by Noella Noelophile®
Self-taught artist Jeannette Aragon says she was far from an immediate success.
Looking at her work today, that statement seems almost unbelievable.
Photograph courtesy of Jeannette Aragon, and © 2015 The Puzzled One. All rights reserved.
Jeannette, who started her small business, The Puzzled One, in 2007, says it all began when she bought a scroll saw.
“I made some simple, unfinished 3-piece dinosaur puzzles for my nieces and nephew,” Jeannette emailed. “They had so much fun painting them that I decided to try (selling)… “paint-a-puzzle” kits at local farmers’ markets. My first experience…was not great. Everyone just walked by saying, “You don’t want those baby puzzles.”
So, Jeannette took the criticism and ran with it.
“I went home and started making different types…wood-burned jigsaw puzzles, then 3-D puzzles,” she said.
Photograph courtesy of Jeannette Aragon, and © 2015 The Puzzled One. All rights reserved.
“I introduced color into my puzzles and they started selling.”
Photograph courtesy of Jeannette Aragon, and © 2015 The Puzzled One. All rights reserved.
“Then came my mosaic puzzles, and from there it just kind of took on a life of its own.”
Even so, the growth process was slow. “It was really tough,” Jeannette remembers. “I signed up and went to a ton of fairs (at the beginning) but I would barely make my rent. Sometimes I didn’t sell even one puzzle at the show. But I kept at it, and it paid off.”
Photograph courtesy of Jeannette Aragon, and © 2015 The Puzzled One. All rights reserved.
Today, The Puzzled One is doing very well–both at shows and online. Jeannette handcrafts wooden puzzles and heirloom-quality toys for little kids and puzzles for us “big kids”. She also takes custom orders for all occasions.
Photograph courtesy of Jeannette Aragon, and © 2015 The Puzzled One. All rights reserved.
This wedding-tree puzzle is a recent new design, with a couple’s name and wedding date in the heart. It’s also a bestseller–and Jeannette says its origins are in the alphabet!
Photograph courtesy of Jeannette Aragon, and © 2015 The Puzzled One. All rights reserved.
“I make an alphabet tree,” she explained, “and customers kept coming to me (and) asking if they could buy an unfinished one for their wedding. I knew there were people out there making wedding puzzles, so I tried my hand at it. And they took off…I was selling them left and right.”
Jeannette said the wedding-tree puzzle represents just one of her custom designs.
“I recently started making wedding unity puzzles (which are perfect for a blended family, but also just a bride and groom),” she explained. “Each one is designed for that particular family. Each member of the family has their own puzzle piece with their name on it. (Then,) during the ceremony, they place their puzzle piece in the tray, signifying that they are now one big family.”
Photograph courtesy of Jeannette Aragon, and © 2015 The Puzzled One. All rights reserved.
In fact, Jeannette can custom-design just about any type of puzzle.
“I was commissioned to make a giant wooden mandala puzzle for a retreat center,” she said. “The mandala was an olive tree set in mosaic stone, like puzzle pieces. It measured a whopping four feet in diameter.”
While this particular order presented her with a challenge, Jeannette also said it wound up being one of her favorite experiences.
“At first I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it,” she explained. “It needed to be made from poplar, which only comes in (approximately 12-inch widths). So I spoke with my Dad and he taught me how to laminate boards together to create one large (one). Then we planed and sanded it and it looked as if it had always belonged together.”
The finished work, Jeannette said, turned out beautifully. “But the best part was working with my Dad. I learned a valuable technique and spent quality time with him doing the thing that I love best.”
Photograph courtesy of Jeannette Aragon, and © 2015 The Puzzled One. All rights reserved.
Today, the art she loves fills her days. “During the day I do my cutting and sanding…then at night, I do painting and work on business matters: budgets, marketing etc.”
“By the grace of God, my business seems to have taken off in the past months,” Jeannette emailed. “So I am struggling to complete orders while still getting ready for upcoming shows.” (However, her booth at any show will still be filled with all kinds of beautiful and colorful creations from before–look for her cherry tree, which is a total favorite!)
Would you like to meet Jeannette and see her work firsthand? She’ll be exhibiting at the Calabasas Pumpkin Festival, today and tomorrow. She also says she’ll be one of the featured artists at an upcoming church boutique in Burbank. We’ll give you the details as soon as we can find out where and when!
Can’t make the festival, but would like to know more about either her current work or a custom order for Christmas 2015? Jeannette says the custom design process varies, but once she and a customer agree on a final design, completing it will take her between 2 and 3 weeks. Here’s her website for more information.