Simple Pleasures

On February 21, 2018October 25, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles3 Comments

Another very interesting puzzle from the thrift store. The box opens like a book, and inside are two compartments with one puzzle in each from the same artist – with cork backing! This one was really fun, and the other I’m saving for Christmas in July on the blog. 🎄

Ceaco puzzles aren’t great quality in my opinion, but it seems they put a little more effort into their unusual puzzles. The “different” puzzles I’ve worked have been much better quality than their regular ones. This one was very good quality, the pieces are thick (with a cork backing they have to be a little thicker) and fit together very well.

This image was more complex than my previous few puzzles; I was trying to get myself back into the puzzle groove and was working easier images and piece counts. It took me a little longer than normal for a 500 piece puzzle, but I got it done! It’s a cute image that would look good framed in a country kitchen; there’s a rudimentary recipe for apple pie along the edge. 🍎

I’m not a big fan of Christmas puzzles, but I’ll be assembling the second 500 piece puzzle in this box later on this year. I’m looking forward to it! If you can find any of these box sets of cork-backed puzzles I definitely recommend giving them a try.

American Puppy

On February 15, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

I had never worked a Lang puzzle before, and I really love this image so I decided to give this one a try. I might purchase a Lang again if it had an exceptional image that I just had to have, but otherwise I don’t think this is a brand I’ll be purchasing much.

The pieces were on the thin side, and unfortunately there was no variety in the piece shape either. Without a selection of shapes to choose from, large areas of the same color or pattern become even more difficult. The finish was slightly shiny, but not too bad. Overall though, just a little sub-par for me.

I usually like to try at least 2 or 3 puzzles from one brand before making any pronouncements about the overall quality, but this one was purchased new which makes it a bit easier for me to assess it’s quality. Still, if we’re able to find any Lang puzzles at the thrift stores that have good images I’d be willing to give them a try; if for no other reason than to get more information on this brand and it’s quality.

I’m not a great fan of cat puzzles; puppies and dogs are more my style. A quick search of the artist brought up only puppy puzzles, I guess he’s a dog person too! There are still so many brands I have yet to work with, and when an image is sweet like this one I just can’t help myself and I want to give it a try. I’m not sorry I bought this puzzle, even though at times the assembly felt a bit tedious it is still a great image and I was able to check off another brand from my list. There are so many still left to try! 🙂

Fallingwater

On February 11, 2018February 11, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

This isn’t my typical choice for a puzzle image, but the fact that this is a double sided puzzle and that the blueprints for this building is the image on the back piqued my interest and I couldn’t walk away from it. What an excellent idea!

I had a couple of issues with the quality of this puzzle, the first being the very shiny finish on the picture of the house; there was way too much shine, making it very difficult to work on under artificial lights. In fact the shininess of the pieces was part of the reason that I did the majority of the assembly with the blueprint side facing up. Secondly, the fit at times seemed a little mushy; when you tried to fit the pieces together you couldn’t always tell if the fit was correct.

I looked at other Galison puzzles at the store, luckily I was able to take the lid off and look at the pieces in the bag. There was another image that I liked very much, but the pieces were all ballerinas (2 prong, 2 hole) Blech! I prefer pieces to have more than one shape. On the plus side this puzzle had a good variety of piece shapes and once it was assembled correctly the fit was good enough to lift the entire puzzle. Here’s the image on the back…..

I was all over the place when I assembled this, the edge was put together picture side up then I flipped it over to assemble the blueprint in the center. I thought assembling the blueprint would be interesting, and it was! Once the majority of the blueprint was assembled and the only pieces left were all blue I flipped it over again and let the image assist in completing the remainder of the puzzle. I make no apologies – it was fun!

Review: Vintage Signs

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

My first new puzzle purchase of 2018, and it was absolutely as much fun as I’d hoped. Collages are my favorite kind of puzzle, I love being able to assemble one small section at a time, and it’s satisfying to connect the sections together.

This Re-marks puzzle was very good quality; although they are shiny the pieces are thick and they connect together very well. The piece shape is quite obvious in the finished image, but for me that doesn’t really detract from the enjoyment of the assembly. The shine was a little annoying under the lights – even though the image isn’t dark it was still difficult at times to see the pieces properly.

I feel a little bit better now that I’ve successfully completed a 500 piece puzzle, and after a couple more I hope to get back to doing 1000 piece puzzles and maybe even higher piece counts.

Details:

Title: Vintage Signs
Artist: Re-marks
Brand: Re-marks
Piece count: 500 pieces
Size: Approx. 16 x 20 in. (40 x 50 cm)
Purchased: New

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Very good
Box: Average
Fit: Very good
Puzzle Dust: Moderate amount
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: All 2 prong 2 hole pieces, but good variety within that shape
Finish: Shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Very good, recommended

Rainbow Beach Huts

On February 6, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

IMG_E4193 — Rainbow Beach Huts by Peter Adderley – Cardinal – 500 pieces

This puzzle with it’s bright blocks of color was a fun assembly, and three generations of women in my family completed it together. If you’re a daily reader of this blog you have already seen part of this puzzle, I took a picture of our 3 hands putting in the last pieces of this puzzle for my National Puzzle Day post. 😉

The pieces were a bit thin, the finish was very shiny, and the fit was such that if you accidentally bumped the puzzle you’d upset many pieces. Not the best quality, but not the worst I’ve had either. On the positive side, the image reproduction was very nice and there were a good variety of piece shapes to work with. Cardinal puzzles seem to be a bit hit or miss with their quality in my opinion. I’ve worked some very nice quality Cardinal puzzles, and had some that are not good at all. Brands like this we only buy from thrift stores; when the quality is an unknown we prefer not to pay retail, even if we really like the image.

I’ve mostly been working with smaller piece counts since I’ve been recuperating; it’s been difficult for me to sit and puzzle for any length of time. Mom and I have mostly been doing puzzles between 200 and 500 pieces when I’m visiting at her house. It goes much faster with more than one person, and it’s helping me get back into the swing of things.

We only got halfway through this puzzle the first day (we completed 2 others first), and so we finished it the next day with the help of my daughter before we went on a field trip to buy puzzles (I bought 6 😇). I enjoy images with bright colors that are easy to sort, and this one was an excellent image to puzzle – good fun was had by all!