Tag: puzzles

Temple of the Jaguar

made by Milton Bradley ~ artist Rod Frederick ~ 550 pieces

This puzzle was difficult and took a lot of focus, but I really enjoyed doing it. I thought at first it was a photograph, so meticulously are all the details depicted, but I’m pretty certain it’s from a painting. It was missing three pieces, I made replacements. One is pretty obvious, I feel like the other two blend in well. Acquired from neighborhood free exchange.

Completed on 1/6/24

A Mother’s Love

made by Bits and pieces  ~  artist Tricia Reilly-Matthews ~  1,000 pieces

Lovely picture, I just thought it so sweet. Much more of a challenge than all the 500-piece puzzles I’d been doing lately. Great piece cut variety, but they did seem small in size. Caused me some finger pain. The colors were so subtle, it was hard to distinguish between them scattered on the board- (especially the kitten’s). I thought that softness of the colors would make the piece edges stand out too much in the end, but actually it had a nice effect. Like a mosaic picture.

Completed on 1/8/24

Golden Light

made by Springbok  ~  artist Dona Gelsinger ~  500 pieces

Completed on 1/5/24

A vintage Springbok (made in Kansas), with the fun odd random piece cut. I like the abstract brush strokes visible in the artwork. When I opened the box, somebody before me had not only bagged the edges separate, but also all the red pieces of the male cardinal and mostly golden-brown ones (I think that was the female bird). I dumped them all together and mixed up again before starting. Bought used on Craigslist.

Goldfinch Quartet

made by Cobble Hill  ~  artist Susan Bourdet ~  500 pieces

Completed on 1/5/24

This one was just lovely. I don’t know what else to say about it! Nice sturdy pieces with canvas texture, almost no glare, very random piece cut, and a pretty picture. It was a bit more challenging than the previous, really enjoyable. This one was a thrift store find.

This puzzle was lovely, if quite different from my others. It’s a long narrow panoramic, makes me think of a banner or scroll. The box didn’t show the entire image, but there’s a poster included that’s exactly the same size as the puzzle, and came all rolled up. The pieces are thick and very shiny, and quite rectangular. They look like might have a lot of false fits, but after a few tries it was easy to tell which snugged into the right place. Did cause a lot of finger pain. I used gloves with this one. I really like the picture. So many interesting little details, made me think of a medieval tapestry (and I listened to some Mediæval Bæbes while doing it, haha). I took a bunch of extra pictures to show them to you, because can’t quite make out much from the whole picture image.

Among many other creatures, there’s a blue monkey

a porcupine

two peacocks (this one more demure)

hunting dogs, a rabbit same size as the fox

a lady holding a stoat (brings to mind the painting Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo da Vinci)

a baby unicorn in someone’s arms

and two winged deer. I think this is the first picture I’ve ever seen of flying deer (Santa’s reindeer don’t count. They don’t have wings).

And in the background through the whole image, flowers and other plants that look like I ought to recognize them. My husband says the unicorns look very French. I found this article about the artist.

Completed on 1/4/24

Another puzzle I wanted for a long time, and was thrilled to finally get. A bit disappointed that it doesn’t show the entire image- the original painting has buildings and construction equipment in the top margin, visual commentary on how humanity is ever encroaching on the natural world. I really enjoyed putting this puzzle together, the odd random cut and fun quirky way the pieces fit together. They did feel quite small though, and were very shiny. Missing one piece in the center, I made an okay patch (couldn’t get the color quite dark enough).

This one was also delightful for all the small details and some hidden animals peeking through the foliage- there’s a spider

a caterpillar with a crazy face (and tail!)

this okapi (or zebra?) behind the leaves-

and some which I couldn’t identify- (my first guess was wild dog but this animal is the same size as a nearby bat in the picture)

Completed on 1/3/24.

This is a puzzle I wanted for a long time, after seeing pics of it online. I just thought it was a fun image, plus the wavy color reflections remind me of a painting I did in art class long ago (bright colors, a girl on a diving board, and the reflection in the water showed her fear). It was a very easy puzzle, but I did it slowly and in stages to enjoy longer. Would be really nice to have this one as a 750- or 1,000- piece. Nice surface texture, great cut variety, some puzzle dust but not a ton. There was a piece that seemed extra-large, like the cut was missed in making that two separate pieces. Maybe it was just for variety though, because I’ve seen the same in a few other puzzles.

