Month: January 2024
Smart Fox
A teaser-style puzzle, with a fitted jigsaw frame of a sleeping fox curled on a meadow (with a blue and red striped … muffler? I don’t get it) and 25 small fox figurals fitted into the fox’s curled body. I’m going to call this kind of piecing, “snuggle pieces”. “Smart Fox” by FoxSmartBox.
Palmaris Enchanted Forest
Very pretty forest photography, with a large whole-puzzle piece-figure of a tree, and incredibly detailed etchings with yet more tree themes. Quite doable, with only 222 pieces, but required some attention and both shape- and color-matching were helpful. Palmaris description: Story Excerpt: It’s been said that trees can talk to each other. They can send […]
Oh, My Love (A to G Music)
Hand-cutter from Etsy, AtoGMusic. It seems like they are mostly selling vintage sheet music, but they do some hand-cutting of wooden puzzles, too! They describe that these are actual sheet music covers, so first sale doctrine! It’s a thin plywood, and there was some sawdust from the cut. The cut felt very similar to a […]
Two Cats by Yuri Gorbachev
Ash and I pushed through “Two Cats” by Yuri Gorbachev, an Artifact puzzle cut design by David Figueras with 314 pieces. Super satisfying and fun! Loved the border, and the general diagonal layout, and enjoyed the whimsies. Look at the matryoshka dolls whimsies! I got it through Hoefnagel with the Owl Internet Cafe. Artifact description: […]
Internet Owl Cafe, Artifact
Coincidentally, just after doing the Paris Map, I got a Hoefnagel package with another VladStudio illustration! This also came with one of the lovely little Hoefnagel surprises — Mardi Gras beads from the previous puzzler! Awww…. Anyway, the black/white/blue color scheme made this puzzle a bit more challenging than one would expect. Plus, the protrusions […]
Vladstudio Paris Map, Artifact
Really fun map puzzle – greatly enjoyed the border cut (the fleur-de-lis on the four corners, and the variable patterned border on the sides). I also liked the generally swirly nature of the pieces. Not a lot of whimsies, but I enjoyed the two-piece Toulouse-Lautrec style cat — I was puzzled by the bottom part […]
Owl Be There, Fathom
Loved this puzzle, so much! Owls, beautiful crafting, puzzley but not too crazy hard. “Owl Be There“, Fathom Puzzles. Packaging was also extra nifty! And it included an owl magnet. A contender for my favorite puzzles of the year, to be sure! Fathom Puzzles is by Geoff Cota.
Fox Smart Box, Miranda
“Miranda” by John William Waterhouse (1916), 206-piece version by Fox Smart Box — cut designer not credited. My first FoxSmartBox and I enjoyed it. I particularly liked several of the whimsies (the seahorse and crabs! squid & octopus! adorable little starfish! so cute) and the fish-tail joiner that was pretty common. It assembled so quickly […]
Bumfuzzled 1 Enigmatic Gewgaw
A nice fast solve, at the end of a long hard day. I guess the peices with the little “x” are supposed to be drop-outs and puzzle pieces to re-insert? Note: My puzzle arrived with a little stain or scorchmark – that is not a result of me being sloppy! I find the coloring on […]
Optimist by Victor Nizovtsev (Palmaris)
Palmaris, “Optimist”, painting by Victor Nizovtsev.
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Diana Zimens City of Cats (Davici)
Fun, steady solving – lots and lots and LOTS of cats! 700 pieces. Hoefnagel Puzzle Club. The artist is named as Diana Zimens at Hoefnagel, but I’ve seen her listed elsewhere as Diana Siemens.
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Malédiction by Julien Deval (Stumpcraft 472)
Really challenging, because of the subtle color palette. And, kind of a puzzle break for me …. Stumpcraft description: Artist: Julien DelvalPuzzle Designer: Jasen RobillardDimensions: 43 cm x 30 cmPiece Count: 480Difficulty: 4 out of 5 Julien Delval is perhaps most well known for his beautiful and exquisitely detailed illustrations that appear on many fantasy book covers for adults and […]
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CraftHub bumblebee
A family project! As usual with these, lots of little cute etched whimsies that are just relatively standard for the company, nothing to do with the image. The image, though, is really pretty. (The push-fit style is not any of our favorite, though…)
