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 ….
Autumn Aspen by Laura McElfresh
“Autumn Aspen”, puzzle from Bewilderness; 326 piece version, with geometric pieces; 11×16″. Art by Laura McElfresh. So pretty! Fairly challenging given the low-key color palette, with a good bit of repetition of color blocks. Started with the large block teal in the middle bottom and the right. The squared pieces are fun for me; you […]
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 […]
Cavallini Arboretum
Enjoyably challenging, requiring real focus on details of tree textures, variation of color, etc. Cavallini has few wrong connections, which I appreciate. Second time I’ve had Cavallini pieces still connected & then tore the paper off one of the tabs while disconnecting. )-8 And, I really wish the original captions had been in English rather […]
Andy Kehoe “Inner Mystic: Wondrous Journey”
This beautiful puzzle (“Inner Mystic: Wondrous Journey” by Andy Kehoe) from Heye proved fairly challenging — not least, because there were so many false matches among the puzzle pieces. I had appreciated the curvier innie-outie pieces, but while the shapes are pleasing, there were too many that mis-matched! Grr. Anyway, the real draw was the […]
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 […]
Nadiezda “Night Ship”
Artifact Puzzles: Nadiezda’s “Night Ship” Ash and I did this one today, finishing it up after starting it last week. Lots of beautiful whimsies! This is a 283 piece wooden jigsaw puzzle of a gorgeous image by Mexican artist Nadiezda. The puzzle design is by Kathryn Flocken, and includes numerous sea whimsy pieces with shapes […]
Rex Ray 2
I really enjoy Rex Ray’s art, but will confess I enjoyed “Mylopronesta” more than this one. That image was more satisfying — not just because it has a title, although of course that does satisfy my metadata anal retentivity — but also because I enjoyed the various patterns and blobs of color more. On the […]
2023 puzzling
(as of May 2023) Mini Puzzles done (M & A): AQ AQ & LQ LQ LQ favorites so far:
Japanese Woodblocks
Another Cavallini 1000-piece. These Cavallinis are a pleasure to do, with clear blocks of different pictures, collaged together. This particular collage is really beautiful and well-balanced, as is appropriate for its subject matter. (-: It had reasonable challenges in terms of similar sets of colors that were slightly different from each other in ways that […]
Manami Lingerfelt “Moonrise”
Wow, I loved this art — “Moonrise” by Manami Lingerfelt (website). The Nautilus puzzle is 360 pieces, and just under a square foot. Lots of fun whimsies, one and two-pieced, and the two-pieces were beautifully done. (The owl, below, with one of the pieces an internally folded wing, just makes me happy….) Constellations! Moths! Galaxies […]
25-Year Journey by Janet MacKay
Loved this puzzle — so satisfying. The subject was lovely and right up my alley (and called to me after doing the National Parks puzzle). The puzzle design was also extraordinarily pleasing. The intricate curvey pieces that could often be recognized only by a little divot or odd corner …. The whimsies, of course — […]
Cavallini National Parks posters
Another fun Cavallini vintage themed poster – vintage posters & graphics for national parks.
Vintage Bibliotheque
Trickier than I would have expected, because there were many, many Larousse’s in the picture. Cavallini, 1000, “Vintage Puzzle: “Library””
Eames Design Spectrum
A nice follow-up to the Eames Design Classics puzzle. Again, I enjoyed the varying patterns and colors. The Ravensburger puzzle pieces are regular and non-challenging, so this was a relaxation kind of puzzle. The chair on the inside — pointilist style — was the last section for me.
Valentin Rekunenko “Swordfight”
This one was reasonably challenging — took a bit to get one’s eyes used to the contrasts between the puzzle pieces and the different frames, some parallel and some at angles with each other. The basic puzzle shape was a variation of the standard puzzle piece design, but with little tweaks — rounder and squarer […]
Eames Design Classics
Pretty easy 1000-piece puzzle, with lots of discrete elements, differentiable wood patterns and colors and types of line drawings. Lots of fun, though. Ravensburger 1000 pieces.
