maker: puzzle hand-cutters
BCB, Steele Briggs Seed Catalog
Hoefnagel Puzzle Club, BCB.
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 […]
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. […]
Black-Eyed Susan
Wow, really large pieces! I was not expecting that. Kevin Quillen photograph, and Kevin Quillen cut, under name KitchenWood – at etsy at https://www.etsy.com/shop/KitchenWoodsLLC
BCB, The Partnership by David Galchutt
The Partnership by David Galchutt, cut by BCB, via Hoefnagel …
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Big Ben by Eduardo Calzado, BCB
11.5″ x 14.5″, 400 pieces, handcut by Brookie Biglands (BCB Puzzles), via Hoefnagel. Yes, the swirly sky took a long time. Lovely feel to this puzzle.
Oh, My Love (A to G Music)
Hand-cutter from Etsy, AtoGMusic. It seems like they are mostly selling vintage sheet music, but they do some hand-cutting of wooden puzzles, too! They describe that these are actual sheet music covers, so first sale doctrine! It’s a thin plywood, and there was some sawdust from the cut. The cut felt very similar to a […]
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“Sanctuary” (PuzzleMonk)
Another lovely little hand-cut jigsaw via Hoefnagel, this one from PuzzleMonk, out of Wisconsin. 162 pieces, paired with the midcentury xmas poodle I finished yesterday. Trying to track down more info about the art, I found that it has been used in other puzzles — here, for instance, a 750 piece puzzle from “Crystals & […]
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small midcentury poodle christmas handcut
This was an adorable small (79 pieces, approximate postcard dimensions) handcut puzzle from Hoefnagel, labeled “mystery hand-cut puzzle”. No image came with it, but it assembled easily, with good chunks of color. The image was of course right up my alley — midcentury modern with a poodle! Plus, seasonally appropriate. I wish I knew who […]
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, […]
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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Sparkles all Around by Chestnut and Hemlock
This is a beautiful hand-cut, hand-painted puzzle by Terra Rodgers (Chestnut and Hemlock). I got it from Hoefnagel, and liked it so well I ordered one for keeps. The puzzle is TINY — about 6″ diameter, 117 pieces — and the consistent curvey shapes, and individually painted pieces, made it a challenge. It’s all shape […]
Mr Gogo Fractal
My second Mr. Gogo; this one, a really difficult visual challenge with limited colors in a fractal (highly repetitive) design. Fun puzzling — but I don’t think this kind of image is my bag. On the other hand, Michele found it extremely arresting, and described it as perhaps the most exciting image they’ve seen in […]
Mr Gogo 5 layer flower mandala
My first Mr. Gogo, courtesy of the Hoefnagel Puzzle Club, a 5-layer flower mandala, labeled as a “teaser”. It was a beautiful image, repeated in 5 layers, with a clever two-layer stacked piece connecting each layer. More challenging than I thought it would be, due to the repeating images on the different layers, but I […]
tree-themed mini puzzles
Ash and I did two tree-themed mini wood puzzles today. The first was a mini (16-piece) tessellation from Bewilderness — 16 tree shapes, forming a large tree shape, and the picture was also a forest of trees. Ash enjoyed setting up the tree pieces as dominos …. …. We also really enjoyed this pin oak […]
