PUZZLING: HOBBY BUILDS TO NEW HEIGHTS WITH 3-D PUZZLES

Big Ben is just one puzzle Hartle had completed.

Hartle had put together almost all of the 3-D puzzles in her catalog.

Sarah Hartle's puzzles were displayed at Eye Consultants Inc. in Doctors Park where she works.

Sarah Hartle figures building the Taj Mahal should take about three weeks, assuming none of the pieces are misplaced.

She is building a three-dimensional puzzle of the famous Indian monument. When the 1,077-piece structure is complete, it will join dozens of others at Eye Consultants in Cape Girardeau, where Hartle is the office manager.

"I've always worked puzzles, flat jigsaw puzzles," she said. "I guess I graduated."

About three years ago Hartle saw three-dimensional puzzles advertised in Bits and Pieces, a puzzle catalog. She mentioned at the office that she would like one for Christmas. Her co-workers bought her two, and she was hooked.

Take a close look around the office; puzzles are everywhere. The White House and nation's Capitol are near the waiting room. The Eiffel Tower and Big Ben are down the hall. On the stairway landing, the streets of Paris and Notre Dame stand next to St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow and castles from the Bavarian Alps. That Monet print outside Hartle's office -- a puzzle framed and behind glass. The Christmas village, now stored away, -- 3-D puzzles.

Hartle sorts and stacks and methodically puts together the puzzles over her lunch hour.

"Big Ben took me three months, working on my lunch hour," she said. "I didn't think it would ever be complete."

The puzzle stands 4 feet tall and has more than 1,400 pieces. The Eiffel Tower is nearly as tall.

The Taj Mahal, under construction in the office lunchroom, offers a challenge because almost all the pieces are the same color.

With each puzzle, the company includes about 200 extra pieces marked with tiny red dots. Puzzle workers must separate the extras from the real pieces, but Hartle cautions not to throw those extras away. "Almost always I can't find a piece, and when I look back through the extras, it's in there," she said.

If a piece was really missing, the company has a guarantee. Send a photo of the puzzle showing the spot for the missing piece, and the company will send the right piece.

The pieces are backed with foam 1/8- to 1/4-inch thick, allowing the puzzles to stand up. A few structural supports are placed inside some of the buildings to keep them in place.

Completing the three-dimensional structures has proven a lesson in architecture, Hartle explained, adding: "You have to figure out how all these different shapes fit together. It's kind of like building a house."

And once complete, Hartle said, Drs. Nelson Ringer and Marshall Jung, along with their patients, encourage her to put them on display.

Patients and visitors often examine the puzzles and comment on their construction. Lately people have come looking for them.

Her next project will be Camelot, King Arthur's residence, complete with a moat, turrets and towers.

"It seems real frustrating to some people," she said, "but I find it relaxing."