She’s “THE” jigsaw puzzle lady.

And she’s also “A” jigsaw puzzle lady – the consummate dissectologist as puzzlers are known.

She is Patricia Borne – passionate minder of jigsaws for sale at the Tauranga Harbour City Lions book and puzzle fundraising fest at the racecourse.

She sells them and she does them.

“Oh, the temptation – I see one at the fair and go: ‘Oooh! I’d love that one’.”

Borne’s been that way since she was a kid.

Borne had a dozen or so 1000 piece puzzles sitting in the cupboard at home waiting to be done. She’s in control of her addiction.

“If there’s one out and I walk past, I think I’ll just put down a couple of pieces. An hour later you’re still there.”

Jigsaws – the ultimate gobblers of time.

“And I think of all the things I should have been doing.”

So those puzzles will stay in the cupboard until she has a bank of “good quality puzzle time” she can call on.

Seven hundred puzzles sold at last year’s Lions book fair – and probably a whole lot more will do so this year.

“They’re good business. If we got 1000, they’d fly out the door.”

Know a ‘Wasgij’?

And the books of course.

“Don’t forget the books,” said Lion Christine Currie.

Last year more than 800 banana boxes full of mind food, 45 to 50 books in a box, were sold at the fair, generating more than $60,000 for worthy causes around town.

Lots of boxes, and a lot of money.

Now the cycle starts again – the Lions are seeking donations of books and puzzles for their November 7-9 sale.

So it’s a time to clean out the attic, the spare room, garage, bookshelf and the bedroom.

Drop-off points are Furnish Cameron Rd behind the Citz Club, Wet & Forget at the Bay Central Shopping Centre on Chapel St, Woolworths at Bethlehem Town Centre, Bed Post at The Crossing at Tauriko and Bunnings in Jean Batten Drive by the airport.

Know a ‘Wasgij’ from a common old garden variety jigsaw?

A Wasgij is a jigsaw for the seasoned puzzler, the grown-ups.

It’s not the picture on the box, it’s actually what a character on the box is looking at. You don’t know; you have to figure it.

“Thinking outside the square. People love them.”

But not Borne. She started one once but never finished it. They didn’t connect.

“I just don’t like them.”

It doesn’t matter because Wasgijs will be first to go at the fair.

The trivia

Some interesting jigsaw factoids.

British cartographer John Spilsbury produced the first jigsaw around 1760 using a marquetry saw. They were known as dissections (hence dissectologists), and were maps cut out for educational purposes.

Jigsaws attract the observant, people quick to notice things out of place.

A 1000-piece puzzle typically takes seven to 12 hours to complete. The jigsaw puzzle market is valued at $10 billion a year – and growing.

The largest non-commercial jigsaw had 551,232 pieces.

Tauranga puzzler Marlise Hughes is obviously detail-oriented, methodical, patient and motivated – traits that often identify set puzzlers apart.

Hughes has three passions – op shops, theatre costuming and jigsaws.

She buys three or four puzzles a month.

“My life is chaos – work and shows – and jigsaws bring order to that chaos. They’re therapeutic.”

The science tends to support that contention. Apart from assisting visual and spatial awareness, jigsaws are like meditation – replacing stress with a sense of peace and tranquillity.

Until you find a piece missing in a puzzle.

Borne used to count every puzzle piece before it went on sale at the Tauranga Harbour City Lions book and puzzle fair.

Last year that could have amounted to 700,000 pieces.

Puzzler’s conscience

“It’s my conscience,” explains Borne. “I didn’t want to mislead buyers.”

With the volume of puzzles nowadays counting is impractical.

“I just explain we can’t guarantee every puzzle is complete. People accept that.”

“Yes we do,” said Hughes.

The pleasure is still there when the puzzle is finished, bar a missing pieces.

“And if I resell, I just mark an X on the box where the piece is missing. We puzzlers understand.”

Such are the protocols of puzzling. And you can bet the missing piece is down the back of the couch.

A 1000 piece jigsaw retails at $26 to $28 – but just $4 to $8 at the fair.

“Don’t forget the books – we are collecting now for our November sale,” said Currie.

Books and blokes are needed.

“A couple of men to pick up the books from the drop-off points would be wonderful,” said Currie.

Phone 0210645360.