One piece missing, which I patched in. Not my best job, but passable if you just glance at it. Completed 1/2/24.

Puddle Jumpers

made by Bits and Pieces  ~  artist John Sloane ~  300 pieces

Completed on 12/30/23

This puzzle was perfect for my initially short attention span (before fatigue set in): simple and with a low piece count. With the odd angular random cut I really enjoy with this brand, and the picture is very cute, too. It would be nice to find this one in a 500-piece version. It did give me some finger pain, but not bad. (I didn’t even bother to put gloves on this time, just rubbed my fingers on my pants leg occasionally. That seemed to remove the residue). A thrift store find.

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Table Manners

made by Cobble Hill  ~  artist Braldt Bralds ~  500 pieces

Completed on 1/1/24

Love this picture- so fun! I had this desire when I was done, to trace a yarn color line with my finger and see if it was continuous all through the picture (but I forgot before I broke it up). Also, somehow I missed taking a final photograph! Can’t believe it. Either that or my camera memory lost that one image. More likely I just forgot. But you can see the completed puzzle in the picture on my previous post. Cobble Hill is still one of my favorite brands. Nice sturdy pieces with a lovely surface texture. Traded for on Puzzle Swaps.

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Stained Glass Songbirds

made by Buffalo Games ~  artist Ciro Marchetti ~  500 pieces

Completed on 1/1/24

This one was so bright. The vivid colors, I mean.  An odd thing from the previous puzzler- someone had put the edges in a separate plastic baggie. Except it wasn’t all of them. I had to sift another six or seven out of the main lot. I don’t know what’s the point of bagging the edges separately if you don’t get them all. It was a nice puzzle, but not a keeper for me. Quite a bit of finger pain, too. From public library swap:

Now that I can do a few more things (and have daily exercises from the doctors filling my time) I’m no longer completing a puzzle per day. These are the first six I did after getting home. I thought it would be fun to lay a weeks’ work across the floor for a picture. But at the point where I had six puzzles stacked on boards and cardboard sheets in a corner, started to get really nervous somebody would bump it and they’d all end up on the floor pieces mixed together. So I took this pic and after that (aside from two other occasions) put each one away as I finished it, per usual.

The group photo was fun to take, though.

I’m going to do individual posts catching up on puzzles, for the ones that I had something to say about specific details, or did a patch on (which means more pictures). The rest I’ll group together like I did my first reading catch-up post. Let’s see how it goes.

This is the first puzzle I did after my concussion, while still on vacation. My mother had brought it along. We did the first sitting together, then she went to do other activities and I kept puzzling. All day. It was one of the few things I could do (besides nap, or sit in the bath- sans book!- or take a short walk). So with many breaks, I completed the whole thing. Kind of surprising it didn’t give me a headache, what with all the text in the picture, but really I was focused on the piece shapes and colors to match, didn’t have to make my brain interpret the words. And most of these I knew at a glance- in fact, over twenty of the titles we still have in my own house from when my kids were small! That made it so much fun.

This is a newer Springbok puzzle, made in China. It has the same quirky random cut I know from older Springboks, but disappointingly, it did cause me a lot of finger pain (new out of the box). I had no disposable gloves so washed my hands between sittings.

The only two titles on this puzzle I don’t know were Click Clack Moo, Cows that Type and Eloise. Well, I recognize Eloise but I can’t recall if we ever actually read it. So I might have to remedy that, as my brain can handle pictures and short sections of text better than pages of just words, right now (I’ve been reading a graphic novel to get back into things).

Final pic. Completed 12/29/23.

I may come back and add a slide show of assembly pics later- I did take them on all these puzzle builds, just can’t do that much computer time yet. This one, like Autumn Hillside, I took with my little flip phone. The lighting and angle to stand for a shot were much better in this situation, but the table was an awful backdrop (patched together different tones/grains of wood) as you’ll see if I ever put up those progress shots.