John S. Stokes III cuts one of his amazing puzzles. (Image by Stokes.)

I’ve never been a hobby shop enthusiast, so I didn’t realize how elaborate jigsaw puzzle making (or cutting) apparently is. It’s a highly specialized industry that has adults making insanely difficult puzzles for other adults. It seems a lot of tech people enjoy the puzzles as a lo-fi, tactile diversion.

Jennifer A. Kingson has a piece in the New York Times about the jigsaw subculture. In it, she profiles a San Diego puzzle cutter who does sinister and stunning work. An excerpt:

“John S. Stokes III, of San Diego, who cuts dazzlingly intricate puzzles by hand, would agree. Sometimes he deliberately leaves wavy or irregular borders to thwart people who like to put the edge pieces together first.

‘By far the hardest-to-assemble puzzle I ever made was a transparent plastic puzzle with nearly identically shaped pieces,’ said Mr. Stokes, 60, who turned to puzzle cutting after a career in computer programming. ‘Also, you can’t tell which side is up.’

At age 4, Mr. Stokes said, he was putting together 500-piece puzzles. He turned professional about 10 years ago, spending long days guiding pieces of wood into the stationary blade of a scroll saw. ‘It’s very much like a sewing machine,’ he observed.

Among the more spectacular puzzles he has created was a map of the world that had 1,384 pieces and measured nearly three feet long; it took three weeks to cut, he said. His largest puzzle was a four-and-a-half-foot triptych of Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, with 4,271 pieces. It sold on eBay for $25,100.”