Category: Jigsaw Puzzles

Button, Button

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Button, Button – Springbok (Hallmark) – 500+ pieces

This puzzle scared me a bit, it seemed as though it would be super difficult; it wasn’t easy, that’s true, but it was really fun too! This is an old Springbok, from back when they were a division of Hallmark Cards. From what I can find this is from about the mid 1970s.

The very random cut of the pieces adds to the challenge, but the fit was excellent. I can lift the whole thing up with one hand and nothing comes apart. Unfortunately because it’s octagonal it isn’t conducive to getting the traditional Stacey-loves-standing-them-up picture. Bummer.

There is a bunch of information on the back of the box about buttons. Which, I know, doesn’t sound all that interesting – but it really was! I took my normal amount of pictures of the puzzle, then I read all the information and had to take different pictures to show you the cool buttons I learned about. All off the buttons in this image are from the collection of Marie Bertholet Smith, who was an interior designer, art director, antique store owner, and who also worked at Hallmark for a number of years.

Wanna see some really awesome buttons?

This is an example of a “stud button”, which were sometimes large, hand-painted, and porcelain. They were called studs because of their post-like fasteners and were made to fasten cuffs, to button men’s vests and ladies shirtwaists, and to insert into the lapel. Look at the detail!

When I was putting this particular button together it made me think of how much time and care must have gone into making this one single button. Back in the day everything was constructed with such care; these days we melt blobs of plastic and pour them into molds for cheap, crappy things that constantly break.

See those spherical buttons in the center of the picture? Those are called “paperweight buttons” because of their resemblance to glass desk paperweights. They were most often made by glassblowers forming a mold of glass over a small ceramic object. Imagine the time it must have taken!

This is called a “garter button”, and they were used on fancy garters in the 1920s. They were faces painted on stretched silk or cotton. I love these! There were several examples of them in the image, but I chose this one because it had the ribbon headband.

It’s such a bummer there were two missing pieces, but for a 45 year old puzzle, that’s to be expected I suppose. It was still so much fun to put together, and learning about so many different kinds of buttons was almost as entertaining as the puzzle!

This old Springbok really makes me think of my Grama. In the days before the internet our only source of good quality puzzles was the Hallmark store. It was about 18 miles away from where we lived, and they only had one or two small shelves at the back of the store that had puzzles. I can remember exactly where in the store they were, all these years later. We had such fun walking to the back and wondering what kinds of puzzles would be there; and then finding just the right one or two to take home with us. Springbok puzzles will always remind me of her. 💖

Influential Women

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Influential Women by Nour Thome – Buffalo – 300 pieces

This puzzle went together way too fast, it was too entertaining to only be a 300 piece puzzle – it needs to be at least 1000 pieces, because the fun was over way too quickly for my taste.

It was a good quality Buffalo puzzle, the only fault was that there was one very bent piece. It happens. Otherwise the fit was excellent, the reproduction was lovely, it had a good variety of piece shapes – just a very nice quality puzzle to work with.

Of the twenty influential women in this image, I knew 17 of them. Instead of picking my favorite women, or my favorite depiction of the women – I chose the three whose names and stories I didn’t know to highlight here. Maybe some of you don’t know about them either.

Sit up and pay attention class, we’re going to learn about three influential women today. And if you’re already familiar with them – look at the pretty pictures. 😉

Ada Lovelace. I’m ashamed that I didn’t know about her, why do they not teach things like this in school? I think math would have been more interesting to me in high school if I had known about this lady, she was amazing! She was the daughter of the famed poet Lord Byron, her full name was Augusta Ada (Byron) King, Countess of Lovelace. But way more important than her being the daughter of a famous dude and marrying the Earl of Lovelace, she was awesome all by herself. She was a gifted mathematician from a very early age, and envisioned the world’s first computer and how it would work – called the Analytical Engine. She is considered the first computer programmer, as she wrote a “program” for her concept, and also introduced many other computer concepts. Oh, did I mention she was born in 1815 and died in 1852? She wrote what is considered the first computer program in 1842!

