puzzles Archives - Page 3 of 15

Courting Peacocks

Made by Tailten Games ~ artist Rachel Arbuckle ~ 1,000 pieces

What a fantastic puzzle. This one was hard. But I liked it a lot. Such rich, bright colors and intricate detail. I didn’t notice until partway done that the ins and outs of the pattern are different on each side- a line that goes under on the left, goes over on the right- if you look close you start to see it all over. So that was fun, and made it a tad easier to figure out where some pieces went. This one is a standard ribbon cut, basic shape variety. I didn’t mind at all, the colors and complexity of the image made up for simplicity of the piece cut.

I found a bit more than halfway through, once I got all the greens and oranges in place, there was definitely a missing piece. Made a replacement, mid-process.

It’s not my best.

The lines of the drawing don’t quite line up, the green and blues aren’t dark enough. From a distance it’s not immediately noticeable though, so I am satisfied it’s better than having a hole in the puzzle. I might make another attempt at a better patch later on.

Assembly!

from CList - bought used

Tags: puzzles

Autumn Hillside

made by Pomegranate ~ artist Franklin Carmichael ~ 1,000 pieces

Another puzzle I did over the holidays. Not enough time to complete it, but I knew that would be the case when I started so didn’t mind. This is just two days’ work, a bunch of short sittings between other activities. I had forgotten to take my camera along on the trip, but tried to do progress shots with my new (old style) flip phone. You might think these photos are terrible, but I’m actually impressed how well most of them turned out. I had the puzzle turned to sit with my back to the window for the best lighting, but that made it awkward to get into the space for taking pictures. There was nothing to stand on to get a good height above the table for a photo, or to prop the board up at an angle on, and it was too heavy to move to the floor (all things I do when taking photos of puzzles in progress at home).

So I took these pictures holding my little flip phone above my head and angling it best guess down at the board on the table (with many I just had to delete). The really awful three just before the last in the series were done at night with the overhead artificial lights. I tried to make adjustments once I had the pictures on the computer, but there’s only so much you can do. I could have puzzled for another hour, but was into all the darker pieces then, it was taking me ten minutes just to fit one piece in. Gave up. The next morning (last sitting, final photo) I put a whole dozen in place while my tea was steeping.

I had some help too. My mother-in-law, my husband’s nephew and niece (she’s five) all sat and joined in at various times. The niece was the most eager. I think she placed three pieces! And it was a tough puzzle. (My father-in-law glanced at it once and said “That’s a terrible puzzle!” I’m not sure if he just didn’t like the picture, or thought the colors were all dull). But I actually liked this one- it reminded me a lot of Jack Pine and Poplar. If I come across it in a thrift store or at a swap, I’ll definitely get it to work again to completion. I wanted to see how the colors would punch once the final dark blue-green trees and shadows were in place, but I left all that hard part for the relatives to finish!

I’ve said a lot about the circumstances around this puzzle, but not the quality- it’s same as Jack Pine. Lovely surface texture, very minimal glare, ribbon cut with standard shape variety. My only complaint is that some of the shape variations (the knobs) are so small I have to look at them very closely. I used this very nice puzzle board that my in-laws have- it’s the kind with a ledge on one side, and four drawers you can pull out, to keep the pieces sorted. So I did a lot of sorting at the beginning. Which was handy, but then found myself moving all the pieces again from each color group, to spread out around the puzzle on the board. I’m so used to working with everything visible to run my eyes over, soon realized I prefer my plain old assortment of boards rather than the fancy drawers/sorting trays- and I have quite a few now for different puzzling situations. My largest and most often used, is a sheet of thin plywood painted white. I also have a smaller sheet of white corrugated plastic (which is lightweight so easier to move around but flexible so also tricky), two panels of pressed chipped cardboard, one of black foamcore, and a set of eight thick cardboard pieces I’m going to someday do a 9,000 piece Hieronymus Bosch on.

