feature: multi-part whimsies
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 […]
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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 […]
Freddie Mercury by Lee Topp, Puzzly 527
Just finished an amazing laser-cut puzzle by Puzzly, 527 pieces and really fabulous whimsies — including a super large multi-piece whimsy. All themed! The artist is “Lee Topp”, who is described on Puzzly’s Freddie Mercury puzzle page as: Lee Topp is a south coast based mixed media artist taking inspiration from Music and Legends. Influenced […]
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 […]
Elephants by Anna Platts, Liberty
Another in a fun Liberty pack from Hoefnagel: “Elephants” by the artist Anna Platts, 253-pieces, 9″x12″.
The Fall by Victor Zaretsky, Dreamton 400
I finally did this lovely painting by Ukrainian artist Victor Zaretsky (maybe Viktor with a “k”? not sure which version is preferred) (1925-1990), “The Fall”, from the Ukrainian laser cutter, Ihor Reshetnikov (Dreamton, via Etsy). (Puzzle available at etsy.) I found this painting discussed on Reddit, under the title “Autumn Wind” — you can see […]
River Otter, Adolfo Valle, Lighthouse Puzzles
“River Otter” by Adolfo Valle, a 62-piece puzzle, 5.6″ x 6.25″, from Lighthouse Puzzles.
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 […]
Mandala Effect, Loubud
My second Loubud Puzzle, “Mandala Effect” (labeled Mandela on the box). A fast, pleasant solve. Such a beautiful image! We loved the cattiness of the mandala, and the multi-piece dog and unicorn whimsies. (Plus the little seahorse.)
Karla Gerard Night Song, from Artifact
A beautiful puzzle loaned to us by my neighbor Yael; Ash and I did some of it, then I finished it off. I really enjoyed this puzzle — kind of a riff on “traditional” style pieces, with quite a few fun and interacting whimsies. Looking at the back, the almost radial symmetry was well done, […]
Robert Burns’ The Hunt from Liberty
Hoefnagel sent me an amazing pack, with this puzzle from Liberty, and “Happily Ever Aftering” from Elms. This puzzle features “Diana and Her Nymphs” by Robert Burns (the painter, 1869-1941, not the poet of the same name, 1759-1796). “Diana and Her Nymphs” is a circa 1926 mural painted at the Crawford’s tearoom in Edinburgh. Lots […]
Louis Wain’s Fiddling Cat, from Artifact
I really loved Artifact‘s contribution to the Puzzle Parley 2024 — the speed puzzle, Louis Wain’s “Fiddling Cat“. So I picked it up, and Ash and I did it, speed-style (that is, with a timer) and I feel pretty good about our time! Which to be clear was more than double the time that the […]
Rackham’s Forest Nymphs, FoxSmartBox
Arthur Rackham is one of my favorite Victorian children’s illustrators, so I was happy to pick up “Forest Nymphs” from FoxSmartBox. FoxSmartBox calls this image “Forest Nymphs”, but I’ve seen it more commonly labeled “Wood Nymphs” — for instance, at the NYPL digital collection, in an illustration of John Milton’s Comus (1634), published in 1921. […]
Poohsticks, by Iwona Lifsches, from Artifact
“Poohsticks” (image by Iwona Lifsches, cut design by Ashley Boyd, puzzle by Artifact) was the second in a Hoefnagel pack (with a BCB puzzle) that I knocked off while recovering from a bug. This one was interesting — the majority of the pieces had one of three standard interlocking shapes, a tulip, a fish fin, […]
Diego Rivera Detroit Industry, Nautilus
Hello to my friend Art Keene! Who lent me this beautiful wood puzzle version of Diego Rivera‘s “Detroit Industry” (actually, one of Rivera’s numerous Detroit Industry murals). Hard! And already the cats have tipped it over. Well, one cat — Bastet — and also, it was my fault for putting it in a tippable place. […]
