Harvest Farm

On October 31, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

I didn’t plan ahead very well this year, so I didn’t have a Halloween puzzle to assemble. Last year there were fun, spooky, ghosty puzzles to post about; not so this year. I promise to attempt to do a better job next year! The attempt is all I can promise, my brain isn’t what it used to be.

This beautiful wooden puzzle made me so happy after not touching a puzzle for 2 whole days – it was a lovely way to feed my puzzle addiction. Once I saw it all together I knew this would be my puzzle for Halloween; I love the pumpkins, gourds, corn, and especially the little hanging scarecrow!

As usual, we start with the whimsies, they are fall/Halloween themed. I was surprised to see the bat and ghost in there; I thought it would only be fall whimsies so the spooky ones were a fun surprise. 🦇

I think the scarecrow is my favorite, but the tractor comes in a close second. The detail on these Wentworth whimsies is so fun, and I can’t wait to see the whimsies in my new puzzles on their way to my house! (Yup, I went crazy again and bought more Wentworths and also one from a new wooden puzzle company I haven’t tried before 😎)

It’s such a beautiful fall image from Alan Giana, and it made for a wonderful assembly. I started with the words as usual, and then for some reason decided to go with the grass next. There was no real plan, I went where the puzzle took me. It’s so nice to not think and just go with it. A beautiful puzzle that took me out of my head for a while, I couldn’t ask for more.

Happy Halloween! 🎃

Unseen

On September 22, 2018November 4, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

In honor of the official first day of fall, today’s puzzle is a spooky one I’ve been waiting to post since I finished it at the beginning of August. It’s “Halloweeny” and I’ve been keeping it till it was the right time. Fall brings Halloween (my favorite holiday), and therefore today is the perfect day for this puzzle!

This is the most difficult, challenging, and wonderfully frustrating wooden puzzle I’ve ever assembled. I bought it during the clearance sale at Artifact Puzzles; I’d been looking at it for a while, but the sale gave me the extra push to go ahead and get it. I loved the look of it, and was excited to be able to purchase it at half price. 🙂

There weren’t many whimsy pieces, but most of the pieces had connectors shaped like bones, so most of them were “whimsy-like”. I started with the skull, obviously, and it wasn’t too difficult. The rest of the puzzle was another story, and it sat on my puzzle board for several weeks before my son and I finally finished it.

I love the faces inside the eye sockets, they’re creepy and cute at the same time and in my opinion they make the whole image as wonderful as it is. The pictures on the website make it seem less difficult than it was, it showed a much lighter background that didn’t look as hard as it actually was. There’s a border of smoky filigree that you can’t really see on the puzzle because the chocolate background is so dark.

unseen

Once the skull was complete I was absolutely intimidated by the remainder of the pieces. They were all so dark and the connectors all looked so similar. It was a bit overwhelming for me, so I needed to give myself some time and distance. I put the board in my puzzle room; some days I would walk by and stop to put in a piece or two, sometimes a few weeks would go by before I even tried to put in any pieces.

When my son and I spent a few days together working on puzzles, he wanted to get this one finished. So we finished it together one day while watching M*A*S*H. It was so nice to spend time with him assembling it, and with someone else to help out and talk to it made it less overwhelming. We were both so proud when we finished!

We flipped it over once the pictures were taken, and my favorite part was this skull and crossbones with a top hat – so cute!

This puzzle was wonderful, scary, difficult, and ultimately a lot of fun. I’m so glad I finally purchased it, but I don’t think I’ll be assembling it again. It was such a challenge that I haven’t disassembled it yet, and am having my husband make me a special frame with plexiglass on both sides so that you can see the front and the back. I would never glue a wooden jigsaw puzzle, but hubby will make me a fantastic frame that will make it so it doesn’t need gluing.

I loved it – overwhelming challenge and all. ☠

Farmyard Cabbage

On August 10, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

Farmyard Cabbage was an excellent quality puzzle that was great fun to assemble. I adore the image – it’s so different from your average jigsaw puzzle – and it’s so cute!

