Year: 2025

Richard Friend, Limberlost Woods
The third of three Artifact / Ecru puzzles that Yael loaned to me. The image looks initially a bit overwhelming, but all the trees have distinct patterns (a small number of repeats) that it made it easy and fun to assemble small pieces, and then match edges to other pieces. This was a 355-piece puzzle […]

Sky Village by Heather Gauthier, Artifact Ecru 409
“Sky Village” by Heather Gauthier, Ecru, 409 pieces. This is the second of a batch of three puzzles I borrowed from Yael. It was a steady, not difficult, solve, with lots of different areas of variously colored fruits, various textures on the animals, beads & ribbons, all on a damask-style background. (Looking at Gauthier’s website, […]

Roch Urbaniak, Unexpected Visitor
My neighbor and I have a lovely little neighborhood wooden puzzle lending program, and she has this Artifact puzzle I’ve been yearning to do — “Unexpected Visitor” by Roch Urbaniak. The Urbaniak image is beautiful, and the cut design by David Figueiras was lovely — geometric rows, plus fun astronomical / night themed whimsies, with […]

Summer in the Tetons, Jan McGuire, Stave
Hoefnagel lets you have the opportunity to do the beautiful hand-cut puzzles that would otherwise be out of range for me — for instance, Stave’s “Summer in the Tetons” (510 pieces, dated 2004). I don’t know why the Stave website doesn’t list the artist, but googling suggests that this is a work by Colorado-based artist […]

The Big Apple, Zen
Ash and I knocked out another Zen Puzzle, this one, “The Big Apple“. Ash and I recognized 4 out of 5 whimsies, but such is our financial innocence that we were like, “why is there a cow in New York City?” “Financial innocence” sounds nicer (& judgy of other people instead of judgy of ourselves) […]

Winter Reading Nook by Aimee Stewart, Zen teaser
I think it’s fair to say that the decline in democracy in this country has made it difficult for me to do jigsaw puzzles. But Ash and I still manage to knock out a small one periodically. The small puzzles from Zen are very doable even in a highly distracted mindframe. “Winter Reading Nook” is […]

Victory (original), “Gay Harbour, Cornwall”
I think I can call these boats, right? not ships? From the Hoefnagel collection. This is a “Victory Puzzle”, from the original UK company of that name, from the 1950s, with about 350 pieces per Hoefnagel. Hoefnagel description: 350 pieces, hand-cut, irregular connectors. Victory Plywood Jig-saw Puzzles were made in the 1950s in England and […]

Renoir, Garden Scene in Brittany, Silverton
This is Renoir‘s 1886 “Garden Scene in Brittany“, from “Silverton”, a vintage hand-cut puzzle company, via Hoefnagel‘s wood puzzle rental club. The original is in Philly, at the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, PA — not a museum I was previously familiar with. Hoefnagel’s description is brief: Around 300 pieces, hand-cut. This is a vintage puzzle by […]

Totem Pole in the Mist by Terry Isaac (Cobble Hill 1000)
I loved this painting of a totem pole and crow by Terry Isaac (and look, Terry also includes a page highlighting puzzle adaptations!) and it made a lovely 1000-piece puzzle by Cobble Hill. The background ended up offering a gradient, more or less, from the top right light-sky quadrant to the bottom left darker grey. […]

Sunrise in a Winter Forest, Zen Puzzles
“Sunrise in a Winter Forest” is one of several Zen Puzzles that Ash and I are working our way through. This is a peaceful winter scene, but I do wonder at some of the shadows — why such large blobs that are not apparent on the trees themselves? Are these shadows like the shadows in […]

Street Art, Zen Puzzles
Ash and I really enjoyed this small-ish puzzle from Zen Puzzles, “Street Art“, in the 125-piece size. I’m actually not sure what animal it is — a dog? with the tongue — a lion? — but it’s so colorful and cool that it was a pleasure to look at it. Two of the whimsies seem […]

Elephants by Anna Platts, Liberty
Another in a fun Liberty pack from Hoefnagel: “Elephants” by the artist Anna Platts, 253-pieces, 9″x12″.

The Witching Hour, Liberty
Vintage witch (that has a pleasant mouth-feel) by Liberty, with themed whimsies. I really liked the pumpkin …. Via Hoefnagel. I haven’t been able to identify an actual artist for this. Googling around, I found various listings for this image, described as an “I.S.L. series” postcard #552 (notice the #552 at bottom left corner of […]

Ladies Orchestra (Kadinlar Orkestrasi), Derya Yildiz (Anatolian)
Kadinlar Orkestrasi / Ladies Orchestra Derya Yildiz