Well, here’s the terrible assembly pics. I’ll try to remember and take my actual digital camera along next time I travel, in case of more puzzle opportunities (and family photos, of course).

borrowed from a relative

Tags: puzzles

Chameleon

made by TradeOpia ~ artist unknown ~ 243 pieces

My fourth wooden puzzle! It was a birthday present- back in October, and I just got around to doing it over the holiday. These are so much fun. And really stretch the brain- I find myself focusing on shapes in a completely different way. It made me remember the only time I’ve seen an actual chameleon in the wild- because it was pitch dark, the guide showing us with a flashlight this tiny creature on a leaf- it was very hard to see!

I kept trying to figure out the significance of the outside shape- some kind of shield? Then my kid pointed out it looks like a lion or bear head, upside down. We guessed that the manufacturer just reused that cut shape but flipped, instead of making a new leaf outline, or the edge of the chameleon itself . . .

Unfortunately this puzzle did have a few minor issues- one piece was chipped,

another had scratches

and several were splitting apart

this one completely separated. I had to do a little work with superglue before diving in. A tad disappointing, in a brand-new puzzle!

The reverse side though, was completely clean, no burn marks at all. (I did a cardboard sandwich to flip it over and admire, but didn’t take a photo).

First thing of course, was sorting out and admiring all the “whimsy” pieces- mostly animals

these sea creatures

also leaves, trees, acorn, a flower (or is it an anenome? amoeba? milk splat… ?) and a pawprint.

Assembly:

it was a Gift

Tags: puzzles

Marmaduke

made by Cobble Hill ~ artist Geoffrey Tristram ~ 1,000 pieces

I did this puzzle slowly in order to enjoy it more. Just love Cobble Hill puzzles- the unique piece cut, minimal glare, very nice canvas-like surface, sturdy pieces- everything good! I left the cat for last because I thought the fur would be fun- but after the face, it was particularly hard, so took quite a few sittings. The dark background was also tricky- especially that wallpaper with muted birds and flowers. Just the kind of challenge I like, though.

from online swap - Puzzle Exchange Group

Tags: puzzles

The Pet Vet

made by Ceaco ~ artist Jane Wooster Scott ~ 750 pieces

I wasn’t aware of this artist before, but a quick look online and there’s lots of puzzles with her paintings. Very similar to Charles Wysocki- scenery with big houses, lots of little details, rural and early Americana as far as I can tell. I liked this one because of all the animals. It was a new, sealed in the box thrift store find. The downside to it being so spanking new: hurt my fingers a lot. I had to wear glove tips. Even when sorting, and disassembling at the end. Very shiny too, which was a bit distracting. But decent piece shape variety, and more of a challenge than I expected! I started by choosing all the blue of sky and trees in bloom- but the abstract randomness of the blossoms really stumped me. So just did the plain sky first, then set all the flower pieces aside for the end.

The assortment of pets is fun- there’s the usual cats and dogs, a bird in a cage, and animals you’d expect in a farming community- horse, pig, sheep, donkey. Then there’s this one, I think it’s supposed to be a calf- but the head doesn’t seem quite right (too long) and the horns are tall and straight upright, like a goat. Maybe it’s a goat with a black-and-white piebald coat? Just funny.

Then there’s a girl with a pet skunk!

And I like this one just because it reminds me of a stray dog that showed up in our neighborhood when I was a kid. We kept it in the yard for about a week, found it a new home. Nicest dog ever. (It wasn’t quite as large to me as compared to the kid in this picture).

Tags: puzzles

Songbird Menagerie

made by Buffalo Games ~ artist Jamie Hautman ~ 300 pieces

I kind of needed a quick easy puzzle after the last difficult one. This one so breezy I completed it in just a day- pretty much one long sitting, with photos every time I got up to stretch. The birds were fairly easy. I did have to slow down in the last few stages, the grass stems and indistinct white flowers a bit harder to do.

I like the image, how it’s not just a bunch of pretty birds poised so calmly next to each other- well, the bottom row is. On the top it looks like the flicker is lunging at the bluebird, who just took off to get away, startling the goldfinch. And a woodpecker is avoiding the ruckus behind the fence post. Amusing.

There was a bit of picture layer worn off one corner piece.

I used colored pencils to repair, hardly noticeable now.

It did make my fingertips quite sore. I would have put gloves on, except I expected to be done with it so soon. But it was irritating enough that several times during the puzzling I had to go wash my hands.

