\Every week someone arrives at our online store with the same opening line: I don't do jigsaws, but my mum does. Or my husband, or the colleague whose Kris Kringle they have drawn. This guide is for you.
Start with piece count. For a regular adult puzzler, 1,000 pieces is the standard, the size most of our range comes in, and the safe answer when you have nothing else to go on. If your person puzzles occasionally rather than devotedly, 500 is kinder. If their coffee table permanently hosts something enormous and half-finished, they can handle 1,500 and will be quietly pleased you noticed.
The thing non-puzzlers never think of is repeats. Puzzlers remember every puzzle they have done. Buying one twice is the jigsaw equivalent of giving someone a book they've already read, except they will do it again out of politeness and it will take eleven hours. Photograph their shelf when they are not looking, or ask someone in the house. Espionage is acceptable here.
As for the picture, choose it for them, not for you. An art lover gets a Pomegranate, whose puzzles of painters like Van Gogh, Monet and Charley Harper make it obvious you thought about the person. Someone with a wry sense of humour who likes a picture full of small stories gets a House of Puzzles, the brand their puzzle friends will already know. And if you are flying completely blind, buy a Ravensburger with the blue triangle on the corner. We have never had one come back.
Most 1,000 piece puzzles on our shelves are $34.99. For a present that keeps someone contentedly occupied for dozens of hours, that is about as good as gift arithmetic gets. One warning: resist the novelty puzzles that are all one colour or double-sided unless you know for certain your person enjoys suffering. Some do. Ask first.
Browse the range at jigsawsaustralia.com.au, and if you are stuck, contact us with whatever you know about your puzzler and we will point you at the right box.