My kid gave me some puzzles he wasn’t interested in anymore. Said “you’ll like this one, Mom- it has all the different weird shapes.” He was right! While it’s not my favorite kind of picture (collage) and there was a tad too much glare, the pieces were nice and sturdy in this one, and the shapes very fun. Totally random cut. It was a bit slow at first because I had to keep peering at the picture insert (which wasn’t much bigger than the box cover) to see which small photo each piece went in. But once I got a third done, much easier to just eyeball things and put them into place. This one is a brand I hadn’t done before, and I’m sorry to say it really irritated my skin (I had to use plastic gloves and the fingertips got all discolored) and it has a loose fit, so moving sections around had to be a piece at a time.
I’ve been using a different puzzle board lately, it’s a piece of chipboard (the kind looks like made from cardboard pressed together). It’s smaller than my plywood board, lighter weight so easier to pick up and move around (when I want to put it near a window for a photo- especially useful when the puzzle surface has so much glare). And nice that it has a bit of texture, so the pieces don’t slide when I tilt the board. Downsides are it doesn’t stay flat, bows a bit when propped up. Also with the lower contrast between the board and the puzzle itself, a tad harder to instantly visualize shape matches and pick out pieces. Plus it’s not big enough to spread all the pieces out on one surface, I have to get out a second board or use the tabletop. So might go back to using my plywood one again.
