Time means little to the genuine jigsaw fanatic

Press, 29 August 1978, Page 12

Time means little to the genuine jigsaw fanatic

Home & People

Never time yourself when doing a jigsaw puzzle. Hide the irritating clock that reminds you of chores still to be done, makes you feel guilty and spoils your fun — if you are as keen on the game as Miss Sadie Lilly. Miss Lilly, who has more than 100 puzzles and keeps on adding to her collection, has to be strict with herself when it comes to whiling away an hour or so on her favourite hobby. She waits until she has one of those rare days she can call her own before she sits down with a clear conscience to a pile of puzzle pieces to lock into place.

She could become an addict, but that is not likely to happen until she retires. In the meantime she is too busy as a public typist and a member of several clubs to succumb to temptation. She has done well to have completed nearly 50 puzzles, some of which have more than 1000

pieces, in the four years she has been a collector. Sadie Lilly puts her jigsaws together With painstaking patience, mainly on holidays, and has a colourful variety of round coffee table tops, a framed picture of an English house and garden and a selection of travel scenes that represent a round-the-world tour with ships, air-

By

TUI THOMAS

craft and cars for transport.

The picture, called Great Dunmow, is worked from 1000 pieces, and hangs on a living room wall. It has been a talking point with many visitors who do not recognise it as a framed jigsaw until they peer at it closely. Nor do they notice the make-up of the glass-covered picture of American wild flowers, used as a table top. The biggest puzzle Miss

Lilly owns — a scene of Salzburg in Austria — has 2000 pieces. The smallest is a map of New Zealand with ten pieces. The largest one she has worked on — a view of Bruges in Belgium — is 34in x 22in and has 1400 pieces.

Her oldest jigsaw, a hunting scene, is at least 60 and is mounted on

wood. It has about 140 pieces which do not inters lock and are difficult to keep in place. Sadie Lilly has what she calls a “personalised” puzzle, made from an enlarged colour print taken of herself with “Rocky the Mountain Ram,” the town symbol of Banff, Canada, and cut for her by an Auckland firm. Another souvenir of her North American trip is a tourist’s map of Califor-

nia, showing places of interest to see. She has a jigsaw topped with paua shell, one of the kind of “New Zealand interest” puzzles she sends as gifts to collector friends overseas, picture puzzles of Royalty and historic events.

All her puzzles are catalogued. As she finishes each one she backs it with cardboard and covers it with tightly fitting clear plastic. Her store for the future is kept in a variety of containers ranging from a box that opens like a folio, tubular tins and packs made up to look like picture postcards. Sadie Lilly’s collection began as if it was “meant to be.” She had been keen on the game when a child, but as the fascination of it began to take too much of her time she gave up, resolutely. Then, about four years ago, she noticed in a shop a round, black eye-catcher featuring brightly coloured New Zealand stamps. She passed by that jigsaw, but when she saw the same model in another shop she could not resist it and decided to buy it for a nephew for Christmas. It got no farther than her own home. And so began a collection that could become one of the largest in Christchurch. Her aim is not, however, to break any record with the size of her collection nor with her individual puzzles but to gather as wide a range as possible. “The biggest jigsaw I know of was made in Britain with 10,000 pieces which measured 15ft by 10ft when put together,” Miss Lilly said. And she has no wish to beat that.

Reading about jigsaws is an extension of her hobby and she is continually adding to her information file. From a visit to San Pedro, California, she brought back cyclostyled articles from her library research, as well as puzzles from Canada and the United States.

The story of the puzzle is well covered in a book by Mrs Linda Hannas, “The English Jigsaw Puzzle 1760 to 1890,” published by Wayland, London, in 1972, and in an article in the “Smithsonian” published in 1974 by William and Rita Vandivert, which shows the progress of the jigsaw in the United States.

The first known puzzles were made in the 1760 s and accredited to an Englishman, John Spilsbury. He cut up a map of England to “facilitate the teaching of geography” and the success which followed his invention prompted him to give up teaching and manufacture “dissected” puzzles, said Miss Lilley. Then came the jig saw machine, which eventually led to the production of modern puzzles mounted on cardboard — a far cry from the hand-carved wooden kind of two centuries ago. The steep rise in the popularity of puzzles in Britain and other countries in recent years has become known as the “jigsaw jag” by those who enjoy the relaxation of piecing together pictures at the end of a stressful day. Some businessmen — and their families — spend an entire week-end on one puzzle if it is big enough. ■ The craze has not hit Christchurch, but retailers say there has been a steady demand for big, challenging jigsaws for many years. New ones never stay in stock for long and are bought mainly by retired senior citizens, one saleswoman said. Sadie Lilly intends to have a good supply of jigsaws put away in advance for her own retirement, when she will be able to indulge in the pastime to her heart’s content.

The eyebrow is one of the most frequently incorrectly executed parts of a woman’s make-up. Today the brow should not be overdrawn, overplucked, heavily marked or made too dark with pencil. Rather it should be of soft, complementary shade and shape. Eyebrows give expression and balance to a face. They require good grooming and definition but the basic individual line should not be altered. Let us first consider shaping of the eyebrows.

Careful and studied removal of unwanted hairs is important as some eyebrow hairs are temperamental and, once plucked, don’t grow again.

The brow should start at a point above the inside corner of the eye. To determine this point, take a long, straight pencil and press it against one nostril, taking it vertically up the face past the eyes. The point where it meets the brow is the normal starting point.

The arch of the brow should be a gentle curve: the highest part being above the outer rim of the iris. The outer finishing point can easily be determined by taking the same pencil and holding one end against the nostril and the other past the outer end of the eye.

FASHION AND BEAUTY By Paula Ryan