feature: whimsies
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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Sheep Country by Wentworth
The whole family worked on this adorable little (140-piece size) Wentworth puzzle, and finished it in short order. Wentworth’s description: Beautifully illustrated by well-known Denmark born artist Lisa Graa Jensen, Sheep Country is an endearing image of undulating countryside and farming scenes featuring some adorable sheep. This fine art painting translates into a fascinating jigsaw […]
Lollipop Lollipop by Nel Whatmore
A Wentworth puzzle, of a fun modern, almost abstract, floral, “Lollipop Lollipop”, by Nel Whatmore. Assembled, it’s not abstract — just modern — but all the little pieces individually look like abstract, airbrush or almost kind of a Jackson Pollock vibe, but without the lines …. Anyway, it’s really pretty, visually striking, and the printing […]
Highland Cattle Wentworth mini
Cheerful little 40-piece puzzle of Highland Cattle — four cow whimsies and a little tree whimsy. Highland cows — can’t go wrong. And, I really love the little call-out to The Story of Ferdinand (or at least, that’s how I’m taking it).
Tom Thomson, Soft Maple in Autumn
Lovely puzzle from Stumpcraft, Tom Thomson’s “Soft Maple in Autumn” — sneaky puzzle cutting from Jasen Robillard, too; lots of little “fishies” cut out that made shapes look like they would take a convex instead of a concave (or vice versa). I particularly liked the unusual canoe cutout of a person carrying a canoe on […]
This Is It by Cecile Albi
“This Is It” by Cecile Albi, mini-puzzle, puzzle design by Jasen Robillard. A really beautiful little 62-piece puzzle from StumpCraft. Ash and I knocked it off very quickly today. But, we didn’t notice this cool feature! That some of the pieces can be reversed to make a little back/front mini-whimsy scene.
Olga Suvorova, “Triptych”
My first DaVici — an Olga Suvorova “Triptych” puzzle. It was enjoyable, with lots of whimsies, lots of color. I’ve enjoyed Olga Suvorova‘s paintings for the past few years, and was happy to see this one on the Hoefnagel Puzzle Club. The previous puzzle-doer had kindly sorted them into the three pieces, and I did […]
Herding Cats
“Herding Cats”, a fun (cat-themed, obviously) shaped puzzle, with whimsies, from Nervous System. Art work by Anne Sullivan. Michele assembled quite a lot of this one at home (June 30) … then we did it with Ash, and Ash’s nimble and rapid fingers whipped through most of it really quickly, with some non-negligible participation by […]
Ochiai Rofu, “Kyoto Four Scenes”
Thanks to the Hoefnagel Club, I got this challenging quadriptych (I had to look that up) of “Kyoto Four Scenes“, from Artifact Puzzles (Ecru line). Puzzling: The individual puzzles hang together pretty well once assembled, but until all the pieces are in, there’s lots of slipping and sliding and holding together. The colors are distinguishable, […]
Peking Dragon
A Nautilus puzzle, “Peking Dragon“, 150 pieces, that Ash and I did on July 7 in something under 45 minutes …
The Skyline Was Beautiful on Fire
Finished Stumpcraft puzzle “The Skyline Was Beautiful on Fire” by Steve Driscoll. Fun and requiring a reasonable amount of attention to detail of color and shape. The picture online has more brilliant colors / contrasts than the printed puzzle, and two pieces had tiny wood dings, which made me sad. Otherwise, quite enjoyable, and wholly […]
Streets of Havana
Enjoyed this whimsy-filled puzzle of Havana, from Mosaic Puzzles. The image provenance is not clear to me — it is listed as “(c) 2021 Assaf Frank” — but I have seen very many similar or identical images, so I wonder if this is either a common framing, or a photoshop of a public domain [or […]
Life Magazine Butterfly Flapper
Another puzzle from Victory, more difficult than the San Francisco TWA travel poster I did previously … I really enjoyed the Art Deco / jazz age style cuttings. Unfortunately, a couple of the whimsies were so fragile that they had been snapped before they even got to me from Hoefnagel. 250 wooden pieces / 340x265x5mm (approx. […]
San Francisco via TWA poster
Victory Puzzles: “San Francisco via TWA” vintage poster. Okay, this was my first Victory puzzle. The pieces were thinner than with other wooden puzzles I have done (Artifact, Liberty, Bewilderness, Stumpcraft, Nautilus…) — and the thinness made me feel a bit more they were game pieces, maybe, which was kind of fun. The puzzle had […]
A Bevy of Wild West Women
A fun puzzle, with fun whimsies. Liberty Puzzles: 17.25 x 11.75″ … 477 pieces … “Classic Buffalo Bill show poster. Image courtesy The Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave, celebrating 100 years since the death of Buffalo Bill in 1917.” (Very nice to give an image credit, but I hope they weren’t compelled to license, since […]
From the Tide Pool to the Stars by Ray Troll
Nautilus, 503 piece puzzle. Ray Troll, “From the Tide Pool to the Stars”.
How the West Was One by Chris Huang
Liberty Puzzles, 510 pieces. I really enjoyed this one – nice image, pleasantly occupying with mixes and repeats of textures and colors. Lots of fun whimsies, and a bunch of really nice multi-piece whimsies. I especially loved the buffalo (inside the buffalo, and well-colored, too!) and the woman playing guitar ….
Great Horned Owl Round by Sue Coccia
A Liberty Puzzles extra small puzzle, 91 pieces; quick fun colorful puzzle for me and Ash.
Comin’ Round the Mountain
Mini puzzle from StumpCraft – part of a “flight” of 3 mini puzzles, this was rated 2 out of 5 in difficulty. A quick fun puzzle for me & Ash. Artist: Julie deBoerPuzzle Designer: Jasen RobillardDimensions: 12 cm x 12 cmPiece Count: 73Difficulty: 2 out of 5 Julie deBoer carefully lays out all colours of the rainbow in this mountain […]
Knight Watch by Kari Lehr
This Stumpcraft mini was quick & fun for me and Ash. It was rated 1 out of 5 difficulty, and that was about right. Cute whimsies in a small puzzle. Artist: Kari LehrPuzzle Designer: Jasen RobillardDimensions: 12 cm x 12 cmPiece Count: 57Difficulty: 1 out of 5 After a 20-year career illustrating for various agencies, studios and corporations around […]
