Many have 180° rotational symmetry around their centre point. Puzzles of 5000 pieces or more also usually involve a smaller cut pattern that is repeated 4 or 6 times over the whole jigsaw, and that smaller cut pattern usually also has 180° rotational symmetry, so a particular shape may appear 8 or 12 times in the puzzle (although with truncation for edge pieces). It is possible to identify the presence of these symmetries or repetitions relatively early in the process of completing the edge frame. When redundancy is identified, it is possible to use already solved parts of the puzzle to identify the exact shapes of pieces required to complete other sections, greatly simplifying the search.
The term 'stuffed animal' historically referred to stuffing of the evacuated skins of hunted animals. However, with modern technology it is now possible to produce them with synthetic materials. Among the most popular types of classic stuffed animals are teddy bears and giant stuffed giraffe. Stuffed animals are comforting and can be educational.
