Mountain Cabin by Dominic Davison – Wentworth – 40 pieces
This is the first Wentworth I’ve had that was missing a piece, though to be fair it is most likely my fault and it’s around here somewhere. There are puzzle boxes everywhere, and there’s even a whole bunch of them sitting in the living room at the moment. It’s entirely possible that a box fell on the floor, or someone was looking at the pieces and they didn’t all find their way back into the box. I’m not worried, it’ll show up eventually.
These micro puzzles are a godsend; grownup images, fantastic wooden pieces, and I am able to start and finish the entire thing in one sitting. Nothing wrong with that at all!
The artwork by Dominic Davison is beautiful, but to be honest I’m not sure it would be as enjoyable as a 1000 piece puzzle – at least not for me. Gorgeous scenic vistas are lovely to look at, but not always as lovely to assemble. Of course it’s just personal preference, and there are most likely a bunch of people who would love this as a larger puzzle.
Doors of Europe by Dominic Davison – Educa – 1500 pieces
Usually when I think of puzzles with artwork by Dominic Davison I think of lovely cottages and countrysides; this puzzle has those, but only as glimpsed through doorways. Even though it had been almost a year and a half since I’d worked a 1500 piece puzzle, the image drew me in and I was ready to work on it with no anxiety at all about the number of pieces. It’s a gorgeous image and exactly what I was looking for when I wanted a collage to assemble.
Collages are my some of my favorite puzzles; it’s like having many mini puzzles to assemble and figure out how they connect together. It reduces the amount of stress for me because I don’t have to work the puzzle as a whole, just little sections at a time. I also love the look of collages; whether they are a hodge-podge of images all smushed together or an orderly collection of similar objects, I find the overall effect to be pleasing to the eye.
This puzzle was beautiful, just the right amount of challenging, and thoroughly entertaining to assemble. The doors were relatively easy to sort, though the scenes behind them sometimes presented a challenge. I started with the easiest and brightest colors, and in the process became more familiar with each of the scenes and the slight differences in shades of colors that allowed me to determine where they belonged.
Surprisingly, there weren’t very many pieces at all that were just the brick background – once all the doors were complete it didn’t take much time to fill in the rest of the pieces. It was a completely engrossing puzzle with a beautiful end result!
These two doors were the most fun to put together; London looks amazing, and I’m not ashamed to say I have no idea what the other is. I’m fairly certain it’s a Mediterranean city, but have no clue as to which one it may be. It doesn’t matter much, I still enjoyed the assembly of it.
This door was the most difficult, and it was the last one completed; many of the pieces looked like they might fit in other sections. It’s a mysterious set of doors though, isn’t it? Who’s on the other side?
The cut of Educa puzzles is one thing about this brand that I’m not crazy about. Most of the pieces are ballerinas (2/2), and with the limited variety of shapes there are many places where the pieces seem to fit where they do not belong. This is especially frustrating in larger areas of one color and along the edges. That said, they also have their humpback/swayback shaped pieces, which are quite easy to find and match!
My other issue with this brand is the puzzle image on their boxes. Their logo, piece count, and the words “Educa Puzzle” in very large font take over the far right side of the box; this effectively obscures one entire edge of the image! Why? As an avid puzzler, I feel I can speak for many of us when I say that you could reduce the size of the image a bit, as long as there’s an unobstructed view of the image as a WHOLE we would be very grateful. (We are not grateful, however, for the tiny 1 x 1.5 inch whole image on the side of the box, it is not helpful!)
Complaining aside, I really did have a great time with this puzzle, I promise. Bad cut and covered picture aside, it was an entertaining assembly and a beautiful finished puzzle. Loved it❣
Country Cottage by Dominic Davidson – Ravensburger -1500 pieces
Horribly photographed, but quite a fun puzzle. I long for the days when I could assemble a 1500 piece puzzle without having an anxiety attack. 😕 Great quality puzzle, and I had a great time with it. That surprised both myself and mom – at the time (2+ years ago) it wasn’t really the kind of image I enjoyed assembling.
Turns out, many times I’m completely wrong about whether or not I will enjoy a puzzle. Sometimes I see the image and think, “Oh man, that’s going to be so much fun!”. Then once I start the assembly I’m completely disappointed by it. Other times I think “Ugh, that one’s gonna suck.” and it turns out to be great fun. Seems to me I can’t trust the fickle old lady brain in my head, I should just get to assembling and let it play out.
Unfortunately the picture I took seems to be another one where I was in the process of falling over, I apologize. But I want to stand up for myself again and say that these older pictures were ones I took on my phone to text to both my mom and daughter. When any of us finish a puzzle we text a picture to each other; they’re not always the best quality. When I assembled and finished this puzzle I hadn’t yet started My Jigsaw Journal, and I had no idea that I’d end up publishing these photos. This is what it’s supposed to look like…
It’s a beauty! The puzzle was excellent quality, the image is beautiful and calming, and it was one of our better thrift store finds. You can’t beat 99 cents for a 1500 piece Ravensburger! 🤑
Still to Life by Dominic Davison – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 40 pieces
This micro puzzle has beautiful, deep colors and was great fun to assemble. I love the images of Dominic Davison; they’re serene, beautiful, and calming.
As usual, this Wentworth puzzle was excellent quality. It has the loose fit that almost all wooden puzzles have, but I don’t find it as distracting as I do with cardboard puzzles. It’s probably a bit hypocritical on my part, but for me the added pleasure of working with wooden pieces makes up for dealing with the loose fit. The image reproduction is excellent, and adhered well to the wood. There are a good variety of piece shapes, including some whimsy pieces – shown below….
This puzzle had another rerun of whimsies; these are the same pieces in the Sky Roads micro puzzle. They made much more sense for this image than they did for the hot air balloons puzzle, in my opinion.
My to do pile of Wentworth micro puzzles is dwindling, there are only 5 left. They’re perfect for when I don’t have much time, when I might have to spend time in waiting rooms, or for when I have to work on puzzles laying down. I’m going to have to make these 5 puzzles last – or perhaps I should purchase some more. 😉
This micro puzzle has the most beautiful colors, absolutely gorgeous! It was fun to assemble and a little more complicated than it looks. It took me a little bit to find the right pieces, but it was completely worth it!
I love Dominic Davison images, they’re beautiful to look at and interesting to assemble. I’ve done several puzzles of his artwork and have enjoyed every one. There are plenty more of his puzzles I’d be happy to do.
The whimsies are so cute!
You’d think that starting with the whimsy pieces and working outward would make the puzzles very easy to assemble; and although that does help some it doesn’t make the entire puzzle easy. If it were too easy I think I wouldn’t be very interested in doing them.
There are still 4 more Christmas/winter micro puzzles to do this month. I’m hoping when I put them together it’ll bring a nice chill to the air to beat this nasty hot weather! ☀
My Jigsaw Journal 