Dust Cover for Puzzle Protection

We find that many people don’t want to pack away their jigsaw puzzle after each puzzling session so they leave it on a table ready for the next time. The problem is that the individual puzzle pieces then have no protection – they can easily be lost, particularly if your cat or dog regards your puzzle board as a comfortable place to snuggle down!

To solve the problem, all of our puzzle boards now come complete with a puzzle mat that can be laid over the board and the pieces on it. All the puzzle pieces are then kept covered and protected. This puzzle mat has a flock covering on one side and is waterproof plastic on the other side so that even spillages of drink will not harm either your Jigthings product or the puzzle pieces on the board.

Jigboard, Other Board Games and Hobbies

Although Jigboards were designed specifically for jigsaw puzzles they have been widely adopted by other enthusiasts. The boards provide protection for wooden table surfaces and at the same time the baize is a much nicer surface from which to pick-up cards, counters and dice.

The raised edge prevents the need to constantly retrieve dice from the floor during games involving them! A standard Monopoly board is 20 inches square and fits nicely within the Jigboard 1000 as does a Cluedo board. Board games like Cluedo, Monopoly and Snakes and Ladders usually come with a board that folds in half and anyone who has tried to move one of these mid-game without scattering the various little pieces will know that it is anything but easy. If the board for the game is sitting on a Jigboard it is simplicity itself to put it aside whilst the table is used for Christmas dinner!

Stamp collectors, embroiderers, needle-workers, origamists, jewellery makers, scrapbookers and knitting enthusiasts all tell us that they have benefited from the use of Jigboards.

Jigboard Sizes

Here are the sizes of the 4 products in the Jigthings range:

Jigboard 2000: Puzzle board for 2000 pieces: For most Jigsaws up to 2000 pieces (40″ x 28″)

Jigboard 1500: Puzzle board for 1500 pieces: For most jigsaws up to 1500 pieces (35.5″ x 25.5″)

Jigboard 1000: Puzzle board for 1000 pieces: For most jigsaws up to 1000 pieces (29.5″ x 20.5″)

Jigboard 500: Puzzle board for 500 pieces: For most jigsaws up to 500 pieces (20.5″ x 15.5″)

To help you decide which size is best for your needs we suggest that you look on the pages for the individual products and there you will find tables that show the puzzles that fit.

Puzzle Boards Versus Puzzle Mats

Puzzle mats (sometimes referred to as puzzle rolls, Jigrolls or puzzle tubes) are sometimes suggested as an alternative to puzzle boards. As the market leader in the supply of jigsaw puzzle accessories it would be remiss of us if we didn’t tell you why we elect NOT to sell mats.

Puzzle mats are one of those ideas that sound great in theory but don’t work very well in practice! They are usually constructed of foam (you might have heard of ‘jigsaw foam mats’) or different types of woven fabric. The idea is that you keep all your puzzle pieces on the mat during the construction process and roll up the whole thing when you want to put it away. Sounds good doesn’t it?

The first problem arises when you first roll out the mat and see how big it is! Most jigsaw mats need an extremely large table to accommodate them – unlike a rigid jigsaw puzzle board that can be laid on the smallest coffee table.

Then there is the uneven surface to contend with. In order to be able to roll, the material must be a little flexible and elastic but unfortunately those characteristics mean that when the mat is unrolled it doesn’t lie flat. Trying to determine whether a piece is in the correct place within a puzzle is difficult enough on a flat surface but on an undulating surface it becomes infinitely more tricky.

There’s no raised edge to a puzzle mat and loose pieces falling off it onto the floor are a constant worry whilst you are using it – when it’s rolled up it is near impossible to prevent puzzle pieces near the edge from slipping out and going absent without leave!

Roll up the puzzle mat too loosely and pieces will slip all over the place; roll it up too tightly and the delicate tabs on the pieces are easily damaged.

The one thing that jigsaw puzzle mats have in their favour is that they are cheap. If you are only intending to do a puzzle now and again then maybe a mat will be adequate for your needs but if you intend to really enjoy your puzzling then we advise that you steer well clear.

Download the Jigthings Leaflet