Tags: puzzles

Flight of the Pixie

made by Sunsout ~ artist Don Maitz ~ 1,000 pieces

Have I really been doing this puzzle for a month? Sure feels like it- three and a half weeks, at least (I can’t recall if I started it right after finishing the savannah one, or if there was a gap). I like the picture and I love the crazy piece shapes, but this one was so hard. The butterflies and the little fairy babe himself were just the right level of challenge and fun. That patch of grass and the brown mulchy ground and all the dark background indistinguishable as individual pieces, was frustrating to madness. Near the end I started working it upside down, since visualizing the picture didn’t make any difference, I was mostly matching by shape. Delightfully wild and wonky shapes, though! There were plenty of sittings I only got a few pieces in, so some of these assembly pics include several days’ work. Phew! I’m ready to move on to something easier now.

Tags: puzzles

Savannah Animals

made by Bits and Pieces ~ artist Jan Patrik ~ 1,000 pieces

This puzzle was fun. Lots of different colors and visual patterns. Nice, sturdy pieces- a bit too much glare for my taste, but it wasn’t terrible. The random piece cut was full of unique shapes. Plenty that pretended to be edges, but weren’t (not a single one of these is actually an edge piece, though I had them all sorted out for that) but that just adds to the challenge! (And there was one piece on the bottom edge that should have been obvious to pick out from the others, but eluded me until I was a good way into the puzzle)

Some very skinny ones too.

Also challenging was that the whole picture had this subtle wavy texture. It looks to me like a digital painting that had the texture applied over everything- and that made it tricky to discern between pieces of similar colors, because the texture looked the same whether it was lion fur, pale grass, or elephant hide!

Some details- leopard

bee-eater

and this one that really confused me: why are there canada geese in a picture of African animals? My first thought was well, maybe they migrate there but I looked it up and no, they don’t. There’s plenty other types of geese and waterfowl in Africa that could be alongside giraffes, zebra and lions- but not this species. It kind of annoyed me.

Assembly:

Tags: puzzles

Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center

made by C. Harrison Conroy Co. ~ photographer unknown ~ 750 pieces

This was one of the more difficult 750-piece puzzles I’ve done. All those pink azaleas in the background was very reminiscent of Quite Fetching! Not to mention that it’s a photograph. An altered one though, I think. The butterflies looked a bit off- the way they were posed, so many so close together- and peering very close, you can see the tiny legs don’t quite sit on the flowers in a natural way. I really think only the dark-winged one on the upper left side (that’s facing to the left) was part of the original photograph, and the others were all pasted in. Pretty good job, but still! The butterflies were fun to do, and a tad easy. It was all the pink flowers that gave me a headache. Very standard ribbon cut, with the one extra variation of some wavy edges instead of knobs / holes. It didn’t get easy again until I was down to the last twenty pieces, and could more readily pick out shape matches. Three missing pieces. I made replacements to patch in. My first attempt with colored pencil on white cardstock wasn’t bold enough, couldn’t get the background dark to blend in. Used markers on thin cardboard instead (three layers) and that was a much better match.

Husband picked out the replacements right away (but he’d seen where I was working on them). Turns out two are a tad too dark now, and the layer of tape I added made them a bit too shiny- but from a distance or at a glance you don’t really notice them, so I’m satisfied enough. I left this one out on the table for a day just to admire my handiwork.

Funny thing, when I first spread out the pieces on the table, I found a surprise- someone else’s handmade cardboard puzzle piece! Much larger, and roughly made. Of course I’m curious about that, but I’ll never know.

a thrift store find

Tags: puzzles

Cricket Hollow

made by Bits and Pieces ~ artist Jim Fitzgerald ~ 500 pieces

An easy, quick puzzle after the difficult one. Actually this one wasn’t so easy, either. Even though 500’s usually only take me a day or two now. This one had the same delightfully odd angular piece cut, which kept my brain working. So even though it’s not really my favorite kind of picture, I did like putting it together. Nice sturdy pieces, no sore fingers, minimal glare and a good brain workout. No missing pieces! It’s up for trade (I catalog my puzzle collection on a site called PuzzleSwaps now, which facilitates trades between members).