feature: 101-299 pieces
Mushroom Glow by Tomasz Pietrzyk (Artifact)
Ash and I did an Artifact 286-piece puzzle, “Mushroom Glow” by Tomasz Pietrzyk (https://www.tomekpietrzyk.art/en/), puzzle design by Matt Lyon. We broke into it last Tuesday (11/11) & got about halfway finished, then picked it up & finished it today. The bottom quarter of the puzzle was really challenging — pretty dark and hard with some […]
Winter Boughs by Laura McElfresh (Bewilderness)
Bewilderness (and at Etsy), 160 wooden pieces, tesselations. “Winter Boughs” by Laura McElfresh. Okay, wow, this was hard. A good third or half the pieces were all the exact same shape. There was one very large whimsy (pine-cone cut-outs) and a number of smaller whimsies (also pine-cones) and then a bunch of other pieces with […]
Cateye by Pixie Cold (Ravensburger 200)
Pretty little 200-piece Ravensburger (“Cateye“) that Ash and I knocked off Saturday afternoon. Most of the pictures on the box made it look more square, so I posted the one picture that had more accurate dimensions — it’s a landscape orientation rectangle! The artist is only credited with an instagram username, “Pixie Cold“, which makes […]
Lovely Cat Ravensburger wooden
Ash and I knocked off another small Ravensburger wooden (laser-cut) puzzle, cat themed! The whimsies are actually quite nice.
Optimago, Off for the Honeymoon by Frederick Morgan
This 266-piece Optimago (1979-2005) puzzle is listed as an “Enigma”, with no image available. As with a lot of vintage puzzles, and puzzles made of old European art, the colors were a little bit muddy. They look a lot crisper in the photo than they did to my eyes! Maybe it’s my eyes that are […]
Hotel Melrose Lobby by Perkins Harnly
I really enjoyed this 250-piece puzzle from Puzzly (via Hoefnagel). It was a fast solve, with a mix of traditional puzzle pieces and whimsies, like the two Wentworth puzzles I just did — but I enjoyed the puzzling experience more. I think the wood was a bit thicker than in those two Wentworths (they have […]
Apro Vision, “Moon Castle”
Via Hoefnagel, I got this laser-cut 152-piece (“A4 size”) puzzle from “Apro Vision”, which appears to be one of the randomly generated names that Chinese laser cutters create to sell on Amazon. It’s a pretty cool and tricky image — many little doors in various sizes, plus some gears, and trees in various teacups (surrealist […]
Purr-fect Night by Mary Stubberfield
Wentworth Puzzles, 240 pieces, “Purr-fect Night” by Mary Stubberfield, via Hoefnagel. Another thin, MDF wood, mix of traditional pieces with etched whimsies. I liked this art better than the owl puzzle that was also in the Hoefnagel pack, but the puzzling experience otherwise was very similar.
Owlets in the Moonlight, Rosalind Solomon
A Wentworth 250-piece puzzle by Rosalind Solomon, by way of Hoefnagel. Although it was owl-themed, I wasn’t in love with the art — I’m not a fan of works where a large picture has the center hollowed out to have a different scene, or a collage. I did enjoy the multitudinous owl whimsies, though. … […]
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) […]
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 […]
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Granny’s Attic by Kaaren Biglands, handcut by BCB Brookie Biglands
A fun snuggle-style (BCB / Brookie Biglands calls them “Bamboozle Puzzles”) puzzle, via Hoefnagel. The frame was actually a reasonably challenging jigsaw, and the snuggle part was quite doable — I was actually able to do it without “cheating” or using any kind of solved image. I love that Biglands uses her mom’s art! And […]
Garden Magic 2 by Christine Reichow, Starz
I got to try a Starz puzzle, thanks to the Hoefnagel club. “Garden Magic 2” by Christine Reichow, a Florida based artist. Starz is a laser cutter based in Illinois. The wood is not plywood, but a solid maple hardwood — the pieces felt really light, which was a little surprising to me, but maybe […]
Butlin’s Clacton-on-Sea, Victory
A 250-piece puzzle from Victory in England, a vintage puzzle of swimmers / divers from a train company’s travel poster, “Butlin’s Clacton-on-Sea“. (Which, according to Wikipedia, was a holiday camp operating from 1938-1983.) This is probably a public domain image; it is available here and listed as from 1938 — the Clacton-on-Sea resort’s opening year. […]
Frosted Fir Tree, Wentworth
I got a few new puzzles from Wentworth, and in need of a relatively short solve, I pulled out the 240-piece “Frosted Fir Tree”, with artwork credited to “Alexandru Davidenco”. When I went to see more about this artist, I figured out this is actually AI-generated art. See the licensing shop, where this user has […]
Dowdle Brooklyn Bridge, Elms
Finished this 121-piece Elms hand-cut puzzle of an Eric Dowdle image, “Brooklyn Bridge“, cut by “Kristin”. It was part of a Hoefnagel pack, both of which were fun fast solves.
