Cobble Hill was founded in 2005 and is run from Victoria. It is not in Cobble Hill, and never has been. The owner simply liked the name.
Most puzzle companies cut their pieces in a grid, in neat rows and columns, which is called a… ribbon cut. Cobble Hill uses a random cut instead: the pieces bend and curve, some tall, some short, and they interlock without ever falling into a pattern. It makes the puzzle harder in a way that has nothing to do with the picture.
Images are mostly licensed from artists. Since 2010 the company has also produced its own, photographed in a Victoria studio, including one built from teacups collected from antique shops and borrowed from grandmothers.
Materials and method
The puzzles are printed in Boston on thick blue board from recyclable materials, with vegetable-based inks, and finished with a linen texture that runs across both the puzzle and the box.
The cutting dies are made by hand, which has a consequence worth knowing: a thousand piece puzzle may hold 991 pieces or 1,007. Because the cut is random rather than gridded, the die maker comes as close to the target as the pattern allows. A count that is slightly off is not a fault and not a missing piece.
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