Month: September 2023
Nautilus Los Angeles Times Book Festival 2023
L.A. Times Festival of Books 2023 by Patrick Hruby, from Nautilus. 418 pieces. (See also blog announcement.) (Is Hruby the poster designer, or the puzzle designer?) Described as a “Level 3” … I don’t actually remember what the levels mean? if I ever knew. (Just looked it up — three levels, level 3 is the […]
Yin Yang Owl, CraftHub
A puzzle from “CraftHub” — very pretty yin yang design, with an owl …. mass produced laser cut.
Fool’s Gold Butterflies
Lovely hand-cut puzzle from Fool’s Gold in New Hampshire. Beautiful packaging — box, puzzle reveal photo in a nice little bag, instructions on measuring the puzzle (with a puzzle-assembled ruler) to test whether your assemblage was correct or “forced” …. The shiny bag material in which the puzzle was shared is so familiar to me […]
Thankful by JNG Puzzles
A new wooden puzzle maker from Hoefnagle: JNG (Joyful Nook Gallery) Puzzles, with “Thankful”, a round, highly polished, autumnal / Thanksgiving-themed puzzle with large pieces. It was a quick and easy assemblage, although there were some non-unique pieces with close color matches that meant you did have to pay attention. (The whole puzzle is radially […]
Alice Down the Rabbit Hole (Chestnut and Hemlock)
Wow, this puzzle really blew me away. Terra Rodgers’ displayed extraordinary artistry and craft in matching the layered pieces to the curved room — creating curved plywood! Add to that complexity the color-line cutting and attention to detail in assembling groups of pieces, over and beyond the color line cutting, and the beautiful shapes of […]
Sheep Country by Wentworth
The whole family worked on this adorable little (140-piece size) Wentworth puzzle, and finished it in short order. Wentworth’s description: Beautifully illustrated by well-known Denmark born artist Lisa Graa Jensen, Sheep Country is an endearing image of undulating countryside and farming scenes featuring some adorable sheep. This fine art painting translates into a fascinating jigsaw […]
Sparkles all Around by Chestnut and Hemlock
This is a beautiful hand-cut, hand-painted puzzle by Terra Rodgers (Chestnut and Hemlock). I got it from Hoefnagel, and liked it so well I ordered one for keeps. The puzzle is TINY — about 6″ diameter, 117 pieces — and the consistent curvey shapes, and individually painted pieces, made it a challenge. It’s all shape […]
Lollipop Lollipop by Nel Whatmore
A Wentworth puzzle, of a fun modern, almost abstract, floral, “Lollipop Lollipop”, by Nel Whatmore. Assembled, it’s not abstract — just modern — but all the little pieces individually look like abstract, airbrush or almost kind of a Jackson Pollock vibe, but without the lines …. Anyway, it’s really pretty, visually striking, and the printing […]
Highland Cattle Wentworth mini
Cheerful little 40-piece puzzle of Highland Cattle — four cow whimsies and a little tree whimsy. Highland cows — can’t go wrong. And, I really love the little call-out to The Story of Ferdinand (or at least, that’s how I’m taking it).
Snowflake Blue Heron
A second Snowflake — I liked the subject matter of this one much, much better than the other one. Still challenging in terms of its colors, but the heron was pleasant to assemble. Mark Whitesell is credited, I suppose for the photo and not the puzzle cut.
Brian’s Worst Nightmare
A little 150-piece micro puzzle about cats that Michele and Ash knocked off Friday 9/15. MicroPuzzles.com, “Brian’s Worst Nightmare.”
Penelope Lake View with Wisteria
First “Penelope” puzzle, via Hoefnagel. “Lake View with Wisteria”, another landscape …. Interesting features: the borders are all slightly beveled, which is really nice. It’s a *little* helpful for solving, since even in curvy piece puzzles, there are often little flat-ish sections that could be edges — but here, there’s no questioning — beveling! This […]
Triskelion by Bradley Schenck
My first Wentworth puzzle, courtesy of Hoefnagel Puzzle Club, and I really enjoyed it. This Wentworth (“Triskelion”) is apparently not a “typical” Wentworth, per Hoefnagel, but the geometric cut had me having to do some mental readjustments to get into the groove (so to speak). The circular layering reminded me a bit of Mr. Gogo […]
Enchantment Lakes Snowflake
Snowflake, a new puzzle cutter to me, who is (per Hoefnagel) not currently cutting — but previously at Etsy. Unfortunately I was so eager to try this puzzle cutter that I went with an appealing title “Enchantment Lakes” even though I didn’t see the image, and it was the kind of landscape puzzle that I […]
Tom Thomson, Soft Maple in Autumn
Lovely puzzle from Stumpcraft, Tom Thomson’s “Soft Maple in Autumn” — sneaky puzzle cutting from Jasen Robillard, too; lots of little “fishies” cut out that made shapes look like they would take a convex instead of a concave (or vice versa). I particularly liked the unusual canoe cutout of a person carrying a canoe on […]
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