BOULDER, Colo. — Liberty Puzzles has been making handmade wooden puzzles in Boulder for nearly 20 years, but the company's story started almost 100 years ago.
For Chris Wirth, wooden jigsaw puzzles from the 1930s were a staple on family vacations to the beach.
“One rainy day, we were stuck and couldn't go to the beach,” said Wirth, one of the co-founders of Liberty Puzzles. “We were sitting around all day doing one of these antiques, and the light bulb just went off, and I said, you know, I bet if I could make and sell these for $100, that might be a good business.”
He, his wife Sage, and business partner Jeff Eldridge decided to enter the puzzle-making world, creating Liberty Puzzles in Boulder in 2005. They wanted to make classic wooden puzzles with a modern approach.
“Our cut patterns flow all over the place, and about 20% of our pieces are so-called whimsy pieces,” said Wirth. “Which are cut in the recognizable shapes of characters, animals, flowers, and geometric shapes. So, we have a lot of creative leeway to do all kinds of fancy stuff with the cut pattern itself and theme those special pieces to the image.”
To today’s consumers, a puzzle being made of wood is a sign of quality. That, the whimsy pieces, the choice of art, and the brightness of the image led Liberty Puzzles to where they are today. Now, they employ almost 130 people throughout their two production buildings and their flagship store on Pearl Street.
“We recommend that they come and see exactly how hard this product is to make, see how many hands touch it,” said Sage Daly Wirth, another co-founder of Liberty Puzzles. “Just how much the puzzle they bought is made with attention, love, and quality.”
They have just released a line of holiday-themed puzzles, but all their puzzles can be found online at their website here, and a large selection is available on Pearl Street.
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