Bread Baking by Kim Jacobs – Milton Bradley – 500 pieces
This puzzle has been very slow going – the colors are very muted and almost nothing at all is obvious. It may be partly due to the new dosage of my pain medication (YIKES), but mostly I think it’s the image. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
My blog tells me I’ve assembled one other puzzle by this artist, and looking back at the post I see that it wasn’t one that I particularly enjoyed. Although the artwork on both puzzles is lovely, they just don’t seem to make good puzzles for me. It’s just one of those subjective things, it isn’t especially my pile of pieces.
It was a gift – one of my Christmas puzzles – and I’m hoping as I get further into the assembly it will get a little easier, and perhaps a little more enjoyable. 🙂
Aquatic Harmony by Chris Hiett – Sure-Lox – 529 pieces
Aquatic Harmony is an older Sure-Lox puzzle, so unfortunately the quality is quite lacking compared to the newer puzzles of theirs that I’ve assembled. It had very thin pieces, image lift on several of them, and some of the pieces weren’t completely cut through and couldn’t be separated.
It’s supposed to be a puzzle that the whole family can work on together, with three different sizes of pieces so that both young and older family members can participate. But the way this one is constructed, it doesn’t seem like it’s feasible for everyone to work together on their respective pieces. It’s designed so that the largest pieces are on the outside, going smaller into the middle; the smallest pieces can’t be connected to anything until the middle sized pieces are in place. I suppose they could be assembled by themselves and then placed into the puzzle, but that’s not always easy to do with a lesser quality puzzle like this one.
This is the puzzle with just the large pieces assembled. The middle pieces go next, working towards the center.
Now the middle sized pieces are all put in, and it’s time for the “adult” pieces to go in, right in the center.
This was a difficult puzzle, almost everything was blue, or shades of blue and white. The underwater section was the most challenging, even with the largest pieces. The image itself isn’t one I would choose for a family puzzle, it seems pretty demanding for a puzzle the whole family would be working on, perhaps a more colorful one would be better. This is all just my opinion of course, there are probably plenty of families out there that may think this image is perfect for the whole family to assemble.
I’d like to tell you I enjoyed assembling this one, but the truth is that it just wasn’t my pile of pieces. It’s not exactly a monochromatic image, but it certainly felt as though it was, and they are not a type of image I particularly enjoy. Image aside, the poor quality of the chipboard and the cutting makes this a puzzle that I can’t recommend. There are plenty of other brands out there that produce very good quality family puzzles, and my suggestion is to give one of those a try.
I find myself with an extra copy of this puzzle that I completed last year, and so I’ve decided to hold another giveaway. 🙂 It’s a new, unopened copy of SewingCollage, a 500 piece Milton Bradley/Big Ben puzzle; you can read my post about this puzzle by clicking the link above.
I assembled this puzzle in September of last year and had a great time with it, and now if you’re the lucky winner you could have a great time assembling it too! All you have to do is comment on this post, and you’ll be entered in the drawing. I will use a random number generator to decide the winner and will post the results one week from today, Monday February 17, 2020.
It was so nice to open this puzzle and see the fantastic quality of the pieces and feel the linen finish – it was wonderful to get back to a Cobble Hill puzzle, they’re excellent quality puzzles and it was lovely even to sort these pieces!
I got several gift cards this past Christmas, and one of them was for Barnes & Noble; I made sure to use it up in January when their puzzles are buy one get one 50% off – I made the most of my gift! I got plenty of puzzles to keep me entertained and happy for quite a while, and this is the first one that I’ve put together.
I don’t know why it’s been so long since I’ve assembled a Cobble Hill, they’re such nice quality. Part of it is that I’ve been mostly working puzzles from mom’s house, and partly because when I do venture out of the house in search of puzzles Tuesday Morning is where I normally go because it’s so close to my house. Unfortunately they don’t usually carry Cobble Hill. After putting this puzzle together though, I may have to suck it up and drive a little farther now and then, I loved working with these pieces!
Doughnut puzzle images are always fun for me, you can do like I did and separate out all of one color – like blue, or you can assemble it one doughnut at a time. Whichever way works for you is absolutely correct. I started with blue, green, and pink, and then the rest it of was mostly filling in. It wasn’t too easy or too difficult, this one was a total Goldilocks assembly – it was just right.
If you’re looking for a great quality doughnut puzzle, I can definitely recommend this one; big pieces, thick chipboard, linen finish, excellent fit – it’s got it all. 🍩👍
I love a food puzzle, and oddly they almost never make me hungry. Do any of you ever get hungry working with a food puzzle?
My husband surprised me with this puzzle; and not only was I surprised that he bought it for me, I was surprised that he picked such a great image too. It turned out to be a fantastic, well-made, very challenging puzzle and I absolutely loved it. Well done hubby!
The image is of the Prague clock, which I knew nothing about when I received this puzzle, but it lead me to do some research on it and I was fascinated. It was built in 1410, and is the oldest working astronomical clock in the world! The clock face gives you all sorts of information; if you know how to read it you can tell the date, how long until sunrise or sunset, the location of the Sun on the ecliptic (which tells you the date in relation to the sign of the zodiac), what lunar phase the moon is currently in, and, oh yes, it tells time too (both current standard time and Ancient Bohemian Time). It makes for a great puzzle image too!
Nautilus puzzles is a newer wooden puzzle company, started in 2018. I was highly impressed by the quality of the puzzles, but even more so by the cut of the pieces. The cut is exceptional; it is designed so that every single piece touches at least one of the whimsy pieces – which makes for wonderfully varied shapes and a much more challenging assembly. Their catalog is large and varied as well, and along with some images you see quite often in puzzles they’ve got some very unique images as well. They weren’t in business when I started my wooden jigsaw puzzle experimentthree years ago, because I definitely would have given these a try. Their smallest puzzles start at around $15, which is quite affordable in my book.
If you’re into astrology, you’ll recognize many of the whimsy shapes. I recognized the zodiac symbols, but not all the rest of them.
This is quite a large number of whimsies for only a 500 piece puzzle, and they all match the “theme” of the image. It was fun to sort through the pieces and find all the interesting whimsies, it’s one of my favorite parts of working with wooden puzzles. 🙂
All the whimsies were themed towards time, astrology, astronomy, etc. In this corner you can see the phases of the moon! That’s going an extra step, instead of just throwing whimsies around in between pieces they’ve put some thought into the design. It made for quite an entertaining assembly, and I will definitely be buying another puzzle from this company.
Hubby did an awesome job picking out this puzzle, it was a joy to assemble and I absolutely loved it! It was exceptionally well made, expertly designed, and was great fun to put together – it is very highly recommended!
*Also, as usual, I recommend giving wooden puzzles a try if you haven’t before. There are many affordable companies out there, like Nautilus, and we puzzlers are definitely worth a splurge now and then. If you can’t bring yourself to buy one, how about requesting one for a birthday or Christmas present? You’re so worth it!
Details:
Title: Prague Clock
Artist: Unknown
Brand: Nautilus Puzzles
Piece count: 500 pieces
Size: Approx. 19 x 14 in. (48 x 36 cm)
Purchased: New
Quality:
Board: Excellent, 4mm thick wood
Cutting: Excellent
Image: Excellent
Box: Very good, pieces come in a cloth bag
Fit: Excellent
Puzzle Dust: None
Piece cut: Random cut with whimsies
Piece shapes: Excellent variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish
Overall Rating: Excellent, most highly recommended
My Jigsaw Journal 