Jeanne Baret was the first woman to completely circumnavigate the globe, of course she had to be disguised as a man to do it. She was, according to some accounts, an expert botantist; and so she joined the crew of the Bougainville expedition. She collected specimens of plants, one of which was a flowering vine that ended up being named after the expedition’s leader – bougainvillea. Even though she was disguised as a man in order to be able to work on the ship, she was found out. But once she had completed her world trip she was granted a yearly pension from the Ministry of Marine to be drawn from the fund for invalid servicemen. She was a badass woman in my book.

Annie Edson Taylor, nicknamed The Queen of the Mist, was a schoolteacher turned daredevil. On her 63rd birthday, in 1901, she was the first person to go over Niagra Falls in a barrel – and survive. Can you imagine doing that at 63 years old? I’m feeling tired and sore just thinking about it.

She was quoted as saying she’d rather stand in front of a cannon knowing it would blow her to bits rather than go over the falls again. It seems as though she didn’t enjoy the ride, and I can’t say that I blame her.

There were so many women with great stories shown on this puzzle; from Joan of Arc to Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Bessie Coleman and Malala Yousafzai – I could list all of them because they’re all amazing, influential women in their own rights. I learned lots about these kickass women, in addition to having such a good time assembling the puzzle. It is highly recommended.

Feathers and Fluff

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Feathers and Fluff by Jen Cameron – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

This image looks as if it wouldn’t be too hard – bright colors on every bird – but it was the white border that gave me a run for my money. In fact, hubby wanted me to do more than I was doing to assemble it; he felt he was doing most of the work. The problem wasn’t me not helping enough, it’s the disparity in the amount of time each of us spends in there!

I’m still having such a good time with these little puzzles, and my adorable husband is too. Good thing there are plenty left to assemble. 💙🦜

Green

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles10 Comments

Green by Shelley Davies – Cobble Hill – 1000 pieces

I wasn’t sure whether or not I would like these color puzzles from Shelley Davies. I mean, they’re absolutely gorgeous – but would they be entertaining to assemble? Short answer is … yep! In fact, it was way more enjoyable than I’d imagined.

Would have loved to have a poster to help out with this puzzle; I know the ones for sale now have a poster included but mine is a few years old and didn’t come with one. It certainly would have been nice to have – especially since mine was in a smaller square box rather than the larger rectangular one. It was a little challenging to find some of the very small bits on such a small box cover.

The plate with all the queens on it was quite entertaining, and it looks great too. I wouldn’t really call this an educational puzzle, but I learned a little bit about the different queens and their reigns. 👑

This was the first section I assembled, the swirly gold pieces were the easiest to pick out. It’s always nice to have some small section to start with immediately after the border; and this is where I started.

There were SO many words in the whole puzzle, once I pulled them all out it was a little intimidating – but with a little perseverance I got there in the end. There were several colored pencils in the image as well, most with the name of the artist hand written on them.

I wasn’t sure I even wanted to give any of these color puzzles a try – and now I’m thinking we may need to get several more colors!

The Puzzle That Will Freeze Your Brain

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

The Puzzle That Will Freeze Your Brain by Clive Branson – Wentworth – 34 pieces

These puzzles with the scary titles from Wentworth are so entertaining for me, and the beautiful and interesting shapes of the pieces are a joy to work with. Of course, I only do the micro puzzle versions of them, because assembling these difficult images with several hundred of the similarly shaped pieces actually would be scary!

At only 34 pieces, this one wasn’t that difficult, and I love the Christmas tree shaped pieces. This image is one I definitely would shy away from in a larger piece count, it doesn’t look like one that would be fun at all – at least not for me.

Putting together a difficult image isn’t something I go out of my way for, though some do enjoy the challenge of a formidable assembly. Normally, I do not. A puzzle that seems like a chore just doesn’t do it for me, it isn’t fun. I puzzle because it’s entertaining, relaxing, and a great little mental workout. If it feels like an intellectual marathon just to get a few pieces together – uh, no thank you.

Luckily, thanks to Wentworth micro puzzles, I can put together some difficult images without the stress of too many pieces. Lovely!