Month: May 2022

Animal Designs

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Animal Designs by Awa Tsireh – Artifact Puzzles – 105 pieces

Isn’t this an interesting puzzle? It’s certainly not the usual image that I go for, but there was something compelling about it, and I kept going back to it on the website. You know me, I hate for a puzzle to be without a home. 😉 It was by no means an easy puzzle, but I loved falling into that wonderful headspace where all you can think about is the image and the shapes – it’s meditative and lovely.

Wonderful quality Ecru puzzle from Artifact; their Ecru line of puzzles has a closer cut (less obvious piece shapes in the finished image) and a matte finish to reduce glare. Artifact Puzzles have a special place in my heart, my very first wooden puzzle was one of theirs and I still take it out and assemble it every now and again – it was and still is perfectly lovely!

There were only three whimsy pieces in this puzzle, they’re reminiscent of the animal designs in the image. It’s the perfect place to start working, as the pieces that surround them are the easiest to find. There weren’t many colors in this image, and the ones they used were repeated all throughout; but at only 105 pieces it wasn’t too terrible or time-consuming.

I did enjoy the challenge though, and the mini-hexagon pieces made it even more interesting to put together. An excellent puzzle all around, and I’m looking forward to assembling it again. 💗

The Baker

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

The Baker (GiGi the Cat) by Christiana – Ceaco – 300 pieces

This cute little puzzle was fun – but it’s a Ceaco so I went into it with an attitude. A bad attitude. I know I shouldn’t, but it’s difficult to be objective when you’ve had such bad dealings with the company about their poor quality puzzles. I do my best, but I’m human.

The quality was just ok. There were a good variety of shapes and the image reproduction was nice as well. As usual the poorest part of this Ceaco puzzle was the chipboard used (the fit was loose as well with some dull cutting evident, but it wasn’t awful). The chipboard was on the thinner side, and some pieces were delaminating and splitting. In my humble opinion an upgrade to the quality of the board would make a world of difference in the overall quality of this brand.

An upgrade to their customer service wouldn’t hurt either. Just sayin’.

This is GiGi and her companion, FiFi the mouse. If I’m honest it took me a few minutes to find FiFi in the image once I read their story on the box. I hunted all over for that mouse before I found her peeking over GiGi’s shoulder. It was easy to overlook her in the patterns and colors of the image.

This is GiGi’s pet, a Scottish Terrier named CoCo. All the repetitive names made me smile, silly as it is; and it had me brainstorming as to how many more names like these that I could think of. LuLu, KiKi, BeBe, etc. There are quite a few combinations you can come up with!

The box says that GiGi loves cooking, painting, shopping, gardening and camping. I don’t think GiGi and I would have much in common; I do love cooking, but rarely feel well enough to do it much. As for the rest of it, I’m tired just reading about it! GiGi must be much younger than I am. 💤👵💤

Overall the best part of this puzzle for me was the interesting, colorful and silly image. Parts of it were just challenging enough to keep it from being a boring 300 piece puzzle that went too quickly. I enjoyed myself despite my admittedly terrible attitude about this company.

If there are more puzzles out there from this artist (perhaps from another brand) I’d be more than happy to give them a try; her aesthetic is just my pile of pieces. 🧩

In Progress

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

Colorful Destinations by Lewis T. Johnson – Buffalo – 750 pieces

Still in my funk I’m afraid, and haven’t touched my current puzzle in a couple of days. Hopefully today will be the day I get back to it.

The border is completed, and so are the words, and a few of the sections that I picked out on the initial sort; I’m somewhere between a third and a half done. I’d take a picture, but I’m just not feeling up to going into the puzzle room at the moment.

Hope you all have a great week. Happy puzzling!

Art Nouveau Tiles

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Art Nouveau Tiles by Barbara Behr – Cobble Hill – 1000 pieces

This gorgeous and challenging puzzle tested me at times, but I loved every minute of it! The artwork is so interesting, it was a perfect puzzle at just the right time.

Excellent quality, great fit, and amazing reproduction. The tiles actually seemed to have the texture and crackled look of real tiles. Stunning!

I couldn’t pick my favorites, they’re all so lovely in their own way; here’s a closeup of each quarter of the image….

I suppose I should tell you what my favorites were in each section, but they were all so beautiful it’s very difficult to choose.

Here are some more pretties, wouldn’t they look lovely somewhere in a home?

I love the turkey in this section – he’s up at the very top. And that brilliant blue in the bottom right corner is divine.

And here are more beauties, they’re all so lovely in their own way – and all so different from each other. I just cannot choose favorites.

National Geographic Magazines

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

National Geographic Magazines – Buffalo – 500 pieces

This was much more entertaining than I’d expected, what a lovely surprise! There was something about this I saw when shopping for puzzles, and honestly it confused me why I wanted it so much. Normally photographic images aren’t my pile of pieces at all, but this one spoke to me on some level and I knew it needed to be here for me to assemble. I was right!

It seems like a broken record for me to tell you what good quality Buffalo puzzles are, but it’s the truth with all the puzzles I’ve been assembling lately. The image reproduction especially on this puzzle was exceptional, and the rest of the quality was wonderful too.

This is the oldest actually dated magazine in the collage, from March of 1921. At 50 cents a copy it seems quite expensive (according to my internet search it would be about $8.00 today). There is a partial cover with a 25 cent price at the bottom, but the date is covered by another magazine and I can’t tell you which year it’s from.

National Geographic is 134 years old, with the first issue published in 1888. It began as a scholarly journal, but became a popular magazine a few years later. It didn’t begin publishing photographs until 1905, but photos are what it’s become known for.

Not only was this bright with easy pieces to pick out, I love what the article is called – Dragons of the Deep. It does look slightly like a dragon at the front, doesn’t it? 🐲

I just like the look of this one, that’s it. It reminds me of one of my favorite books series by Jean M. Auel that begins with Clan of the Cave Bear; there was an exciting mammoth hunt in the first book, and mammoths played a big role in subsequent books as well.

This puzzle was so much more enjoyable than I’d imagined it would be; it was wonderfully entertaining! If it looks like something you’d enjoy it is highly recommended. Great quality, great image – great puzzle.