On December 8 and 9 Zona 21 educational center in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia will host an unusual exhibition. In the spirit of Christmas visitors will be able to enjoy a small part of the boundless world of jigsaw puzzles-winter and Christmas puzzles. The event is organized by Puzzles Bulgaria and is one of a kind in this country. It displays puzzles from Yovilina Toncheva’s collection.

Jigsaw puzzles have been my hobby for nearly ten years now. My mother contributed a lot to the White and Merry exhibition, because she has been telling me for several years that I should make such, Yovilina Toncheva told Radio Bulgaria. Initially I was not planning display winter puzzles only, but I collected a lot of them over the years and then decided to present only them. I hope this exhibition will make this hobby popular among people, especially the adults and the elderly, because children anyway go through such a phase and play with puzzles in a certain period of their childhood. However, I believe that adults can relax and deal with stress when they do puzzles. I hope that we will continue to intrigue people, because it is worth it and is very beautiful, although it is time consuming.

The event will attract the interest of both the fans of jigsaw puzzles and those who do not like doing puzzles, but like the images depicted on the puzzles.

We will show nearly seventy puzzles at the forthcoming exhibition. Fifty of them will be assembled and put in frames, so that people can imagine how puzzles would look like as a picture. We hope that people who love puzzles, but would not buy a fully assembled puzzle, will buy the rest of them, Yovilina Toncheva explains.

The organizers have been preparing the exhibition since the summer of 2018 and the money raised during the event will be donated to Autism TODAY association.

Autism TODAY association has an office in Sofia and will open another one in Pleven (Central North Bulgaria). The money raised at the exhibition will be used for the purchase of toys ad puzzles for children with autism. I am not planning to give them a certain amount of money. We want to know what exactly they need instead, Yovilina Toncheva specifies. I contacted with them, because when I was looking for articles and interesting information for Puzzles Bulgaria internet page I read many times that puzzles are suitable for children and adults with autism. They help them focus and socialize when they do puzzles in groups. That is why I decided that this is a cause that deserves attention.

Most puzzles which will be part of the exhibition consist of 1,000 pieces. They are different in size, shape and depict paintings of different artists. The exhibition also includes luxurious puzzles with gold-coated and silver coated parts.

A 3,000 piece puzzle is my favorite one. It took me a lot of time to assemble it, because the painting itself is divided in pixels. It is an old puzzle made by an English company. Recently I found out that another company made a sequel, or this is at least how I imagine it, because the painting belongs to the same area and depicts the same people, yet they were dresses differently and live in another period. We will display both puzzles and I hope that visitors will find similarity in these paintings.

The organizers of the exhibition note that it will be open for visitors between 7pm and 9 pm on Saturday and between 5pm and 7pm on Sunday.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov