Kaz McCue puts together Leelanau Puzzle Company
By Norm Wheeler
Sun editor
In October of 2021, the first snow frosted the maples still ablaze with red and orange color. Art instructor Kaz McCue from the Leelanau School saw the opportunity to take his Photography 2 class for a ride. They got great photos, and when Kaz sent one of the best to his wife Pam, an art teacher at St. Johns Country Day in Orange Park, Fla., she replied, “This would make a great puzzle!”
“So I did!” says Kaz. “Pam and I do a lot of puzzles when we’re together, and I sell photographs. So I went to the online store Shutterfly and made some big prints. Over Thanksgiving break I made some puzzles, realizing it was a great way to get my photos out there.” One of Kaz’s pursuits in art school was to study Material Culture Studies, “the study of things. Puzzles are cultural objects.”
This was the spark, the seed of an idea that kept going. Kaz wrote a business plan, and researched how to mass-produce puzzles, and “all of the pieces fell into place. I searched for a manufacturer and found the Canadian company Puzzles Unlimited. They produce something that works like a cookie cutter that cuts through cardboard.” He made two big orders to make square 500-piece puzzles using four different photos in that format, and also rectangular 1,000-piece puzzles using six other photos in that format. “All of the photos are Leelanau County images: I’m just focusing on what’s available right here. People like and will buy puzzles, especially around here with our resort business selling Leelanau County. Folks on vacation have time to do puzzles. And I like to think the photos are really awesome!”
So far, Kaz has puzzles depicting the Burfiend Farm, the old wood shed near the Mill on the Crystal River, both an old boat and also reflections in the windows at The Cannery in Glen Haven, The Olsen Farm, a sunset, autumn light, the storm-ravaged top of Alligator Hill, and the old Buick in the woods along Basch Road. The Leelanau Puzzle Company launched on April 1 at Little Traverse Inn. “I sold over 50 puzzles, which really surprised me. There was even a line at one point. So it’s really fallen into place in a logical, methodical way. I am now looking at making some children’s puzzles, something that wasn’t even on my radar a couple of months ago.”
Right now, the puzzles are available at the Suttons Bay Farmers Market every Saturday through October. Once Kaz gets through the busy next few weeks finishing the school year, he will be visiting local shops and bookstores to make them available there, too. “I do have wholesale pricing, and I can also make promotional puzzles if folks want to make some with particular images on them. For right now it’s a good side hustle, but who knows? Maybe it will become something bigger, like a retail space, or puzzle repair (replicating that one missing piece), or a puzzle library where you can check some out.”
Check out the website LeelanauPuzzleCompany.com, and watch for puzzles as they become available throughout the county.
