Pretoria – Monica Taku, of Pretoria East, has taken on the daunting task of building the world’s biggest jigsaw puzzle.
She hopes that by the time she has finished it, she will be the first person on the continent to have achieved the feat.
Her passion is puzzle-building, but she has never before attempted to build one with 33 600 pieces. Once completed, in about a year or so, the puzzle will be 5.7m long, 1.6m wide and weighing about 17kg.
“We don’t even have a wall big enough to hang it on,” said her husband Norman, an assistant director at the University of Pretoria Centre for Human Rights.
Her excitement at attempting this mammoth task was not dampened even when the family’s labrador, Danny Boy, chewed one of the pieces.
“I realised the piece was missing. When I found it, it was all chewed-up and in Danny Boy’s bed. I could only laugh and be calm. It was either that or kill the dog,” Monica joked.
But all is not lost: Monica says she will ask the manufacturer to try and rescue the situation. “Each puzzle piece is uniquely cut; so it is not simply a question of the manufacturer sending us the missing piece. It has to be made first,” her husband said.
Monica does not know yet exactly which puzzle piece bit the dust, but she expects to find out soon, as she works according to a specific formula.
Known as Wildlife, this is the largest commercially available puzzle in the world. It is a visual encyclopedia of the animal kingdom.
The couple ordered the puzzle through Amazon and it arrived in a wooden box as big as a suitcase from America. It cost about R7 000.
Monica never built jigsaw puzzles in her childhood and only developed her interest and passion in her mid-20s.
“Puzzles are magic. They help us remain young at heart, make us laugh and keep us from getting into trouble,” she said.
Monica began building the puzzle three weeks ago. She has given herself a year to complete it. “If I maintain the current pace, I am confident that in the next 10 months I will be done with this puzzle.”
The tiny pieces of the puzzle will for the next few months be scattered on her dining room table which is now off-limits to the family.
The mother of three has a degree in Accounting Science from the University of Buea in Cameroon and an assortment of other qualifications.
Even though she is busy managing her own decorating and sugarcraft business, she says she regularly makes time for building the puzzle.
Her puzzles hang in homes across many continents, where her family has lived.