Working on….

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling5 Comments

I’m working on laying out all the pieces of my next puzzle. I’d put an image on the homepage, but the puzzle is so old that there’s no image online that I can find. I could take a picture of the box and put it up, but it is pretty damaged (thrift store puzzle) so it wouldn’t work very well or look very good.

You’ll be surprised to hear that it’s a Ceaco puzzle – from the mid 90s. I think it’ll be pretty when it’s finished, and I’m interested to see if the quality was any better back then, at least as far as the fit is concerned. The piece shapes are quite different than their usual grid cut shapes; so it may be, at the very least, a more interesting assembly. They’re about the same thickness, but the board seems much sturdier than the average Ceaco puzzle I’ve worked with before. Guess I’ll just have to wait and see how it all works out.

I’m hoping you all are working on beautiful, interesting, or entertaining puzzles at the moment – and hopefully no duds or bad quality.

Happy puzzling! 🧩💜

Tour the States

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Tour the States by Craighton Berman – Buffalo – 300 pieces

This puzzle was very quick for someone who knows the geography of the US, if you know where the state is you know where the piece goes. I’m certain if there was a map of another continent I don’t know as well as North America it wouldn’t have been as quick to go together. I loved the bright colors and excellent quality.

The northeast was the hardest to memorize when we were learning all the states in school, at least it was for me. All those little states up there took the most time to commit to memory.

Ok, I understand the gator and Louisiana, it’s swampy and perfect for alligators. But why in the world is it eating a banana? Am I missing something?

I’d never heard of the “hit” YouTube video until I put this puzzle together. Honestly, I haven’t looked it up to watch it either but it must have been quite popular to turn into an online store and have a puzzle made up from this image. Have any of you heard of this before?

Edward Gorey’s Book Covers

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Edward Gorey’s Book Covers – Pomegranate – 1000 pieces

I was disappointed by the new, less impressive quality from Pomegranate, but this was still a very enjoyable puzzle to assemble. Assembling the border was a challenge on the sides – with all maroon pieces – but it wasn’t horrible. Overall I loved the image, collages are my happy puzzle place.

As I discussed in my “in progress” post, the quality of this puzzle was not was I was expecting from Pomegranate. The pieces were thinner and the fit was much looser than previous puzzles from this brand. It was still good quality, much better than many brands out there, but not the premium quality puzzle I’m used to from them.

According to the box Edward Gorey designed book covers and dust jackets before his own books drew acclaim and acquired a dedicated following. He designed for books by Joseph Conrad, Henry James, Charles Dickens, T.S. Eliot and more. I must admit I haven’t read a single book featured in this puzzle, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t thoroughly entertaining. Most of the puzzles I’ve seen with Edward Gorey’s work are very dark and lacking color, this is the brightest and most colorful one I’ve seen and therefore much more interesting to me.

Oddly, after I finished this puzzle but before I took pictures this book and cover were shown and discussed in a tv series that I’ve been binge watching on a streaming service; I took notice and decided to show a closeup here. Poetry isn’t really my thing, but it’s an interesting book cover.

I love the colors in this cover, and it was one of the few book names I actually knew. Most people have heard of this book, or the movie, or the “hoax” with the Orson Welles radio broadcast.

“No one wrote this book – these are the tape-recorded dreams of a man who talks in his sleep.” That really made me laugh.

I feel completely uneducated not having read any of these books – most of them I hadn’t even heard of! The Dream World of Dion McGregor? Not a clue.

Oh well. I’m happily stupid I suppose. 😉

You Wild Animal!

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

You Wild Animal! by Mario Zucca – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

After completing a puzzle that was darker than I normally like, you’d think I would have chosen an image that was bright and colorful. Nope. This artwork isn’t bright or that colorful, but it was exactly what I was in the mood for. It was a bit of a challenge, but I loved it!

Great Ravensburger quality, and I especially loved the matte finish; it made working with the darker sections much easier to not have to deal with the glare.

Have you ever heard of an Umbrellabird? I certainly hadn’t!

The x-ray fish is also new to me, and I just couldn’t resist the sloth and the sea otter peeking out from the left – so cute!

The way the skunk is depicted just makes me smile. This was my first time with artwork by Mario Zucca, and it was fantastic to assemble. There were plenty of words (which always is a bonus for me), and each animal image was so interesting and fun.

Other puzzles with his art are mostly maps, but this one was very different; I don’t think I’d be interested in any of his map puzzles at the moment but I enjoyed his collection of animals very much. 💛

Puzzle In Progress

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling15 Comments

It’s been quite a week here for me, and I’m wiped out. My daughter had to have a third surgery on her leg injury from last year’s crash, hubby had a couple of physical therapy sessions and I had an appointment with my pain doctor – who wanted to talk about my getting an implant that delivers a pain medication derived from the venom of a Cone Snail – what?! Yes, that is my complicated life these days.

Anyway, to help my brain leave all of that behind for a little while I’m currently working on Skate Night by Aimee Stewart. It’s slow going, because I’ve just not been feeling well enough to sit at the puzzle board for long periods – but I’m enjoying it very much.

I assembled this image once before – in a 300 piece – this one is 1000 pieces. When I put it together the first time and posted about it I wished for the image in a large piece count, and my wish came true! My dear friend and fellow puzzle junkie Penny saw this when it was released and sent it to me; it was during my absence from puzzling, and besides trying to help me get back to my puzzles she also knows how much I love Aimee’s images.

If you’d like to see the post of Skate Night in 300 pieces, click here. I adored it the first time, and I’m having even more fun the second time around!