Several years ago, I was inspired by a wooden jigsaw puzzle my mother-in-law makes with the pieces facing out. I thought it would be more fun if both sides of the pieces were painted, so I designed a puzzle for my children. I hand painted the outside as the front of a house, underneath as the rooms inside, and then the backs of the pieces as characters and objects to be played with in the house setting. My kids loved playing with the puzzle and so did their friends. My family and friends encouraged me to make more.
After much research and rejection, I found a small toy company that licensed the puzzles. They manufactured the house and the pirate ship puzzles under the name Puzzlekins. Eventually I decided to start my own company and have my puzzles manufactured on my own. I was determined to make them thick as originally intended and to call them by a name that I felt was a better fit -- Flipzles.
This has been and still is a learning process. I am a stay-at-home mother of four and art is my passion. Running a business isn’t something I really had in mind, but I love designing Flipzles and this is the avenue that opened up for me to be able to do so. I am grateful for a supportive husband who also can keep my books and balance out my creative side with his analytical one. My hope is that I can grow the business enough to continue making new designs and eventually make a line of puzzles that have a charitable focus.
