Usually when I think of puzzles with artwork by Dominic Davison I think of lovely cottages and countrysides; this puzzle has those, but only as glimpsed through doorways. Even though it had been almost a year and a half since I’d worked a 1500 piece puzzle, the image drew me in and I was ready to work on it with no anxiety at all about the number of pieces. It’s a gorgeous image and exactly what I was looking for when I wanted a collage to assemble.
Collages are my some of my favorite puzzles; it’s like having many mini puzzles to assemble and figure out how they connect together. It reduces the amount of stress for me because I don’t have to work the puzzle as a whole, just little sections at a time. I also love the look of collages; whether they are a hodge-podge of images all smushed together or an orderly collection of similar objects, I find the overall effect to be pleasing to the eye.
This puzzle was beautiful, just the right amount of challenging, and thoroughly entertaining to assemble. The doors were relatively easy to sort, though the scenes behind them sometimes presented a challenge. I started with the easiest and brightest colors, and in the process became more familiar with each of the scenes and the slight differences in shades of colors that allowed me to determine where they belonged.
Surprisingly, there weren’t very many pieces at all that were just the brick background – once all the doors were complete it didn’t take much time to fill in the rest of the pieces. It was a completely engrossing puzzle with a beautiful end result!
These two doors were the most fun to put together; London looks amazing, and I’m not ashamed to say I have no idea what the other is. I’m fairly certain it’s a Mediterranean city, but have no clue as to which one it may be. It doesn’t matter much, I still enjoyed the assembly of it.
This door was the most difficult, and it was the last one completed; many of the pieces looked like they might fit in other sections. It’s a mysterious set of doors though, isn’t it? Who’s on the other side?
The cut of Educa puzzles is one thing about this brand that I’m not crazy about. Most of the pieces are ballerinas (2/2), and with the limited variety of shapes there are many places where the pieces seem to fit where they do not belong. This is especially frustrating in larger areas of one color and along the edges. That said, they also have their humpback/swayback shaped pieces, which are quite easy to find and match!
My other issue with this brand is the puzzle image on their boxes. Their logo, piece count, and the words “Educa Puzzle” in very large font take over the far right side of the box; this effectively obscures one entire edge of the image! Why? As an avid puzzler, I feel I can speak for many of us when I say that you could reduce the size of the image a bit, as long as there’s an unobstructed view of the image as a WHOLE we would be very grateful. (We are not grateful, however, for the tiny 1 x 1.5 inch whole image on the side of the box, it is not helpful!)
Complaining aside, I really did have a great time with this puzzle, I promise. Bad cut and covered picture aside, it was an entertaining assembly and a beautiful finished puzzle. Loved it❣
My Jigsaw Journal 