subject: trees
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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Autumn on Bow Bridge by Joy LaForme (Galison 1000)
I was attracted by Joy LaForme’s “Autumn on Bow Bridge”, and I did enjoy assembling this piece … but oh, Galison, why did you make 1000 pieces of the ABAB puzzle shape? no ABBB or AABB or AAAA? aggghhh … also, there were a number of large-ish chunks that were still assembled! Cardboard was fully […]
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Winter Boughs by Laura McElfresh (Bewilderness)
Bewilderness (and at Etsy), 160 wooden pieces, tesselations. “Winter Boughs” by Laura McElfresh. Okay, wow, this was hard. A good third or half the pieces were all the exact same shape. There was one very large whimsy (pine-cone cut-outs) and a number of smaller whimsies (also pine-cones) and then a bunch of other pieces with […]
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Frank Lloyd Wright Fallingwater (Galison 500)
So glad I dropped the Cross & Glory AI puzzle and set up this Galison double-sided 500-piece puzzle, of Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Fallingwater” (I really don’t know why it’s styled “Fallingwater” not “Falling Water” ….), instead. Puzzle link. Galison’s pieces are crispy but more solid than the one I was doing, and the puzzle cut […]
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puzzle abandoned
I couple of years ago I ran across “Cross & Glory” which, admittedly, had a bit of a scary name, but they said it was about England …. okay. The images were fun, and I bought three puzzles — “Petals & the Midnight Cat”, “Fantastical Treehouse Escape”, and “Caribbean Treasure Hunt”. When I got them […]
Franklin Carmichael Collection (Cobble Hill 1000)
I really loved this puzzle! Cobble Hill Puzzles, 1000-piece, “Carmichael Collection” in the “Canadian Artist Series”. Franklin Carmichael (1890-1945), member of the Group of Seven, and a Theosophist …. The five included artworks are all in the collections at the Art Gallery of Ontario and include, clockwise from top left, “Light and Shadow” (1937), “Autumn […]
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Sierra Range by Charley Harper (Pomegranate 1000)
I love Charley Harper art — nature scenes, plus geometric shapes, bright colors — and love the Pomegranate puzzles of Charley Harper. This one was on my to-do pile, and I’m pushing through a lot of puzzles right now …. I really love running my hand over completed Pomegranate puzzles. Somehow it’s more satisfying than […]
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Mid Summer Night Dream by Enzhao Liu
I’d had this 1000-piece puzzle (“Mid Summer Night Dream” by Enzhao Liu) from Antelope for a while, and was leery of doing it because it seemed dark and hard, but actually it came together very quickly and beautifully. There was lots of variation in the various birds and tree forms, and even the night sky […]
Richard Friend, Limberlost Woods
The third of three Artifact / Ecru puzzles that Yael loaned to me. The image looks initially a bit overwhelming, but all the trees have distinct patterns (a small number of repeats) that it made it easy and fun to assemble small pieces, and then match edges to other pieces. This was a 355-piece puzzle […]
Renoir, Garden Scene in Brittany, Silverton
This is Renoir‘s 1886 “Garden Scene in Brittany“, from “Silverton”, a vintage (said to be hand-cut but probably not) puzzle company, via Hoefnagel‘s wood puzzle rental club. The original is in Philly, at the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, PA — not a museum I was previously familiar with. Hoefnagel’s description is brief: Around 300 pieces, hand-cut.* […]
Sunrise in a Winter Forest, Zen Puzzles
“Sunrise in a Winter Forest” is one of several Zen Puzzles that Ash and I are working our way through. This is a peaceful winter scene, but I do wonder at some of the shadows — why such large blobs that are not apparent on the trees themselves? Are these shadows like the shadows in […]
Frosted Fir Tree, Wentworth
I got a few new puzzles from Wentworth, and in need of a relatively short solve, I pulled out the 240-piece “Frosted Fir Tree”, with artwork credited to “Alexandru Davidenco”. When I went to see more about this artist, I figured out this is actually AI-generated art. See the licensing shop, where this user has […]
Vibrant Village, CraftHub
I ordered a bunch of puzzles from “PuzzlesUp”, which was closing, and it turned out they were all labeled “CraftHub”. Hmm. Anyway, I liked the image. The pieces were pretty interlocking. This puzzle is called “Vibrant Village”.
Chestnut & Hemlock, tree snuggle
This was a beautiful birthday gift from Michele …. Ash did it. (-:
I Moose Be Dreaming, StandOut Puzzles
I loved this artwork & grabbed his “StandOut Puzzles” (their website is down but their instagram is live) 750-piece puzzle, “I Moose Be Dreaming“, with art by Erin Brekke Conn …. and man it was hard. The entire painting is pointillism! With that difficulty, the seven extra pieces that they threw in — that appear […]
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, […]
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 […]
Forest Fables, Trippy Puzzles
“Trippy Puzzle Co.” is a laser cutter, listed on Etsy, that says “designed in the US, made in China.” The box is very similar to another puzzle I got recently — can’t remember which — and includes “display feet” like a CraftHub puzzle. So I take it there is a laser wood cutter in China […]
Birds and Bees, Stumpcraft
Some group puzzling at Puzzle Parley! I did the bee, and a lot of the flower bed on the right …. This was a sweet StumpCraft, “Birds and Bees”: Artist: Pam WeberPuzzle Designer: Jasen RobillardDimensions: 27.5 cm x 27.5 cmPiece Count: 284Difficulty: 3 out of 5 The air is a buzz with the flutter of wings […]
Whiskered Woods, Rebel Puzzles
I tried out two puzzles from Rebel Puzzles, a laser cutter, and the first (“Whiskered Woods“) was great fun! A tesselation of cat pieces — two main styles with minor differences among some of the pieces. Required close attention to color, pattern, and the minor detailed differences. Ash is going to love this one, I […]