Wentworth puzzles have excellent quality, with thick wooden pieces that have a great feel in your hands. There are a good variety of shapes; and while their pieces aren’t Victorian cut they do have intricate whimsies that compliment the image. The image reproduction is excellent with beautiful colors and is expertly adhered to the wood.

The whimsies for this puzzle are shapes I haven’t seen before from Wentworth and were perfect for this farmyard image….

I especially love the detail on both the tractor and the cow. They’re all so fun to pick out when you first open the box – searching through the pieces to find the whimsies is almost as entertaining as putting the puzzle together!

The beautiful colors and interesting image made this assembly so much fun, and I loved every piece! I don’t use the box image when putting together wooden puzzles (unless I’m REALLY stuck), and this one tested me – but in the best way possible. I started with the dirt on the bottom of the image and worked my way up from there. The cabbage itself was the most challenging part, especially finding where each of the animals fit in.

I usually end my posts about wooden puzzles by telling you that you should treat yourself to a wooden puzzle if you can – this post is no different. Perhaps you could ask for a small one for your birthday or for Christmas. You can find small wooden puzzles starting at $12 for Wentworth, $18 for Artifact, and $39 for Liberty. They are definitely worth it – and so are you! ❤

Three Arches

On August 2, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

This is a beautiful puzzle that I very much enjoyed assembling. As always, working with a wooden puzzle makes me extremely happy, and that the image is so lovely makes it even better.

The artist, Arturo Zarraga, was born in Mexico City and many of his paintings are scenes from the area where he was raised. The info I found on this puzzle says this is a street scene from Mexico City. The whimsies, however, tell a slightly different story…

If the image is supposed to be Mexico City, I’m not sure why one of the pieces is in the shape of South America – it’s the wrong continent! There are no llamas in Mexico, and Christ the Redeemer is in Rio, Brazil.; but I’m probably nitpicking, right? Problem is, I have way too much time on my hands to look these things up!

Inaccurate whimsies aside, this puzzle was beautiful and wonderfully entertaining to assemble; the color palette is so pleasing it makes for great puzzling. Wentworth Puzzles have such excellent quality and a large and varied catalog, it’s difficult for me to go on their website without wanting to buy way too many puzzles. Of course if I’m honest, that happens on pretty much EVERY puzzle website that I go to. 😉

Review: Alice in Wonderland

On July 9, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Alice in Wonderland by Royce B. McClure – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 250 pieces

This was an extremely entertaining puzzle to assemble, I love the image! I’ve seen many of Royce McClure’s images on puzzles, but I believe this is the first one I’ve assembled. The artwork is so detailed and beautiful, and the subject matter is so fun and funny – it really was a great puzzle to put together. I highly recommend it!

This was one of the 5 puzzles I ordered for myself last month. It was the only one that wasn’t on sale (although I did use a code to get 10% off), I’d had my eye on it for quite some time. The image is exactly my cup of tea – served by the Mad Hatter, no doubt – and I couldn’t resist finally getting it when I ordered the others on sale. I’m so glad I did.

As with all laser-cut wooden puzzles, the fit is quite loose. I’ve never worked a hand-cut wooden puzzle so I can’t speak to that fit (if anyone would like to send me one to try out, I wouldn’t say no. 😉 )

Besides the loose fit, the quality is exceptional. The wooden pieces are thick and have a satisfying “plunk” when they fall into place. I don’t know the process of how the image is attached to the wood, but it’s beautifully done from my perspective.

The quality of the image is exceptional, the characters and faces are gorgeous! I always enjoy having words to assemble, and each of the small sections of the scene was so much fun. It definitely makes me want to find more puzzles by Royce McClure – I absolutely adored his work, it’s so appealing and detailed.

If you have the chance, I definitely recommend Wentworth puzzles; it’s a whole different experience than working a cardboard puzzle, so much fun!

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