My first Jiggy Puzzles puzzle — “Gloria and Angela“, 450 pieces.
Really loved the “Gloria & Angela” art by Shirin Godhrawala; the style — with lots of splotches and splatters and scrawls, along with a relatively limited palette — definitely made for a relatively challenging puzzle. Also, obviously, the subject matter! Gloria Steinem and Angela Davis! I was wondering if there was a model photograph, but I couldn’t find it with a few minutes of googling … I’d love to see it if so, but also, I just loved the artwork regardless. They are so effortlessly cool. I found myself reflecting on how *cool* the 1970s fashion was — even though I simultaneously remember in the 1980s the total rejection and horror of all the 1970s styles which seemed, at that point, hopelessly retro. But look at them! Those giant glasses! The hair! The patterned low-slung pants! The buttons and long necklace!
This was my first puzzle by Jiggy Puzzles, which sells themselves as “art worth framing”, delivered in a nice glass vase along with glue and a credit-card sized metal glue-smoother (maybe there’s a better term for that — glue trowel? glue squeegee?). The packaging was definitely “premium” — which is not my thing, honestly, since I don’t display the puzzle boxes. Also, I’m not a puzzle-gluer / hanger — I puzzle for the experience, not to have displayable art.
So — the puzzle itself. The puzzle had a sort of “crisp white” feel — a backing paper, with the word JIGGY watermarked in a kind of random grid, which could help people if they were stuck with some false fit or other. And yes, I had a few false fits, although I was ultimately able to puzzle them out (ahem) by the image. I found a few pieces where a connector was bending a little, and a few where the art side paper was separating slightly from the puzzle. Not enough to really complain, and it may be that this construction works better for the intended gluing — better able to soak up the glue, maybe. Not my favorite puzzle construction, but certainly not a deal-breaker for me. Especially since Jiggy highlights women artists, and human artists as opposed to AI-generated art.
