Flower Still Life

On February 5, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles7 Comments

This was a very dark, very challenging wooden puzzle. I bought this for mom for Christmas last year and we finally got around to assembling it. Isn’t it gorgeous? She picked it out herself.

The background color was a little too dark for my taste, but it was still a fun puzzle to assemble, especially since mom and I worked it together. 🙂 They were pretty tricky not to include a picture on the box of the irregular edge, so we had to figure that out for ourselves. It was quite the brain teaser, but we older ladies still have our wits about us (most of the time) and we were able to get it done.

Artifact Puzzles are excellent quality with a wonderfully diverse catalog to choose from. They have many different puzzle designers who come up with amazingly intricate and complex piece cuts. I love that you’re able to see pictures of the cuts for each puzzle, so you have that information before you buy. The puzzles are made from plywood and are laser cut; they are beautifully made!

There were almost no whimsies but the cut was excellent and you can see the pieces formed a beautiful symmetrical pattern….

Mom and I really enjoyed this assembly; it was quite a challenge and we even said that it was “deviously cut” a couple of times. Still, it helps keep the brain cells firing and even if it takes more time than we’d planned on we enjoy the extra time spent together.

I’ve done several Wentworths and a couple of Artifact puzzles in the past couple of months, so I’m hoping to get my hands on a new Liberty puzzle soon. If I don’t, no worries – I can spend an afternoon re-assembling the Dr. Suess puzzle I bought myself last year. 🙂

Wild Babies, Baby Orangutan

On February 4, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles4 Comments

This is a cute puzzle, sort of. I guess it depends on if you think orangutans are cute. LOL It was only 250 pieces, so I thought it would be a quick one to work on. It wasn’t, because I wasn’t feeling well, and I didn’t get it finished until mom came back from her overseas trip. Once she was there to work with me it got done much faster! (We cheer each other on, and help out when one of us is having a tough time with a puzzle)

The pieces were pretty thin and the finish was a bit shiny, but all in all it wasn’t too bad. The fit was nice and there were a good variety of shapes to work with. I don’t know that I’d purchase this brand again unless it was an image that I really wanted.

This was an unopened thrift store purchase, so for 69 cents you can’t beat it, even if it wasn’t a premium quality puzzle. It was all there, and provided some much need relaxation and stress relief; not to mention some puzzle time with mom! ☺

Britain & Ireland

On February 3, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

This is the first kids puzzle I’ve purchased new; I don’t have an explanation why I wanted it so much, I just did. I love the idea of Mike Jupp’s artwork and humor added to a geography lesson in a high quality puzzle. I wasn’t disappointed!

This puzzle is a “Jig-Map” and has a “place name quiz”. There are 32 identically shaped pieces with the names of cities and towns in Britain and Ireland. Luckily you don’t have to know the geography to be able to complete the puzzle; the image behind each name will help you find it’s correct position. And as an added bonus it’s a lot of fun! Here are all the names…

The fun part was the different images by each name. The Beatles were next to Liverpool, there were sheep and a sweater in Cardigan, Robin Hood and Friar Tuck were in Nottingham, etc. What a great tool for teaching geography, it’s a lot of fun. 🙂

The quality was excellent with thick pieces, wonderfully crisp image reproduction, an excellent variety of shapes, and a very nice fit. I do love when a puzzle manufacturer puts effort into their children’s puzzles; kids need good quality puzzles that will stand up to being assembled many times and rougher than normal handling. Also, how cool is it that they got such a great image from such a great artist?

I looked up Jig-Maps, and they were a series of shaped geography puzzles that also had a place name quiz produced by Waddington’s in the 60’s. They were basically exactly the same as this Gibsons Jig Map, and a very cool idea in my opinion. I plan on donating this puzzle to my adopted grandson, I’m pretty sure he’ll love it as much as I did!

Catchin’ Bugs

On February 2, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

I tried a 1000 piece puzzle just before this one. It was on my board for the entire week, I barely made any progress at all, and ended up putting it back in the box. I said out loud “This isn’t fun for me at all”, but to be honest I think I was more upset that I couldn’t work on it much. Normally it takes me 2 or 3 days to complete a 1000 piece puzzle, and I’ve been known to do an entire one in just one day if I’m really enjoying it. It’s a little depressing for me at the moment to have been working on one for more than 5 days and barely have more than 200 pieces of it together. So I decided to go back to the smaller ones and hope to try again on a 500 or 1000 piece soon.

Hubby helped me work on this one. We spent most of the day in bed and he helped me finish this; it was nice to work on a puzzle with him again, it’s been a while since he’s had the time. 💕

I really had a good time with this puzzle. I enjoy the Wysocki’s that are a little bit different; especially ones that have only one building. I find them a little more interesting and entertaining; sometimes the “regular” ones all seem to blend together and look the same. Just my opinion of course.

The color palette here is a little muted, but it still made for a pretty picture and an enjoyable assembly. The quality of the puzzle was very good as well, with thick pieces and interesting shapes – really nice all around puzzle. This is one of the batch we got from a friend, and she does her puzzles many, many times before she gets rid of them. The masking tape with dates on the box tells me she and her husband assembled this puzzle at least once every year since 2010; and there was not one piece with image lift or any damage at all! This is an exceptionally well made puzzle, and if you come across one I would definitely recommend giving it a go. 🙂

White Duck Inn

On February 1, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another small piece count puzzle to get me back into the groove after being stuck at the hospital doing small puzzles to fit on my bedside table. This one was fun and fast and the image makes me smile, doesn’t that look like a lovely place to spend the weekend?

I love the extremely random cut of MasterPieces puzzles, it makes for a fun and interesting assembly. Their EZ Grip 300 piece puzzles have large, easy to handle pieces that are great for hands with dexterity problems, or just someone who enjoys large pieces from time to time. Like me!

The finish was a little bit shiny, but not too terrible to work with under artificial lights. I was able to assemble it resting in bed on my white board without too much difficulty from the overhead lights; and it was easy, which was what I was looking for. I’d love to able to get back to 500 and 1000 piece puzzles soon. Hopefully by the time I get this posted I’ll have a larger piece count on my board and be back to puzzling sitting up. Fingers crossed! 🤞