Chris Wirth spent a lot of time assembling the pieces of other people’s financial lives before he decided to put together something for himself.
Now almost two years into the gamble, Wirth and his business partner, Jeff Eldridge, are cranking out heirloom-quality wooden jigsaw puzzles about as quickly as they can license the art that makes them so lovely.
They work in a Boulder warehouse district, where Wirth, a former private wealth manager, “hand” draws the piece shapes – whimsical figures linked by all kinds of zigs and zags – on each piece of artwork using a computer. A laser cutter then follows the template, sawing classics and works by living local artists into intricate puzzles of 125 to 600 pieces.
Liberty Puzzles’ wares hark back to the 1930s, when jigsaw puzzles, typically cut by women operating foot-powered saws, were all the rage. “The idea was to use modern technology to bring back the wooden jigsaw puzzle,” says Wirth, 39, the son of former U.S. Sen. Tim Wirth.
Collectible vintage puzzles, if you can get your hands on them, can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Liberty Puzzles run about $30 for a 125-piece puzzle of “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” to $85 for a 418-piece puzzle of Brad Gorman’s “Denver Cityscape.” Prices rise as the piece count increases.
Expensive, sure. But given that the puzzles can take four to six hours to solve, Wirth says the entertainment value is high. “One of the draws, we keep hearing from customers, is that when they sit down to do a puzzle with their family the TV is off, the video games are off, and they end up talking to each other.”
Liberty Puzzles have found their way into a few museum gift shops across the country, and will appear in national holiday catalogs. You can take a look for yourself at libertypuzzles.com, or visit the workshop at 2526 49th St., Unit 3, in Boulder, 303-444-1442.
