Colimaçon, Le

French cutter Genest Desfosses took up cutting in Autumn 2011, with his first sale within three months (Venus in the Sunlight by Frieseke). Initially he used low density wood, but he soon upgraded his saw and moved to 3mm poplar-ply or okoume ply. He sold through ebay, Etsy and private commissions.

Genest favours fine art images but also cuts a few abstract wooden jigsaws for painting. He has developed many cutting styles (including spirals, H-cuts and wormy cuts) but is best known for his small pieces and extreme and accurate line-cuts. His jigsaws are often very difficult push-fit jigsaws, especially those of 800-2000pc. His signature whimsy piece is a snail with spiral. By mid-2016 he had sold over 150 jigsaws and had developed a method of successfully stack-cutting three or two blanks together, without the lower ones moving. His top copies are for commissions or ebay, with the lower ones offered on etsy. He has cut stacks of two or three identical mystery puzzles for a group of clients. One stack was made for a BCD House Party speed contest.

Genest’s puzzles are housed a distinctive hinged pine box, with a label but no guide picture. A few of his large early jigsaws were packed in a wooden box with a decorative hand painted puzzle under the transparent lid.

Twelve Examples of Le Colimaçon signature snail whimsy, on Flickr.

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