How we got started
My two sons love puzzles. The eldest will put a puzzle together over and over again, never tiring on fitting the pieces together. Over the years, my wife and I have purchased many puzzles for him, and he loved them all. Unfortunately, too often the puzzles carried by local retailers are cheaply-produced, made from plywood or pressboard. The picture on the puzzle is simply a sticker or paper just glued onto the wood. As a result, the puzzles wear out, the paper comes off, and the puzzle ends up unusable. In addition, so many toys end up in the mouths of our children, which only adds to the destruction of the puzzle. It was the same at my home—in a very short period of time, most of my son's puzzles were pretty much destroyed. While I kept up the hunt for better-made puzzles, I was sorely disappointed with the options. Most puzzles are just square cutouts.
But that changed one Saturday afternoon when I caught "The New Yankee Workshop" on PBS. The host, Norm Abram, was using a scroll saw to cut out the back of a chair. He was making exact and intricate cuts with the saw. As he pulled a couple of the pieces apart, I was inspired--a scroll saw could make puzzles. A scroll saw could make any kind of puzzles my son might like. This started my creative juices flowing, and I began to draw puzzle patterns. Late in 2006, I finally made the big commitment when I purchased a Craftsman scroll saw. The first puzzle I cut was a fish, and my son loved it. Soon he was making requests. In no time at all we had ten puzzles for him to play with.
Since he loves to play with the puzzles, it was only a matter of time before someone over for a play date saw them and asked "Where did you get that puzzle?" Our friends and neighbors were usually surprised that I had made them myself. I found myself making puzzles for the neighbor kids and for the teachers at my son's pre-school. We created patterns in my garage and handstain every one. My sons test every pattern and get a little irritated every time I sell one of "their" puzzles. Since everyone who sees our puzzles loves them and wants to buy them, we decided to start MyDaddyPuzzles.
Why the name "MyDaddyPuzzles"?
It's really a simple story--probably only cute to me because my little boy inspired it. Whenever he wants to get my attention, he doesn't say "DAD!" or "Hey!" He says "My Daddy?" So he'll come up to me while I'm changing his brother's diaper, and he'll say, "My Daddy? Can I have some ice cream before bed?" Or he'll meet me at the door and say, "My Daddy? Can we go to the pool tonight?" Of course, I usually say yes to anything that starts with "My Daddy?" Since my son was the driving force behind our puzzles, MyDaddyPuzzles is a perfect name for our little business.