Tag: 400+ pieces

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! 😍