feature: color line cutting
A Christmas Eve Visitor, by George Hinke (Victory)
I really loved this puzzle from Victory, cut design by Mark Cappitella. George Hinke (1883 – 1953) was a mid-20th century illustrator, born in Germany, who did a lot of these Christmas / jolly St. Nick-style illustrations. He doesn’t have a Wikipedia entry (yet), hmm. (-: This puzzle by Victory is thick — 7mm — […]
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Eyes Full of Stars by Marie-Claude Fournier, cut design by Mark Cappitella
578 pieces, 440x352x7mm (17.5″ x 14″). Canadian artist Marie-Claude Fournier. Victory puzzles, in their “Artisan series”. Puzzle cut design by Mark Cappitella. Loving everything about this — the art, which is gorgeous; the puzzle cut, which is tricky and delightful; the feel of the pieces — thick, solid, curvy. They have the sharpness of laser-cut […]
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 […]
Falling by Mandy Budan, Stumpcraft
460 pieces, puzzle design by Jasen Robillard of Stumpcraft, artwork “Falling” by Mandy Budan. Rental from Hoefnagel. There is a “deep dive” blog post discussing the puzzle and its cut. Like all Stumpcraft puzzles, this one was beautifully cut, and based on beautiful art. I pulled out the whimsies for the photo, and flipping them […]
Stave, A Lasting Impression
In a recent pack from Hoefnagel, I had two fun hand-cut puzzles — one from Carol Ottenberg (aka Ledgewood Puzzles), and this one from Stave. Both were delightful. It was a fun & thematically connected pack, because Carol’s puzzle was a Monet image, and this one was … inspired by? depicting? well, at least referencing […]
Monet’s Poppy Fields, cut by Carol Ottenberg
In a recent pack from Hoefnagel, I had two fun hand-cut puzzles — one from Stave, and this one from Carol Ottenberg (aka Ledgewood Puzzles), who I was happy to meet at Puzzle Parley 2024. Look at those fabulous whimsies — hand-cut! The image is cited as Claude Monet’s “Poppy Fields at Vetheuil” (1879), and […]
Happily Ever Aftering, David Galchutt, Elms
Really lovely hand-cut puzzle via Hoefnagel, cut by “Lisa” at Elms. “Happily Ever Aftering”, by David Galchutt. Gosh, this was beautiful and fun to do.
Moonlit Serenade, Fathom Puzzles
“Moonlit Serenade” — another amazing puzzle from Fathom Puzzles in Vermont — this one a complex, shaped wolf-themed puzzle, with cut-outs and some non-unique connections, requiring very careful attention to the grey-scale patterning — and a few times I flipped pieces over to verify a match based on the wood grain. I really loved the […]
Branching Out, Stave
I haven’t fallen in love with Stave “teasers” — puzzles where you assemble a frame, then snuggle various whimsical shapes into place. But I really liked this one! There was lots of significant puzzling in assembling the “frame”, which was really its own shape — a tree — with various little holes where creatures were […]
Cat in the Flowers (owlqueue 1)
I made a puzzle! I tried to do line-cutting and boy was that hard. I did a cat, for Ash, and here Ash is, doing my puzzle!
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Mr. Z’s Sugar Maples
update: Finished! Whew. I will admit that I enjoyed the last third, which went quickly, the best. This puzzle (from Hoefnagel) is kicking my ass, a little, which I wasn’t quite expecting. Although maybe I should have, given the artwork! There’s some color line cutting, but I’m not sure that’s it — it’s the artwork […]
Klimt, Adele Bloch-Bauer, Puzzle Michele Wilson
So, thanks to Hoefnagel, I finally got to try to a Puzzle Michèle Wilson. The puzzle pieces are thin, and the puzzle itself was 80 pieces, and quite small. The frame is basically interlocking, and the interior of the puzzle is mostly push-fit, some color-line cutting. Cutely, the box is labeled as “puzzle mystère” (that […]
Hoefnagel Heart, Chestnut & Hemlock
A second puzzle by Terra Rodgers (Chestnut & Hemlock), in a Hoefnagel pack; this one is called “Hoefnagel Heart” and is based on the art of Joris Hoefnagel. Like the bunny puzzle just before this one, it has a regular, irregular edge — cleverly inserting each end of a bowed figure into half of a […]
Feeding the Bunnies, Chestnut & Hemlock
A beautifully cut puzzle from Terra Rodgers, Chestnut & Hemlock — “Feeding the Bunnies”, a 1918 work by Helen Hyde (1868-1918).
Puzzlapy, Cats in Paris
“Cats in Paris“, the 120-piece version, by Puzzlapy aka Isabelle Rouillard. The artist is Isy Ochoa. – and browsing her website, I learned that she did a picture book about Rosa Bonheur! I loved this puzzle, and the cuts! Some beautiful color line cutting of the cats, and the little bird, and the Tour Eiffel. […]
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 […]
Papercut Partridge
From Puzzle Lab, “Papercut Patridge”, a winter scene puzzle based on art (“Journey to the Light”) by Morgana Wallace. Lots of line-cutting made this one pretty challenging. Description: Take off into a dreamy holiday winterscape as you piece together this intricate line-cut puzzle featuring a festive papercut piece by Victoria-based artist Morgana Wallace. Morgana’s medium […]
three-fer
Three-fer — three puzzles, three people … plus a cat. A fun family puzzling afternoon. Ash knocked off the hand-puzzle from Chestnut and Hemlock pretty quickly — felt very challenged initially but then pulled it together. I made minimal contributions. The Wentworth chocolates mini puzzle also went fast — Michele got the last piece in, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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