Fawn and Flowers by James Hautman – Buffalo – 300 pieces
I assembled this puzzle while I was working on yesterday’s review, Ruby Red – I needed a win in the middle of all those black pieces! This image was pretty, only 300 pieces, and exactly what I needed. 🙂
Buffalo 300 piece puzzles are great quality, with nice, thick pieces that feel good in your hands. They fit together extremely well and have lovely images to choose from. I’m not always in the mood for larger piece Buffalo puzzles, but I’m always happy to put together a 300 piece – they’re perfect for a quick, fun assembly.
Wildlife, nature and landscapes aren’t my usual choices; I prefer collages and bright colors for the most part. But purchasing puzzles at thrift stores has been quite the learning experience for me, puzzles I wouldn’t necessarily choose for myself I assemble because they’re available. I end up loving almost every one of them, and am usually surprised at how fun they are! I suppose it shows my age that I’m still surprised by this. 👵
Give a different image a try, you might end up loving it❣
I absolutely adore the image of this puzzle, but oh my was it a challenge! Good thing I can be completely stubborn at times, because although I may have wanted to give up on this I never did. I wanted to light it on fire a couple of times, but I wanted to see the finished puzzle even more and I stuck with it. Isn’t it gorgeous? It’s not your typical puzzle image, and that’s part of the draw for me – I gotta be me and I try never to follow the crowd unless they’re headed towards someone selling chocolate!
This is a Schmidt puzzle, and usually their quality is excellent. This is the first puzzle of theirs that I’ve been disappointed with. The cut of the pieces was less than good, some of the tabs were completely broken off because the part connecting them was so thin. A couple of the pieces weren’t broken on the initial sort, but they broke when I picked them up or tried to place them. I don’t know the manufacturing process well enough to know what causes this, but it was completely frustrating! Here are a few of the broken and almost broken pieces.
A few broken pieces aside, the rest of the quality was quite good. Thick pieces with a linen finish, excellent fit, and lovely image reproduction. This puzzle came in a large commemorative tin, so perhaps because it was a special edition it was cut differently than the other Schmidt puzzles I’ve worked? I can’t say for sure.
I knew going in that it would be quite difficult with all that black, but I love the image so much that I really wanted to get it finished. Normally if I’m assembling a puzzle and it feels like work then it isn’t fun; I’m supposed to be enjoying myself! But once in a while I refuse to give up because I really want to conquer it – this was one of those times.
The lovely lady in the middle of the image was easy enough to work with all the skin, fishnet stockings and sparkles; it was the curtains behind her that tested me. At the edge of the curtains the black is a little lighter and you can see a pattern, but the rest of them are basically solid black. Yikes! I sorted the black pieces by shape and counted them (I just wanted to know how much of this puzzle was all black), and almost 400 of the 1000 pieces were completely black. I can’t believe I didn’t give up!
In the end I’m pleased with myself for finishing, it is such a striking image. It’s mostly good quality, but the broken pieces prevent me from recommending this puzzle. It may have been an isolated problem, but this is a quality issue we puzzlers really dislike. If the pieces are broken, the puzzle is broken.
Springtime Beauty by Kim Norlien – Buffalo – 300 pieces
Mom and I assembled this together on our puzzle/visit day; we’ve been doing more 300 and 500 piece puzzles lately because they’re easier for me. The colors of the flowers caught my eye, and I love the expression on the faces of the birds.
Buffalo 300 piece puzzles are about perfect for me, I like the larger size of the pieces compared to their 1000 piece puzzles. For some reason the pieces of their 1000 piece puzzles seem too small and symmetrical to me – not always, but sometimes. There are times when I have to be in the right mood to do a certain puzzle or work with certain piece shapes. I never claimed to be rational. 😎
The quality of Buffalo puzzles is very good, although I’ve found that the fit can sometimes be loose. The pieces are thick and the image reproduction is sharp and detailed. The fit of this puzzle though was quite good, I find their smaller piece counts seem to fit a little more snugly. Perhaps it’s just me, because I like the smaller puzzles more; it’s all a matter of perception isn’t it?
This image is more difficult than it looks, but still fun to put together. The birdhouse and birds were easy enough to pick out, but there are many flowers and lots of tree bark. We had a good time assembling it, with lots of laughing and teasing. It’s so much more fun for me to puzzle with mom, and I try not to take for granted spending time with her. She rocks!
If this image speaks to you, I definitely recommend it. It’s beautiful and well made and was great fun to assemble. 🐦
World Landmarks by Adrian Chesterman – Educa – 42000 pieces
I’ve been checking every few weeks, and I just found this giant of a puzzle for sale in the United States! If you’ve been looking for this, I’ve found it on Amazon for quite a reasonable price with free shipping!
I’d love to see this in person and look at how the pieces fit together, but I don’t know if that’s realistic unless I purchase it for myself. I’m not planning on buying it, but I’d love to hear from anyone who has. Adrian Chesterman’s work is always bright and colorful and incredibly detailed – I’d be thrilled to see this one up close.
Planning on attempting this puzzle? I wish you luck, and I’ll be cheering you on!
This is the second Ravensburger puzzle with this title I’ve assembled, the first was only 35 pieces and not nearly as beautiful as this one. This puzzle is a lovely image enhanced with glitter – I loves me some glitter! How disappointing that it was missing a piece. 😦
The colors in this image are so pretty, and with the added fun of glitter it’s just an all around beautiful puzzle. Absent piece aside, the quality was excellent and to my surprise there wasn’t a ton of glitter loose in the box. A lot of times with a glitter puzzle much of it comes off and ends up in a pile underneath the pieces, not so with this puzzle. Yet another reason Ravensburger puzzles are my absolute favorite. I was hoping it would be complete so we could pass it on, but it’s glaringly obvious that a piece has escaped.
Missing pieces are the chance you take when you purchase puzzles used. I would say probably 90-95% of the puzzles we get from thrift stores are complete, and that’s a pretty good average. Sure, it’s a little disappointing when you find a missing piece, but you still got to assemble a puzzle. Well, most of it anyway. 😉
My Jigsaw Journal 