Making the Community Puzzle Block - Planning and Cutting

My major focus for this event is a large 151 piece puzzle block.

This is a type of woodcut where an overall shape is cut, and then pieces are removed, carved, and returned to the block. The block is then inked and printed as one piece.

The Town of Richmond Hill: a convenient rectangle!

My overall shape is the perimeter of Richmond Hill and the puzzle pieces are 151 head-like shapes representing 150 people + me.

my inspiration

The question I would like participants to answer when faced with their blank block is What's on Your Mind?

What are the people around me thinking about? What's making them happy, or sad? What are they focused on or working toward? What do they love? What keeps them up at night?

Ryan Diblisch, Newmakeit founder, facing the blank board with me

Once I created the design I brought it to Newmakeit, a maker space where I am a member, and I worked with Ryan to use the CNC router to create this block.

just a theory at this point to me

I made a corel draw file, which was converted to a V-Carve file for the machine, and we spent about 6 hours getting the block made.

head-shaped

The brand new bit I got broke about 1/3 into the cutting. Another member of Newmakeit lent me theirs = the value of a community space right there.

We cut heads out of the interior of the design and on the outside of the board. They were the same heads, duplicated, except the cutting path on the interior was to the inside of the cutting line. These blocks were discarded.

layout of the blocks

The outside head-shapes were cut along the outside of the cutting line ensuring a perfect, snug fit when the blocks returned. I didn't really believe that would happen when Ryan described it but it did. But I had to try the blocks in their spaces to be sure.

matching blocks up with the board and seeing if any are missing...yep.

And this is when I discovered I duplicated 7 blocks which meant I was short 7.