Category: Jigsaw Puzzles

Imagination

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Imagination by Robert Williams – Mr. Bob Puzzles – 525 pieces

Oh my. This puzzle. What a FANTASTIC image for puzzling! I had the best time putting this one together, and I’m sorry that it isn’t still being produced because it was an amazing assembly and I loved every single piece. 💖

Even though I picked it out myself, sort of, (told hubby which images of Mr. Bob’s puzzles I liked best), when it arrived I was a little scared of the image and thought it would be really difficult. It was put away for a while, then – well, you know. Finally, it was pulled out from it’s place in the to-do pile and….HOLY GUACAMOLE was it fun! I was completely wrong about how difficult it would be. It turns out this is, in my humble opinion, a perfect image for a jigsaw puzzle.

You may not think so looking at it, and to be honest neither did I at first. To me it is beautiful art, but I thought it would be an extremely demanding assembly, especially with the deceptively difficult cut of Mr. Bob’s puzzles. It wasn’t. It was the perfect amount of challenging. I know I am repeating myself, but this puzzle was the best, most entertaining puzzle I’ve done in quite some time. Click the link above to check out their website if you’re interested, they have many unique images that you won’t see anywhere else, and they are excellent quality wooden puzzles.

As usual, it began with pulling all the whimsies while laying out the pieces. There were some special ones in this puzzle – hubby asked them to put the name of my blog in the whimsies! (He must have remembered when they cut my name into a puzzle and I said “Wouldn’t it be cool to have the name of the blog cut out in puzzle pieces?” What a sweet, thoughtful husband I have!)

Having thick wooden pieces means that you can cut out wonderful shapes; and part of the fun is seeing them – and the interesting shapes of the pieces around them. Mr. Bob’s logo and his silhouette are cut into every puzzle, along with a whimsy of Australia. The rest of the whimsies are different depending on the image of the puzzle itself.

When using lasers to cut wooden puzzles the only real limits are the designer’s imagination. (Plus, they can cut out fun things like the name of a puzzle blog!)

How cool is that? So cool! But I have to tell you that even without these words in the puzzle I would still be in love with it. The colors and textures, the movement, the lines running through it, the fabulous quality, the perfect amount of challenge – everything worked together to make for the most pleasurable puzzling this professed puzzle geek has had in a quite a while.

Love, love, LOVED IT! 😍

Mr. Bob’s Puzzles has grown significantly since I reviewed two of their puzzles two years ago – almost to the day! It seems like much more time has gone by; through our email correspondence I feel as if I know Mr. Bob himself personally and we’re old friends. After my reviews I gave suggestions to improve their products, and it was unbelievably well received; they truly wanted to make the best puzzles they could.

I encouraged him to put more of his own artwork on his puzzles: because I adore his digital art, it is most definitely my pile of pieces! This puzzle is one of his creations, and it made for such a fun assembly that I couldn’t stop gushing to him about it. I’ve done several of Mr. Bob’s puzzles, and the ones I’ve enjoyed the most have been the ones with his artwork; Save the Whales, Art City, and now Imagination joins the club.

Last year Mr. Bob’s Puzzles received an order for 53,000 custom puzzles from a major Australian corporation as gifts for their staff – it called for renting a new, larger space, establishing a bank of laser cutters, and a production facility to cope with the higher output. They got them all produced and shipped in about three months – on time and on budget. Bob tells me that it amounted to cutting around 8,000,000 pieces (approximately 375 miles of laser cutting)! 😮

Well done everyone at Mr. Bob’s Puzzles, you’re going places! And we knew you when…

Giraffe With Bubblegum

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Giraffe With Bubblegum by Coco de Paris – Cardinal – 300 pieces

These images by Coco de Paris are just too adorable for me to pass up. The first one I did was mistakenly titled “Bulldog with Butterflies” but those of us in the know realize that is most definitely NOT a bulldog, it is a Boston Terrier. My Buddy was a Boston, their faces are just so recognizable. Fortunately they got the title of this one correct, I am certain that is most definitely a giraffe. 🦒

I’ve seen a dozen different puzzles by this artist with animals painted atop the pages of a book. Some are hilarious, some are silly, and some are just beautiful; but they all look like they’d be entertaining to assemble.

Unfortunately, this was just fair quality for Cardinal. There were quite a few bent pieces, and some warping; but the fit was good and the image is nice. I cannot speak to the quality of the other puzzle images, just the two that I’ve put together so far. The “bulldog” puzzle was good/fair, and this one was just fair.

But as I’ve said before, what constitutes good quality for me isn’t necessarily what is most important for you; the only way to know for sure is to try it yourself. So if these look like puzzles you’d enjoy assembling, please don’t let my “review” keep you from giving it a try. Reviews are always subjective; they are one person’s opinion – not gospel.

Somehow the eyes look happy to me. Maybe because some poor, overworked optometrist made them a GIANT pair of glasses so they can see just how big their bubble gets?

Jamie the Polar Bear

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

Jamie the Polar Bear by John Francis – Wentworth – 15 pieces

This was the first of the kids puzzles from Wentworth that I assembled; it was delightful to work with the large pieces and bright colors to put together this adorable ice skating polar bear. Funny though, he doesn’t look like a Jamie to me; he looks like a Michael – but his parents call him Mikey. Then again, who am I to challenge the artist? He says Jamie, so Jamie it is.

