In the back of a converted turn-of-the-century barn, in a quiet workroom, Mark Stevens cuts pictures into hundreds of pieces. Family photos, paintings, scenic snapshots: anything his wife, Rose, can run through one of her oversized printers, he will paste onto cardboard and turn into a jigsaw puzzle.
Out front, he and Rose tend to affairs in their puzzle store. Customers of all stripes stop by; some of them are regulars, some of them are just there to buy a jigsaw set for a relative.
Such are the rhythms of a workday at Piece Time Puzzles, a one-of-a-kind business in Northwood. Rose founded it in 1996. Since then, sheโs expanded operations and made the red barn along Route 4 an essential destination for puzzle lovers from all over.
โWeโre into it up to our eyeballs,โ she said the other day, standing among the hundreds of jigsaw sets for sale in her store.
For Rose, 63, it all began about 25 years ago when she got a puzzle as a gift from a friend. She wasnโt a puzzle person at the time, and she had only ever completed a few. But as she put together the 1,000-piece set, she said she found it to be anย eminently enjoyable pastime.
โI got hooked doing jigsaw puzzles,โ she said.
Soon, she was spending much of her free time fitting them together. Thatโs when she decided to turn her newfound hobby into a career.
She quit her job of more than 20 years as an insurance underwriter at Liberty Mutual and set out to make a living in the puzzle business.
โI needed a change,โ she said. โI just wanted to do something different.โ
She spent much of the first yearย hauling her inventoryย to craft fairs and selling puzzles out of aย tent. She didnโt haveย the internet in those days, so she had to write to manufacturersย in order to get puzzles. In her downtime, while waiting for customers, she would handย cut wooden puzzles with a scroll saw.
She moved her business to the barn, owned by her brother-in-law, at the end of that first year. It had previously been used as an antique group shop. She set up shop in a sliver of the building at first. She expanded gradually.
Her daughter, Haley, and Mark, 68, helped along the way. The three of them would drive from home in Barrington and sometimes work long hours. The business continued to expand.ย
In 2005, after years of planning, she and Mark began making their own custom cardboard jigsaw puzzles. She bought a few large printers. He built a roller press, a device that lets him cut jigsaw pieces with a die cutter โ a cookie cutter-like contraption. They began taking orders.
The puzzles cost $35 to $60. They make them in 30, 100, 300, 500 and 1,000 pieces.
Itโs a 14-step process. Rose handles the scanning and printing and production of pictures, and Mark handles the gluing and cutting and machinery.ย
The other day, in the barnโs back room, Mark was finishing a puzzle that featured photographs of scenic New Hampshire landmarks. He had pasted glossy paper to a slab of cardboard and was getting ready to cut it. The coupleโs dog, an 11-year-old, full-sized poodle named Maude, popped in. They bring her to work most days. She is nicknamed the Puzzle Dog.
In a few seconds, the cardboard was sliced into 500 pieces. Mark began to break the pieces apart.
โIโve taken apart probably many more puzzles than Iโve ever put together,โ he said. On a shelf behind him, there was a stack of orders ready to be cut. He can make about two dozen puzzles a day.ย
โI enjoy the process of manufacturing,โย he said. He joined the business full time in 2002. He previously worked as a long-haul truck driver.
The custom puzzles are a big part of the operation these days. Orders come in from all over. Some peopleย stop by the shop to have a photo scanned, and others submitย pictures online.ย
The couple also make and sell puzzles for local artists and photographers. Their bestselling puzzle features a photograph of the Old Man of the Mountain in 2002, a year before the landmark tumbled.ย
About one-quarter of their store is stocked with theย puzzles they make. The rest come from other manufacturers, both big and small.
They sell brain teasers and puzzle books, too, but the focus is chiefly on the jigsaw variety.
โItโs a nice, relaxing thing,โ Rose said. There areย puzzles of magazine covers and puzzles of flowers.
There are puzzles of movie scenes and puzzles of van Gogh paintings. There are puzzles that are a dozen pieces and puzzles that are 32,000 pieces.
As Rose talked, she did so with vim. Itโs an enjoyable line of work, she said. And she gets to work alongside her husband of 33ย years.
โWe get to be together,โ she said.
She has made sacrifices, though. She hasnโt taken a week off in 20 years. And when thereโs a surge in orders, particularly at Christmastime, she and Mark will work late into the night. Still, she has no regrets.ย
โIย only wish Iย had done it sooner, if you call that a regret,โ she said.
Her voice did grow worried when she talked about the future of the puzzle industry. She noted that fewer young people are doing them. Baby boomers are her biggest client base.
โI think itโs in the decline,โ she said.ย
She said the next step for she and Mark is retirement, but sheโs not sure when that will be. Itโs just the two of them who run the store these days; Haley left last year for another job.ย
โIย used to joke itโs a good thing Iย do this because Iย can do it into my 80s,โ Rose said.ย โItโs not a joke anymore.โ