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THE GRAND DESIGNS OF JOHN MADDEN
A Puzzling Career, Build Piece by Piece
By Nancy A. Ruhling
"Anybody can make a difficult jigsaw puzzle," declared John Madden, running his fingers lightly over the 4-foot-high windmill-shaped one he is cutting. "But to make it interesting, now that's difficult." He sifted through a pile of puzzles in his Par Puzzles Wantagh workshop and unfurled a prospective puzzle: a panoramic poster of cartoon kids riding a roller coaster in an amusement park. "This has everything you want in a puzzle. It is bright, colorful and challenging." Madden, one of the jigsaw world's kings of custom cuts, should know.
For years, his Par Puzzles, with their irregular edges, interlocking mahogany pieces and whimsical silhouettes, have been making hundreds of puzzlers around the country scratch their heads in exasperation. From the black boxes with their green labels and deceptively clever titles to the signature sea-horse piece in every puzzle, Madden and his single scroll saw are "carrying on the Par tradition," said Anne D. Williams, author of "Jigsaw Puzzles, an Illustrated History and Price Guide." "Madden's puzzles are up to the quality of the original company," which was dubbed the Rolls-Royce of the jigsaw puzzle world.
Indeed, to a true puzzler, the Par name alone is a key piece in the jigsaw puzzle. The custom company, started in 1931, made personalized wooden puzzles for the rich and famous, a tradition that has continued under the 39-year-old Madden, who took over Par in 1980. George and Barbara Bush are perhaps Madden's most famous clients. A recent creation, a 150-piece heart-shaped valentine jigsaw for the first lady that included a monogram piece, earned him a handwritten thank-you on her White House stationery: "I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed working the puzzle." For the puzzle enthusiast, most of the magic of a Par puzzle is putting it together. "Each Par puzzle is something to be cherished," said puzzler Peter Monteferrante of West Bay Shore, who has 10 in his collection of wooden puzzles. "Madden's puzzles are more intricately cut and much more satisfying to do than the other wooden ones."
But for Madden, the magic is in the creativity and craftsmanship. Madden, who confides that he wasn't a puzzle enthusiast until he started cutting for Par, makes about 20 puzzles a year; each has 500 to 1,700 pieces, is 3 to 4 feet high and sells for $1 per elaborately cut 1-inch piece. He carefully selects art prints, circus and art posters and lithographs his puzzles, then laminates them to mahogany-backed plywood before making detailed diagrams for cutting the pieces. "There are a lot of tricks involved in cutting," he said. "You have to keep the piece size the same, about one inch each, and you can't make them too fragile." To demonstrate, he hold up Pegasus, a round 750-piece puzzle with a winged horse and a cut-out monogram that he made for his 12-year-old daughter, Melissa. "All of the pieces are interlocking, so they don't fall apart. A fine puzzle piece that slides in and out - that's what you want, not a piece that you need a hammer and chisel to get in and out," he said. He removed a piece shaped like a lady pushing an old-fashioned pram and another that is a jack-in-the-box. "These pieces, silhouettes, are clues within a puzzle. Now this one - here's a beautiful silhouette," he said, holding up a tiny Aladdin's lamp.
Par puzzlers want puzzles that are visually and intellectually challenging, Madden said. Her personalized puzzles by cutting pieces into shapes significant to the purchaser, from dates of birthdays and anniversaries to monograms. He points to a 2-foot-high, heart-shaped puzzle he made for his wife, Karen, that has ruffles around the edges with pieces shaped like brides, cupids shooting arrows and dancing couples. His "Birds of a Feather," a 3-food irregularly shaped extravaganza of tropical parrots and toucans surrounded by purple orchids, is filled with pieces shaped like - what else? - birds. One of his favorites, "The Queen of Hearts," is a real teaser, because the 4-foot-high, 1,700 piece puzzle, shaped like a playing card with the queens silhouetted, has the same design on top and bottom, a feature guaranteed to make even the most avid par puzzler break out in a sweat. "I prefer this to a square puzzle with a lot of sky, water or grass," Madden said. It takes him more than a week to create a 700-piece puzzle and about 9 hours for someone to put it back together. "A puzzle should be functional as well as something to look at," he said.
Puzzle-maker Madden is as rare as each puzzle he cuts: He is the only high-caliber custom-jigsaw-puzzler-maker in New York and one of about a dozen others around the country who either stay at their saws full- or part-time. But Madden has no fears that his is a dying art. "My son Justin is only ten, and already I have him cutting," says a proud Madden, idly fitting pieces into yet another puzzle he is cutting. For more information on John Madden's Par Puzzles, call 579-8988.
Nancy Ruhling is an assistant editor on the general news desk.