Tag: 600+ pieces

Sea Anemones

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments
Sea Anemones
Sea Anemones by Ernst Haeckel – NookPuzzles – 596 pieces

This is another new wooden puzzle company that I found and gave a go. They’re beautifully thick pieces with a stunning image reproduction. I was worried that the dark background would make the puzzle more challenging, but it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I’d thought.

Such a great puzzle image! Ernst Haeckel’s book Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms in Nature) has provided puzzlers the world over with stunning illustrations that make for entertaining and beautiful puzzles. Every time I see a puzzle image by Haeckel there’s great temptation – they’re so detailed and realistic and look like they’d be so fun to put together – and they are!

So many whimsies! All sorts of sea creatures – turtles, seahorses, lobsters, starfish, dolphins, etc. – plus a few things from the land like palm trees and a lighthouse. The blue “N” is the logo for NookPuzzles. Computer technology and lasers are awesome! Can you imagine trying to cut out these shapes with an actual jig saw?

Sea Anemones whimsies

I love the 2 fish swimming together here (the whimsies on the left), is it possibly Nemo and his dad? And the purple anemone was my favorite, the color is so lovely but the picture really doesn’t do it justice at all.

I was extremely surprised by and grateful for the free gift sent with the puzzle – a beautiful wooden Christmas tree ornament! 🎄

Sea Anemones gift

Free gift aside, I’m still not sure how I feel about this brand after only working one puzzle; am I the only who has certain feelings about something with no explanation whatsoever? I’m on the fence about this brand at this point, but I can’t even tell myself why! The fit was the tightest I’ve found in a wooden puzzle (very nice!), the image is beautiful, the piece shapes are interesting and intricate, but there was something about it that I can’t really put my finger on. Sigh.

Seriously people, my brain is slowly being poached in the sweat from my hot flashes.

Tall Tower

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments
Tall Tower
Tall Tower by Tomasz Pietrzyk – Artifact Puzzles – 629 pieces

Tall Tower was a tall order! We started assembling it on Thanksgiving Day, and didn’t finish until December 3rd. It was super challenging, but the best part was that I got to work on it with both my mom and my oldest son. 💖

I purchased this puzzle during a sale at Artifact Puzzles earlier in the year, and it took me months to be in the right mood for it. My weird old lady brain makes absolutely NO sense sometimes. Take it from me, getting old definitely ain’t for sissies. 😉

The whimsies for this puzzle are so adorable! I didn’t realize it until I was dis-assembling the puzzle, but some of the whimsy pieces are shaped like images in the puzzle, it’s so creative! Alas, it was too late for pictures to show close-ups of the image and the whimsies. My apologies.

Tall Tower whismies

There were a lot of musical figures, in addition to plenty of animals. It’s so fun to work with them. I truly enjoy the detail you’re able to get with wooden puzzles; you could never make such small, intricate cuts on a regular cardboard puzzle.

This is the first Artifact puzzle I’ve worked with small dropouts in the whimsies, they make the image even more interesting in my opinion (see the top left corner, and the picture below). It’s not a true dropout in the sense that it isn’t negative space that you have to work around, but I still like the look of it. And I didn’t even notice the flock of sheep until we were done and I was taking photographs. Love it!

Tall Tower back

Such an interesting cut! This puzzle gave us quite a mental workout, but it’s always worth it in the end if you’ve enjoyed yourself. Mom did the majority of the work on this one since the puzzle stayed at her house, but my son and I helped too – shout out to my puzzle posse!