Loughborough's 800th Street Fair 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle

My next and most exciting Jigsaw Puzzle!

I’ve been to the street fair in Loughborough because it was their 800th anniversary of such an age old tradition and have made a picture that I believe is fantastic for a jigsaw puzzle and I’m actually really quite excited about it.

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Loughborough’s 800th Street Fair 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle.

I was reluctant to put another jigsaw puzzle in to production this side of Christmas because it’s such a tight deadline that there’s no guarantee to be ready for Christmas, although it probably will be ready right at the last minute.

I did this last year with The Mews, Ashby De La Zouch and 70 people had ordered one, meaning I’d got some serious pressure on my back. Well I’ve eased that level of pressure a little by only ordering 10 puzzles.

So if you’re in to your jigsaw puzzles and would love to have a go at this one, you need to act fast.

This button will take you straight to the ordering page on my website.

My Favourite Jigsaw Puzzle Creation Yet!

Sutton Wharf 1,000 Piece Fine Art Photographic Jigsaw Puzzle, Leicestershire Photographed.

This is the backstory behind the creation of what I believe to be one of my favourite and best designed jigsaw puzzle to date.

Sutton Wharf is a locally renowned beauty spot in the Leicestershire countryside and often marks the beginning, middle or end for any walks around Bosworth Battlefield. I don’t know why I hadn’t considered making a puzzle here before now but at least I’ve done it and now have almost 30 puzzles in my posession.

I first visited in the summer of 2020 to see if I could make a puzzle there, we’d just opened up after the first massive lockdown and people were out and about but I just couldn’t make the photograph work as a puzzle. I tried but couldn’t find the right composition (below).

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Sutton Wharf, Leicestershire August 2020 - Failed attempt.

I needed the photograph to work, so I created a postcard design from this picture and it’s been very popular already. People haven’t really seen the one I’ve chosen to become a jigsaw puzzle yet, until now!

I wasn’t happy that I hadn’t found a jigsaw puzzle but all wasn’t lost because I’d bought a new camera, the Panasonic Lumix TZ200 and planned to return.

Now this camera is something I’d been searching for, for a long time and I didn’t realise it existed until I’d finally took the plunge to do some deep searching. I needed a camera with a good quality lens, big sensor, a wide range of focal lengths and be small enough to fit in my pocket because I was fed up with carrying my huge dslr and massive lens around with me. The sheer size of it drew a lot of attention to myself, which was not really good nor safe for me to do my latest project Leicestershire Photographed.

Now I can move around relatively unseen and still produce better photographs with enough pixel power to be useful as my art products.

I have the Lumix now and I’m getting very comfortable with it. This is the first jigsaw puzzle I’ve created with my new camera and I have to say that it’s so good to use. I was able to get the right focal length I needed and enough clarity and sharpness to convert in to a puzzle.

Here it is….

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Sutton Wharf 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle

All the ingredients were in place for me, not immediately but I stood balanced on top of the bridge railings for about 10-15 minutes watching and waiting for everything to come together. The light needed to change and the right people had to walk in and out of the frame so the puzzle was ready. I also had to work out the composition while balanced on top of the bridge and that was a bit nerve wracking, I just didn’t look down.

Isn’t it amazing what a difference a slight move and angle change makes?

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Sutton Wharf 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle is now available and in stock. So you can either order online or come and see me on the market stall in Hinckley every Saturday or Market Harborough every Tuesday.

Ps/ You might also catch me at one of the local car boot sales this weekend.

Click below to order online.

Raising Funds For The Fire Fighters Charity

Lancaster Road Fire Station, Leicester.

Recently I’ve been collaborating with Firefighters from Leicestershire Fire Service to produce a jigsaw puzzle of the historical central fire station at Lancaster Road in Leicester.

In connection with my latest photographic project where I’m touring the county of Leicestershire to document people and place in a bid to cover the entire county recording life as it is today for future generations to refer back to historically. I’ve collaborating with the Firefighters to create a photographic jigsaw puzzle for the purposes of creating awareness and raising funds for The Fire Fighters Charity.

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Lancaster Road Fire Station, Leicester - 500 & 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle.

The jigsaw puzzles have began their production journey, which starts with the idea, going out to make the actual photograph, which took three attempts at getting the composition right, the light and positioning of the appliances. Then the photograph goes through post production to ensure the colour and presentation is suitable before sending to my suppliers who then design the boxes.

Although on this occasion there’s been the added communication with the Firefighters and The Fire Fighters Charity.

