This puzzle was really easy to put together, and fun. The artwork is bright, simple and charming. I like that I can identify most of the plants in the picture- monstera, dracanea, pothos, sansevieria, palm, spider plant, asparagus fern, etc. Even most I don’t actually know the names of, I still easily recognize. So that’s why I like this puzzle, even though the piece shapes are a boring straight ribbon cut, and some things about the picture are kind of odd (is that a zebra with abnormally long hair, or a horse painted with blue stripes? and what happened to the texture in the bottom left corner. It looks like it was scribbled in with crayon when the artist got tired). Also the reference poster is smaller than the image on the box lid, so rather pointless.
My other problem is the overall quality. I didn’t mention this before, but it has come up several times now, so: Some puzzles hurt my fingers. Literally. The skin on my fingertips will start to vaguely ache with a burning sensation. It’s bothersome enough that I cut the ends off disposable gloves to wear while working certain puzzles- or typing for long periods on my laptop. I’ve figured out that my skin is probably sensitive to nickle in the laptop surfaces, but on the puzzles I think it’s something in the very very thin plastic layer over the cardboard. It was particularly pronounced with the last cheap made-in-China puzzle I had. This one didn’t mention that origin anywhere, but did state it was made with imported materials. Same issue with some of my other puzzles that were printed in China. This one also has quite a few knobs bent and layers peeling up- I used glue to repair quite a few pieces but didn’t bother with all of them. I have one other puzzle by the same company and artist, which I got from a local seller.
That was annoying though. I saw this person’s listing online, lots of puzzles she does once and then sells secondhand. Fine. I had messaged her asking what items she actually had at the moment, and she sent me current pictures, and I told her which ones I was interested in. We set a day and time and I drove over forty minutes to her place. It would have been worth the trip for the four puzzles I really wanted. I got there and looked through her stack- over twenty puzzles, but the four I’d picked out weren’t there. She’d already sold them to someone else. Yes I know it’s usually first-come-first-serve with these kind of local sales, but I thought since she sent me pictures just the day before and I’d indicated a specific choice, she might have held onto them for me. Or at least told me someone else would get there first. I bought these two just to make the trip feel worth my time, but I’m never going back. I see her listings on the same site all the time still. No guarantee what’s up there is what will be on the table when you arrive.
Anyway, petty rant over. Lesson learned. Here’s how assembly went. (My pictures aren’t as clean as usual because I didn’t care). Use arrows to view.
Finished size 18 x 26″.
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Things I forgot to mention. The other thing I like about this puzzle: it features a reader!
Also, I can tell now if a puzzle will make my fingers ache. By the smell. When I open the box, a puzzle should smell nice, like a good book- of cardboard (or paper) and ink. These ones that hurt my skin have a faintly chemical smell. The stronger the odor, the more it actually bothers me physically. Not a discovery I’m happy about, but there you are.