Tag: 400+ pieces

Color Dream

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles14 Comments

Color Dream by Nadieh Bremer – Artifact – 403 pieces

Oh man! This was a challenging, beautiful, fantastic puzzle to assemble! It was quite difficult, as I didn’t use the image on the box – but I absolutely adored both the challenge, the image, and the assembly itself. 🧡💜💙💚

This was my third puzzle with an image by this artist, and I am completely smitten with her work – it makes for such fun puzzling! And I also have to give a shout out to the designer of the pieces, Chandler Millwood (who designed all three of Nadieh’s puzzles), whose design was like artwork in itself. Stunning!

Look at all those loops and swirls, it was such a challenge, but so much fun! The groups of stars in each corner, the connectedness of everything – just a wonderful design to go with such a lovely image.

The star in the center and the loops that form the flower-like image around it aren’t visible from the front. It made for such an interesting puzzle! I know, my use of exclamation points is getting ridiculous, but this puzzle made me so happy that I just can’t help myself!!

There was a surprise in the box, the description on the website alluded to it, but I skipped right over it when I was ordering the puzzle. It said “Tools included to make your own tiny orbit artwork.” Whatever does that mean?

It came with it’s own tiny little wooden Spirograph! Does anyone remember those from when you were younger? I certainly do, and let me tell you there have been a LOT of little pictures made with this already. I have to fess up and tell you that it didn’t occur to me until I was probably 50% through the assembly that all the little images on the puzzle are ones that you could make with a Spirograph. I was looking at the shapes and putting together colors and suddenly realized that all the loopy, swirly, interesting shapes are ones you could make with the toy in the box. DUH!

This puzzle was unbelievably difficult, entertaining, beautiful, and FUN!

Africa Map

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles10 Comments

Africa Map by Liv Wan – Artifact – 441 pieces

What a fun puzzle! This is a testament to the fact that even though an image may not be what jumps out at you at first when you’re shopping, it can still be a highly entertaining puzzle to assemble – I absolutely loved this one. 💖

Normally I prefer a Victorian cut in a wooden puzzle, or better yet something even more out of the ordinary; this puzzle has “grid cut” shapes, and usually I would pass right on by this one in favor of something more “interesting”. But offer me 50% off and free shipping and I cannot be responsible for what happens. Someone gave me access to my debit card and left me alone and unsupervised – even with my very advanced PADS disorder. Not my fault – not my fault at all! 😇

Look at these fabulous whimsies! All manner of African animals, their beautiful people, even buildings and monuments. Stunning!

It’s a little tricky to find, but just below and to the left of the elephant on the right side of the picture is a street food called Bunny Chow. I was intrigued when this section was put together and did a little research into what it was; it sounds amazing! It’s a mix of spices, meat, chickpeas, and potatoes served in a hollowed out bread bowl – yummmm. As long as it isn’t too spicy I’d be all over that! (My daughter finds my lack of spice tolerance amusing, and when something is too hot for me she says “OMG Mom, you are SOOOOO white!”)

There were so many interesting animals, foods, and natural wonders to see in this image – 100 pictures wouldn’t be enough to show you everything. I adored it once I started assembling, and loved learning about all the regional foods and native animals. Ever heard of a Giant Ghana Snail? I hadn’t. How about Suya? It’s a traditional smoked, spiced meat skewer that’s popular in much of West Africa. (Also, this little picture is a small shout-out to one of my regular readers from Nigeria – hi Tayo!) 😎

I had such a good time putting this one together that it makes me re-think all the puzzles I pass on by when I’m puzzling shopping online. First impressions aren’t always correct.

Hmmm, maybe I need to stop typing and get myself to a puzzle website – tout suite!

Africa Map In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling8 Comments

Africa Map by Liv Wan – Artifact – 441 pieces

I’m REALLY enjoying this assembly, though it’s taking much longer than usual for a puzzle with this number of pieces. It doesn’t matter though, the enjoyment is the point – not speed or comparing myself to how long it “should” take.

This image isn’t one I would normally go for, but it was another puzzle I bought for 50% off earlier in the year when Artifact was having a sale. Honestly, I felt like buying just one puzzle for $18, Medicine Teepee, didn’t really warrant the free shipping that was offered. I know, if they offer free shipping I can buy however many or few puzzles I want; truth be told I wanted some cool wooden puzzles and getting only one at half price just wasn’t enough for me. The PADS took over and I make no apologies.