The prints are then made and pressed on to a 1.5mm puzzle board before being cut in to the individual shapes. The puzzle pieces are then bagged and sealed, put in to the right boxes and then shipped to me for distribution to you.

This process takes an average of 4 weeks.

The Fire Fighters Charity provide confidential, personalised support to the whole of the fire services community, delivering mental health, physical health and social wellbeing services at their centres, remotely, online and in communities around the UK. Championing the health and wellbeing of all those they support - serving, retired or dependant - They exist to support all fire and rescue service personnel, whatever their role in the service. They’re also here for all those who have retired, as well as for spouses and qualifying dependants.

I’ve started off by ordering a small quantity to test the market - 10 x 500 pieces and 20 x 1,000 pieces.

I fully expect the first batch to have sold out long before the puzzles arrive. I will of course be ordering more but each time a new order is placed, it can take a while before I get to see stable stock. So it’s recommended that if you would like one of these jigsaw puzzles, then please get your order in asap.

The puzzles come out during my Spring/Summer sale where all puzzles are £20, which includes a £2 donation towards The Fire Fighters Charity.

If you’re feeling generous, you can pay £23 for the puzzle where you’ll also get a free postcard of Lancaster Road Fire Station and £5 will be donated towards the cause.

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Place your order for a jigsaw puzzle using the product link below…

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500 & 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle - Lancaster Road Fire Station

Sale Price:£20.00 Original Price:£25.00

Size:

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500 Pieces 1000 Pieces

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Project

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New 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle Design

The Mews, Ashby De La Zouch

1,000 Piece Real Photographic Jigsaw Puzzle

This article discusses a new 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle design that I’ve recently created, making the twelfth puzzle design in my series and only the second one from the project Leicestershire Photographed.

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The Mews, Ashby De La Zouch - 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle

Leicestershire Photographed.

You might be aware already that I’ve started a massive project ‘Leicestershire Photographed’, where I plan to document the landscape across the entire county of Leicestershire. Along the way I’ll be on the lookout for pictures that might be worthy of going in to an adults colouring book, Christmas Cards, Framed Prints or my new calendar in the making for Leicestershire. Also (and of course), I’m searching for photographs that I can create jigsaw puzzles from and I think I’ve found another one for this project.

“So far…….
I’ve driven to quite a few places and covered 262.6 miles, collecting 178 Photographs and have created 2 x 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzles.”

— Paul Hands

The Mews in Ashby De La Zouch.
Since starting the project, I’ve been to Aston Flamville, Bruntingthorpe, Cadeby, Cosby, Desford, Heather, Kirby Muxloe, Lutterworth, Marefield, Market Bosworth, Peatling Magna, Potters Marston, Shenton, South Croxton, Stoney Stanton, Twyford, Watery Gate and Willoughby Watersley. I only started the project on October 13th, which in hindsight, I should have perhaps gone for a different date, so I’m not celebrating any birthdays on Friday 13th, but I will be!

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The Old House, Cadeby

The very first jigsaw puzzle I’ve created for the Leicestershire Photographed project, is The Old house in Cadeby. I now have two jigsaw puzzle designs from this project and twelve in total, when including the designs from ‘Hinckley & Burbage Photographed’.

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Here’s an example (above) of the box designs and the shapes of the puzzle pieces. The puzzle design shown here is of St. Catherine’s Church, Burbage, which has been one of my most popular jigsaw puzzles.
I only began making jigsaw puzzles in March of this year and all because of the lockdown. I lost all of my commissioned work that was set up for the year and didn’t really know how to get around the situation. I had nothing but photographs sitting on my hard drive that had come from my Hinckley & Burbage Photographed project, which I started in 2012. As you might imagine, I’d collected loads, over ten thousand.

I had to innovate, so I began by turning 6 photographs into jigsaw puzzles and began advertising them online in my website shop and shared them on social media. Oh my days, it was incredible. It was one of the single most important decisions I’d ever made in my life because my business boomed from that moment onwards.
I didn’t realise I had a proper product business like this and it surprised me, coming from nowhere.
Now I’m on a mission to replicate Hinckley & Burbage Photographed but for the entire county of Leicestershire.
It’s started off quite well, with two real photographic jigsaw puzzle designs within the first month.

The Mews, Ashby De La Zouch is my latest release and I’ve managed to get it in before the Christmas delivery cut off date. So they’ll be here in the first week of December. I’ve only ordered 20 x jigsaw puzzles, so these are a limited edition. Also for the first 7 days only, these are reduced from £22 to £20 on pre-order.
They’re available to order in my online shop, which is accessible by this product link below.