This page looks best with JavaScript enabled
In November 2023 I started Ravensburger’s 9000-piece Dragon Forest puzzle, and I finished it in early January 2024. To my best estimate, it took me about 240 hours to complete.
From the beginning, I was planning to glue & frame this puzzle when (if!) I completed it. I know some people will think it’s anathema to apply glue to a jigsaw puzzle, but I always intended this to be wall art. What I was not expecting was that the process of gluing & framing this puzzle would be WAY more difficult than doing the puzzle was.
I did not frame this puzzle myself, rather I brought it to a specialty frame store to have them frame it for me. But preparing your puzzle to be framed is already a gigantic undertaking, so hopefully this will help you.
Probably most people just want to see the completed puzzle and don’t care about the rest of the article, so here’s a picture:
Planning
Once I finished my puzzle, I turned to the internet to learn how to frame it. Sadly, while I found guides about how to seal a puzzle and how to store a 24,000 piece puzzle, I did not find much about sealing & hanging a 9000-piece puzzle. My friend Chloe found a post about mounting an 8000-piece puzzle to the ceiling, but while it’s definitely made me want to complete a gigantic puzzle of the Sistine Chapel and mount it to my own ceiling, it doesn’t describe sealing the puzzle, and I’m not looking to mount a gigantic wooden slab from my wall.
So, I asked the internet. I ended up with two possibilities:
DIY method - seal the puzzle and then glue it to some substrate (probably gatorboard?). Instead of framing it, add an “interior” frame about 1 foot inset from the edges. Mount to the wall using a French cleat. Frame store method - seal the puzzle and then bring it to a frame store and have them frame it for me.
I explored both options and ultimately decided on option 2, but I think option 1 could work if you’re more DIY than I am. Word of warning: No contractor will help you with this project. You’ll say the words “jigsaw puzzle” and they’ll say “nope, absolutely not, I’m not taking on that liability.”
... continue reading