So I bought this one, and even though it isn’t an image I would normally go for, nor the piece shape I prefer in wooden puzzles, I’m loving it. 💕

When I work a wooden puzzle I do not look at the box image, it makes the puzzle last longer. Slowing down and having to pay attention to each shape, each color, each texture makes for more immersive puzzling – for lack of a better word. I become completely engrossed in how things fit together and the time spent puzzling is so relaxing and enjoyable.

If I were more familiar with the geography of Africa I might be quicker at putting this together, as the interior of the continent is crammed full of images from the many countries; food, people, destinations, animals, buildings, etc. Hopefully though, I’m learning and absorbing the geography as I go. (I did know where Madagascar was, so that little island wasn’t difficult to place!)

I’m having a great time puzzling today, how about you?

Tranquil Waters

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles5 Comments

Tranquil Waters – Tuco – 408 pieces

This puzzle was quite the fantastic thrift store find, and I’m amazed that a 65 year old puzzle in the original box was still complete! I had a great time assembling it even though the subject matter wasn’t the usual type of image that I like to puzzle.

You can see in the image above that most of the pieces have at least one wavy side that just sits next to adjacent pieces, that’s the Tuco cut that I have seen in the past; but this puzzle says on the box that it is 100% interlocking, so every piece also interlocks with at least one other piece as well.

The quality was excellent and I was very impressed with this puzzle. The chipboard used is described on the box as wood-like pieces made from Upson Laminated wood fibre board. In my post about this puzzle in progress I showed the thickness of the pieces against current premium puzzle brands Ravensburger and Pomegranate…

That’s a Ravensburger on the left, and Pomegranate on the right. Their pieces seem ridiculously thin compared to this Tuco puzzle, don’t they?

I also wanted to show the thickness compared to wooden puzzle brands. Starting from the left these are pieces from Liberty, Artifact, Wentworth, and the cardboard Tuco. They’re all very close to the same thickness!

I’m so glad I had the opportunity to find and assemble this amazing puzzle. It was quite a challenging assembly for only having 400+ pieces, the painterly style made it difficult at times; but I enjoyed it very very much, and will be sending it on to Penny so she can have the opportunity to try it out as well.

Tranquil Waters In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

Tranquil Waters – Tuco – 408 pieces

I made a fantastic find at the thrift store this week – this amazing Tuco puzzle that was manufactured in 1958! I’ve never had the opportunity to work on one of these puzzles before, and I’m so amazingly thrilled to have found it.

The image isn’t anything like I would normally choose, but the very old box caught my eye. It doesn’t tell you a piece count, only that there are “approx. 425 to 990 Tuco king-size puzzle parts” and it also says it is a “100% Interlocking Picture Puzzle”; there was also the word complete handwritten on the front of the box. Well, I was intrigued. I’ve seen Tuco puzzles in other blogs or on resale sites but for the most part they were all puzzles whose pieces just push together and I usually just find that frustrating.

My mother and I developed a system for thrift store puzzle shopping – mostly for brands with quality that can be questionable. We always had a small pair of scissors or something sharp in our purses along with a small roll of clear tape. When a puzzle from a questionable brand was in a taped up box we could open it, check out the pieces to see if it was something we might want to assemble and tape it back up if necessary.

I still do this when shopping for puzzles at thrift stores and I opened this puzzle box to check out the pieces, to say I was stunned would be an understatement! The pieces are the thickest I’ve ever seen for a cardboard puzzle, they put Ravensburger and Pomegranate to shame…

That’s a piece from Ravensburger on the left, and a pre-pandemic Pomegranate on the right – the pieces of this Tuco puzzle are as thick or thicker than some wooden puzzles I’ve worked! (I think when I write up the post for this completed puzzle I’ll show pieces from premium cardboard brands along with wooden puzzle brands for comparison.)

Once I saw the thickness of the pieces, and that most of them had tabs that fit into other pieces there was NO WAY I wasn’t buying this puzzle. As an added bonus the color on the price tag was the “color of the week”, so it was half price, which means I paid $1.50 for this amazing find!

The image is mostly a dark landscape with lots of green and a pond or river in the foreground with even more green, but it doesn’t matter. It’s such an amazing puzzle to have found at the thrift store, and I am extremely excited to assemble it! 😍