Spice Rack by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 1000 pieces
This thrift store purchase made me so happy! Mom brought it over to show me and I couldn’t wait to get assembling; collages with lots of words are the best!
White Mountain puzzles are good quality, but sometimes it’s hard to make judgments about puzzle quality when you buy second-hand. I have no idea how many times this puzzle has been assembled; it may have been well loved before it was donated so I can’t say for sure if image lift on the pieces is because of repeated assemblies or because of quality issues. 🤔
Still, from my experience with this brand purchased new I can say their quality is good, about mid-range. The pieces are a good thickness, they have a nice variety of piece shapes and they normally fit together well. I’ve had a few White Mountain puzzles with an extremely tight fit, but those seem to be few and far between. Every once in a while the image reproduction can be a bit fuzzy; but again that seems to be the exception, and one I normally only notice on collages with some vintage images.
This puzzle is by one of my favorite collage artists, Charlie Girard. His collages are fun to assemble and always make me smile. I had a great time putting this one together, it was especially fun to see all those vintage spice containers from companies I’ve never heard of. There are some familiar brands like McCormick and French’s, but most are companies that have long since gone; some of them had such interesting packaging. Ben-Hur Allspice? Wow.
I can’t wait to see what fun and interesting puzzles mom finds next, I hope she finds me some more collages!
Dog Gallery by Gretchen Kish Serrano – Cobble Hill – 1000 pieces
This puzzle was such great fun, I’m so glad I got to assemble it! If you love a good collage, great works of art, or dogs, you should enjoy this puzzle as much as I did. Gretchen Kish Serrano has inserted dogs into famous works of art, and the result is this adorable, funny, and fun to assemble puzzle.
Cobble Hill puzzles are excellent quality in my opinion, and this year they also have a new box design and have added posters to the puzzles to make up for the logo covering a portion of the image on the lid. Even better! I’m not a collector, so the box design isn’t usually something I’m overly interested in, but for those of you who do collect the new box designs are quite nice. The puzzle image takes up the entire lid, with a small logo in one corner; all 4 sides have a portion of the picture along with brand name, artist, title, and piece count, making it easy to shelve either vertically or horizontally. Puzzle Warehouse is one of Cobble Hill’s preferred online retailers; click here to see all Cobble Hill puzzles currently available.
Their pieces are a good thickness and fit together quite well. The fit on this puzzle was a little bit loose but not so much as to be a distraction. The image reproduction was excellent with a matte finish; the random cut made the assembly interesting and fun, and the image was perfect for puzzling in my opinion!
I started with all the smaller images within the image (it wasn’t difficult to sort them), and then I assembled the 2 patrons – don’t they look like good girls/boys sitting so quietly looking at the art? When all that was left was picture frames and red background I sorted the remaining pieces by shape/number of knobs and started working on filling in. This is usually the part that begins to feel tedious after a while, but not so with this puzzle. The difference in the shades and patterns of each picture frame, along with the random cut of the pieces made the filling in almost as fun as each picture itself.
I highly recommend this puzzle, especially if you’re a dog lover like I am. The moment I saw this image I knew I would love assembling this puzzle – I hope you do too! 🐶
Can you name all the works of art represented here? I know them all except for the one in the upper left corner, can anyone help me out and let me know the title and artist? I couldn’t find anything online, but I was most likely not looking in the right places. My favorite artwork from this puzzle is below, along with the original artwork – I love that long flowing hair!
It’s The Birth of Venus re-imagined! I love it! How about this next one….
It’s The Kiss by Klimt! Isn’t that adorable? One last one, because I can’t resist….
Salvador Dali’s famous melting clocks in The Persistence of Memory. Those dogs look completely unimpressed – what great faces!
Details:
Title: Dog Gallery
Artist: Gretchen Kish Serrano
Brand: Cobble Hill Puzzles
Piece count: 1000 pieces
Size: Approx. 27 x 19 in. (68 x 49 cm)
Purchased: No cost, sent for review
Quality:
Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Excellent
Box: Sturdy
Fit: Very good, slightly loose
Puzzle Dust: Moderate amount
Piece cut: Random cut
Piece shapes: Very good variety
Finish: Matte finish, lays flat
Overall Rating: Very good, highly recommended
I received this product at no cost in order to facilitate this review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are truthful and 100% my own.
Vintage Signs by Lois B. Sutton – White Mountain – 1000 pieces
I guess having this blog means I pay more attention to the names of the puzzles I do, I write about each one separately. This is the second time this month that I’ve had a duplicate name. One day when I assembled a bunch of kid’s puzzles there were two different ones with the same title; and this puzzle has the same title as a Re-marks collage I reviewed recently. I suppose with so many puzzles out there it’s bound to happen though. 🙂
I had a great time putting this one together. It seems more satisfying for me to work a collage, I think because there’s that gratifying sense of completion with each small section. Small little victories within the whole that, for me, bring smiles and satisfaction. Whatever the reason, I’m looking forward to more collages right now; mom has a bunch of them from White Mountain at her house that I’m going to borrow very soon!
White Mountain has one of the best catalogs of collages around; there’s something for everyone. Charlie Girard and Lois B. Sutton are a couple of my favorite artists in this genre, I particularly love her stamp collages – they are so pretty!
Unfortunately this thrift store puzzle is missing a piece, but it was still great fun to assemble and has me itching get my hands on more collages. I can’t wait to get to mom’s and pick out my next puzzle! 😎
Another fun collage, they seem to be keeping me going lately. 🙂 The vintage seed packets with the colorful pictures, the many words to assemble; I just love the look of this one. There’s just something about it that makes me smile.
This was a pretty good Springbok puzzle as far as quality. The pieces fit together well (without too much effort) and they didn’t have that halo of fuzzy paper on the backs of the pieces that you find sometimes with Springboks. The image reproduction was very good, bright and crisp; and although the piece shape is a bit noticeable in the finished image it didn’t detract from the enjoyment of the assembly.
There are so many beautiful collage puzzles out there that I would love to do, and looking back I’ve done so many already. Keep ’em coming please!
I had the best time with this puzzle! If you read this blog regularly you know I love a collage, this was a fantastic puzzle with such interesting images – I couldn’t walk away!
Remarks has come out with some really fun collages lately, I had a hard time choosing between them when I went to get some new puzzles. They have several, including this one, that are Barnes & Noble exclusives. So much fun! The quality on this puzzle was a little better than I remember, nice cutting, good thickness, very nice fit, and a poster inside to help with assembly. The pieces seemed a little small to me, but the previous puzzle I assembled had large EZ Grip pieces so I may be mistaken.
I bought another Remarks collage that day, and am trying to decide if I should do that one next or not. This one went so quickly that I may want to do something else in between to make them last longer. I’m still making up my mind. By the time this is posted, of course, I will have done many more puzzles.
I’m almost ashamed to say I’ve only read 9 of these 50 books. I thought I was pretty well read, but it seems not. Still, at this point in my life I have no tolerance for doing things just because I’m “supposed to” or because others think I should. I’m just going to be me, flaws and all. If people don’t like me, that’s ok; I think I’m pretty darned awesome just the way I am. My family and friends love me, that’s what counts. 😎
If you’re an avid reader, a fan of collages, or are just looking for an entertaining jigsaw puzzle I highly recommend this one. Loved it! ❤
My Jigsaw Journal 