Artist Profile: Hans Meier

From dogs to cats, from horses to creatures of the wild, Hans Meier can make puzzles in the shape of most animals. But these puzzles dont just resemble the animals. [If] its a badger, itll be in the shape of a badger, but itll also spell badger in the puzzle, Meier said. If its a racoon, itll spell racoon.

Meier makes tab-type puzzles, where the pieces spell out the shape of the puzzle. Because most of what Meier makes are puzzles, he can make most domestic and wild animals. He also creates puzzles for school mascots like the Georgia Bulldog or the Auburn Tiger. He makes them using a scroll saw, a small saw with a six-inch-long blade that typically does not have any attachments. What you can do, because the blade is only six inches long, youre able to drill a hole, and you can put that saw through, so you can do inside cuts, Meier said.

Meier is self-taught and has made puzzles with a scroll saw for over twenty years. He is the chairman of the Gwinnett Woodworkers Scroll Saw Group, a club of 200 people who meet once a month to discuss different topics and techniques. Although eighty percent of what Meier makes are puzzles, the other twenty percent of his work consists of fretwork and intarsia.

When customers ask Meier what type of wood he uses for his puzzles, he said they laugh at his reply. They always say, What kind of wood do you use, and I say, F-R-E-E, Meier said. People give me wood because theyve got these ten-inch long pieces [or] eight-inch long pieces, and theyre going to throw them away. Ive convinced them, over a period of time, to bring them to me.

When Meier attends craft shows, he often appears in the local paper. One year, Meier attended over twenty craft shows and appeared in the local paper nineteen times. Because I demo at the event, he said.

He also said that he will cut free puzzles for all the kids, and that instead of children grabbing premade puzzles from a box, Meier has the children step up on a step stool and watch him create the puzzle. I play with them, mess with them, and then I create a puzzle for them thats basically about their age, he explained. If theyre four-years-old, it has four pieces. If theyre six-years-old, it has six pieces.

Meier makes about 300 puzzles for children at each craft show he attends. I have crowds of fifteen to twenty [people] at a time, he stated. These are three-dimensional puzzles, which theyve never seen before. The expression on their face is unbelievable [when I hand them the puzzle.]

Meier prefers making puzzles for children rather than standing at the back of his booth when he attends a craft show. Ive got to be in my environment, he said.