It all started with a downed maple tree in the Wales yard of Paul and Linda Casacci.
An avid woodworker, Paul Casacci decided he would try his hand at turning the pieces of maple.
His wife had built him a wood shop in 2008 for his birthday, and he purchased a couple of Shopsmiths that needed some work. With refurbishing, he had a working jigsaw and started experimenting.
He made a piece of scroll work for his wife to thank her for the wood shop. Then he thought he would try to make an anniversary present, so he took a picture of a vacation to Disneyland with his wife and Mod-Podged it to a piece of quarter-inch plywood. He used a saw blade he had and cut a quick traditional “peg and hole” puzzle.
“I like to do puzzles, so I thought ‘why not,'” Casacci said. He started donating puzzles to work fundraisers for the Dempsey Challenge — Casacci is a computer system analyst with Paychex.
His blades got more sophisticated; they are now .008 of an inch wide. And his puzzles got more intricate.
The first puzzle he donated had a running person that could be stood up within the puzzle. He moved into doing cutouts of themes of the puzzle and using more swirls and organic shapes than the traditional puzzle pieces.
“I did a birthday custom puzzle that had ‘Happy Birthday,’ the kids’ names, date, a present and a birthday cake complete with candles cut into it.” That, to date, is the largest puzzle he has made.
Casacci has a unique signature piece as well. Each puzzle has an evergreen-shaped tree cut into it with his signature, the date, the puzzle number and the piece count written on the back.
“I enjoy doing puzzles myself, so cutting a puzzle is a contest between me and the person getting the puzzle,” Casacci said. He makes sure to gauge and test each puzzle on his coworkers.
“There is easy, medium, hard, wicked nasty and evil levels of puzzles.” Casacci has formed an LLC, but only sold two out of the 36 puzzles he has made.
“I formed the LLC because I was worried about a child chocking on a puzzle piece. I would like to do this into retirement, but I give most of my puzzles out for presents.”
And the others, he is still donating to a good cause. “It is something I can continue on and give to others.”
awaterman@sunjournal.com
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- Paul Casacci makes a puzzle in his Green Tree Woodshop in Wales recently. “I enjoy doing puzzles myself, so I see cutting a puzzle as a sort of a contest between me and the person getting the puzzle,” said Casacci, who is self-taught.
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- To get his puzzle pieces to fit snugly, Paul Casacci of Wales uses a blade on his refurbished Shopsmith Jigsaw that is .008 of an inch wide.
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- The only thing limiting Paul Casacci’s custom hand-cut puzzles is his imagination. In this one, he cut pieces that join to form a train.
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- Because Paul Casacci hand cuts each piece of a jigsaw puzzle, he is not constrained to what he calls the traditional peg-and-hole pieces.
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- Paul Casacci’s signature jigsaw puzzle piece is in the shape of an evergreen tree, seen in the center of the autumn foliage puzzle. On the back of the piece is the date, Casacci’s signature and the piece count for the puzzle.
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- A notebook contains a description of a custom jigsaw puzzle Paul Casacci was commissioned to do as a birthday present. It included a photo of a couple’s children, their names, a birthday cake with candles, the words “Happy Birthday,” a present and the date.
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