Zen and the Art of Scrolling

[Brucio]

Yesterday, after years of making puzzle boxes, with their intricate little holes, and internal cuts that MUST be dead straight and square, with no deviation from the lines (otherwise it means lots of filing, or making that piece again), I finally attempted my first jigsaw puzzle.
On a piece of 1/4" plywood, 4" square, I drew some wiggly lines roughly like a jigsaw, and started to cut.
After a few minutes, something strange happened.
My back muscles unclenched; my shoulder muscles eased; my arms became less rigid. My whole body relaxed.
I turned the wood this way and that, back and forth, hither and thither (hither and thither?) and the blade just seemed to flow along the lines.
At times it seemed the wood was finding it's own way, and I was only there to stop it riding the blade up and down, and it didn't matter if I missed the line by a little.
It took about twenty-five minutes, and I felt really pleased.
Was it any good?
What is the measure of how good a jigsaw is?
The picture on it?
The way it's been cut?
How difficult it is to assemble?
If the measure of how good a jigsaw is, is the enjoyment in actually cutting it, I rate this one 10 out of 10!

 

[Gill]

Congratulations Bruce - welcome to the world of karma scrolling !

Some people scroll for years without experiencing the sort of nirvana that you achieved. It first happened to me a couple of years ago when I was cutting a repetitious shadow portrait of a lion's face. It was one of those patterns where you wish you had a load of trained woodworm on steroids .

The cuts weren't particularly difficult and I seemed to mentally switch off while I was cutting. Yet I'd never been more aware of what was going on, I'd never been more focussed. The strange thing was, though, that I felt detached from the task in hand; I wasn't in control, I was just part of the process which would lead to the creation of a fine piece. The pencil-thin lines seemed to expand to be an inch thick, not that it mattered because the saw blade wanted to run exactly down the middle anyway. The feeling of contentment, of being in harmony with the whole of nature was both exhilarating and relaxing.

It's happened to me several times since, but never quite as powerfully as the first time. Strangely, it's a heightened state of consciousness that's very difficult to achieve. If I look for it, I never find it.

Gill

 

[Brucio]

Thanks Gill, for your sympathetic reply.
It seems that you and I are the only ones who have sensed this kind of pleasure.
Of course, if you're about to start on a 300 piece jigsaw, it might not be the same!
I've just made a little website that shows the kind of puzzles that I make: no jigsaws I'm afraid, but they may come later.
If you want to have a look, this is the address:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bruce.viney

You should be able to e-mail me from there, but if you don't want to, could you just post a line in this thread?
Many thanks,
Bruce

 

[Gill]

Wow - your work is soooo impressive, Bruce. You designed those yourself and then cut them with either a handsaw or a Ferm? Kudos to you!

When your plans go online, I can tell you at least one scroller who'll be downloading them .

Gill

 

[CHJ]

Looks like you need another 24 hrs in your day Gill :lol:

Thanks Bruce for putting yet another 'Must Try That' on the toit list. :roll:

 

[chrispuzzle]

Brucio -

Not the only one to experience nirvana while cutting a jigsaw

Well, I hesitate to call it nirvana, but there is a relaxing meditative quality to cutting out the pieces and sometimes I am barely conscious of making any decisions about the line at all.

Leaving aside the mystic orient for a moment, the closest experience I can compare it to is when, sometimes, playing the piano, the music seems to go straight from the brain to the fingers without any conscious effort in between.

Chris

 

[Taffy Turner]

Bruce,

I know exactly what you mean mate! Sometimes when I am cutting a particularly intricate pattern, I seem to enter the zone. I lose all track of time, and I almost go into a trance.

When I get to the end, and snap out of it, only then do I realise that I am so thirsty that my tongue is stuck to the roof of my mouth, and my bladder is at crisis point!!

Other times, I can't cut to the line to save my life - these are the days when I go and do some turning instead!

Regards

Gary