It’s a good thing I have some young children in my life to gift these puzzles to, otherwise it would just be idiot me with kids puzzles that were ordered because I failed to make sure what exactly I was purchasing. I’m not that upset with myself though, these are the first premium wooden puzzles for young kids that I’ve ever tried, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to put them together. (I’m not counting those wooden puzzles in a wooden tray that are mass produced, although those can be good quality as well)

The whimsies are very cute, although I might be worried about the snowman’s pointy nose if I were a mom. But, if my children had this beautiful puzzle when they were little they would only be playing with it when they were being supervised by an adult. Because these puzzles can last for years if they’re taken care of and treated well. The cardboard box they came in might be a little worse for wear after a while, but the puzzle will definitely last.

I took a picture of one piece from each of the puzzles to show the size. EXTREMELY large just about covers it, don’t you think?

Review: 9 PM

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

9 PM by Karla Gerard – Art Puzzle – 1000 pieces

This beauty was obtained in a swap with fellow puzzle blogger Nicola at Puzzler1909. I was keen to try puzzle brands that aren’t readily available here in the states, and so we did a little international puzzle trading. The artwork of Karla Gerard makes for such great puzzles – the colors and textures she uses make the assembly quite entertaining – so it was one of the ones I chose for the long trip to America. It’s been a few years since this puzzle made it’s way to little ol’ me, and thankfully I finally got myself around to working on it.

Art Puzzle is a Turkish brand, and according to my overseas puzzle dealer 😉 they are inexpensive as well. I found the quality to be pretty good – my one problem was the extremely shiny finish. There is only artificial light in my puzzle room, and with the dark sky and trees at the top of the image – the glare was too much for these aging eyes. With all the dark areas it was difficult to see slight variations in color, and it made the top portion of the puzzle a challenge for me.

There isn’t usually an in process picture, they’re not ones I normally stop to take. Most times my puzzle brain takes over and any thoughts of stopping to document my progress are lost in the ether. This time though, while texting with my puzzle pal, I sent a pic of how things were going. Please excuse the extra stuff on the board, this was originally meant for a text so I didn’t move everything out of the way.

The only help there was for the very dark top of the puzzle was these small streaks of color. The purple was easy enough to find, as were the lighter tan colors – otherwise, the top was a bit difficult for these old eyes. If only it had been about 3 PM in this image – that would have helped me out a LOT. Alas, it seems it was 9 PM. I really need to figure out a better system of lighting in my puzzle room.

This puzzle was truly enjoyable from start to…..almost finished. The shine on the pieces made the last third of the puzzle a bit tedious for me, but it all worked out in the end. And Karla Gerard’s artwork will always be special to me, as it was what I chose when I bought myself my very first wooden puzzle. Her images really do make for great puzzles!

Details:

  • Title:                  9 PM
  • Artist:                Karla Gerard
  • Brand:               Art Puzzle
  • Piece count:     1000 pieces
  • Size:                  Approx. 27 x 19 in. (68 x 48 cm)
  • Purchased:      Used, swapped

Quality:

  • Board:               Good
  • Cutting:             Very good
  • Image:               Excellent
  • Box:                   Average
  • Fit:                     Good, slightly loose
  • Puzzle Dust:     Very little
  • Piece cut:          Grid cut
  • Piece shapes:   Very good variety, on the smaller side
  • Finish:               Very shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating:      Very good, recommended

Reconciliation Quilt

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Reconciliation Quilt by Lucinda Ward Honstain – Pomegranate – 300 pieces

Long time readers know I love a puzzle with quilts, and this is an image of just one very old quilt – and a busy one at that. It was pretty difficult for only 300 pieces, and for some reason I decided to make it harder on myself by putting the box away and working without an image. Wow.

Yep, that about covers it. Just…..wow.

The quality of Pomegranate puzzles is exceptional, and I found myself absentmindedly rubbing my thumb over the pieces as I contemplated where they should go. The hand feel is so nice that I couldn’t help myself! The fit was excellent, everything was as it should be – which is quite rare in a puzzle these days.

There’s a whole blurb on the back on the box about this quilt, it’s maker, and the museum where it now resides. “This forty block quilt depicts scenes of domestic life and public events in the 1860s. There are two blocks that celebrate what she (the quilter) viewed as significant reconciliatory events in postbellum America: the freeing of former Confederate president Jefferson Davis and the granting of suffrage to freed slaves.” The story behind the quilt is one of the reasons it is so valuable, and rare.

This quilt is considered one of the rarest in the world, and was the most expensive quilt ever sold at auction in America. It was purchased by private collectors for $264,000 in 1991; and the couple who purchased it eventually donated their collection of over 1000 quilts to the University of Nebraska. It’s an amazing piece of history, and a beautiful example of the form of art that many women used to express themselves.

Look at the different fabrics, the pattern – the amount of work that went into just a single quilt block is amazing to me. And this was done in the 1860’s! Imagine the time it took for just one section. On one hand there were no “electronic” distractions, after all the work was done for the day what else was there to do? On the other hand, I imagine it must have been difficult to work on things like quilting at the end of the day – by candlelight. One of the blocks has “Done Nov. the 18, 1867” embroidered into it; if that is when the entire quilt was finished, it was more than two and half years after the end of the civil war.

Check out the detail here, it’s amazing. What people can do with just imagination, a few simple tools and their hands sometimes astounds me. Truly.

This is a fantastic puzzle, with an interesting image that is challenging to assemble, but completely worth it. It would be a wonderfully entertaining 1000 piece puzzle!