Tag: Whimsy pieces

Peacock and Pattern

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Peacock and Pattern by Jane Tattersfield – Liberty Puzzles – 508 pieces

Man did I have a good time with this one, but it went together exactly the opposite of what I’d planned. When I looked at the image on the box I thought to myself that the easiest way to assemble this would be to start with the peacock in the center and work my way outwards. But when I was laying out all the pieces the puzzle told me that my initial plan was NOT the way to go.

Most wooden puzzles aren’t ones that you can start with the edges, especially if they are Victorian cut or have crazily shaped pieces. This image has a small border on it though, and that made it the most logical place for me to begin. Instead of rigidly sticking to my mental plan of how things were going to go together I decided to shift and let the puzzle lead where it wanted to go. After assembling the border, it flowed quite naturally into the yellow patterns, and so on. I did put together the peacock’s body and head earlier on, but the rest of him wasn’t finished until the very end.

This puzzle was more difficult than I’d bargained for, they’ve upped the difficulty level of their piece cuts at Liberty if you ask me. There were many times that I thought I knew exactly why I was looking for, but I most certainly did not. There were tabs where you thought you just needed to find that correct shape, but actually you would end up with two different pieces whose ends joined together to make the shape you needed. It’s hard to describe with words, but it was a tricky cut that required a little extra brain power, and it reminded me a bit of the 100+ year-old Parker Bros. Pasttime puzzle that mom and I assembled together.

Forgive the cockeyed picture, my apologies. Sometimes you can’t really tell on your phone whether you’ve got it right – or maybe that’s just me. I should blame my age, but I’m extremely tired today so please insert your own joke about old ladies and failing eyesight here…

Now that the jokes are out of the way, don’t you just love to see the back of such a well designed puzzle? I know I do!

They had this sort of picture setup on the Liberty website, and I loved it so much I wanted to recreate it here. It was fiddly work getting certain pieces out of the way without disturbing others, but I think it ended up making for an excellent picture, don’t you?

So many absolutely beautiful whimsy pieces in this puzzle, and so many multipiece whimsies as well. Aren’t they gorgeous? I need to get my thesaurus out and find some new adjectives to tell you how amazing these puzzles are. Fabulous!

Mysterious Owl

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Mysterious Owl by Pixie Cold – Ravensburger – 150 pieces

So I finally decided to try out one of Ravensburger’s wooden puzzles, and I was very happily surprised by how good the quality is! Perhaps because they’re my favorite brand I didn’t want to tarnish my perception of them so I stayed away purposely; whatever the reason, it makes no difference as I thought the quality was excellent!

Many puzzle brands that go from cardboard to wooden don’t seem to understand that the way you design the pieces of a wooden puzzle is very different; Ravensburger doesn’t seem to have stumbled over that problem. The thickness of the wood, the image adherence to the wood, the image chosen, the design of the pieces, how they fit together and most especially how they fit around the whimsies – all of these things are fantastic!

Beautiful whimsy pieces that match with the image perfectly, although to me that owl in the lower right corner looks somewhat like a cat.

Yes, this is the back of the puzzle. You can barely see the lines of cutting, which to me tells me they wanted to be sure that the fit of the puzzle wasn’t too loose – and it wasn’t. It’s a little sad that you can’t see all the piece shapes and whimsies on the back, but it also shows that it’s a well made puzzle.

This puzzle was excellent, and much better quality than I gave it credit for. Shame on me for waiting so long. This puzzle was stunning and fabulous all around!

The Golden Trio

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

The Golden Trio – Wentworth – 225 pieces

This was an excellent assembly that made me very happy indeed. I wish they included the name of the artist on this one, but I couldn’t find it anywhere, the artwork is so beautiful – it made for an interesting and enjoyable build.

Wentworth puzzles are excellent quality, and I’ve never had an issue with them at all. The pieces always come in a cloth bag, but this wasn’t the usual burgundy cloth bag that their puzzles come in…

This of course is the crest for Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, with the official school motto – Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus, which I’m sure everyone knows is Latin for “Never tickle a sleeping dragon”. I love that all the Harry Potter puzzles have this bag to keep all the pieces safe and sound.

Plenty of great whimsies in this puzzle; Harry, Ron, and Hermione of course, along with Crookshanks, Hedwig, Scabbers, and Fawkes. A golden snitch, a time-turner, and a potion too, along with some beautiful flowers. They really went above and beyond for these whimsy pieces. I can’t wait to see if the other puzzles have different figures, and if so, what will they be?

I took my time with this puzzle and let it come together naturally over a few days. There was no sorting at all on this one, as the irregularly shaped edge would have made it next to impossible to start with the border. I turned all the pieces over and just started assembling, sometimes the chaos of pieces all over the board is just what I need. Most of the time I enjoy order and sorting helps with that, but every once in a while I just dump out the pieces and get going – that can be a fun change of pace for me.

I absolutely adored this puzzle with it’s beautiful artwork, the intricately cut whimsies, and the challenging cut of the pieces. It was a wonderful assembly and I’m certain I’ll be doing it again.

Defence… In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling8 Comments

Defence Against the Dark Arts – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 500 pieces

I don’t actually have any of this puzzle put together at all, but I did dump all the pieces out onto the puzzle board and have pulled out some whimsies (see above). It’s another puzzle for this Halloween season because when it’s done it’ll be posted in the beginning of October; that’s how far ahead in posts I am at the moment.

I hope to actually get started on this one today, and I hope it’s as much fun as it looks. This is one of my 70% off puzzles I bought a little bit ago. If a Harry Potter puzzle isn’t perfect for Halloween, I don’t know what is. 🎃👻🦇

The title of the puzzle is annoying my computer, because it doesn’t think defence should be spelled with a “c” instead of an “s”; there’s a wavy red line underneath every one letting me know it thinks I ought to change it. Guess what, computer? Not everyone spells everything the same way – deal with it!

So far I’m loving the whimsies, there’s some great ones in there, and probably more to find. I’m looking forward to finding them all and getting to work on this beautiful puzzle.

Happy puzzling today my friends!

**I literally just noticed that Crookshanks the cat is almost completely upside down, it looks like they’re hanging on to the ceiling. Oops. Sorry Crookshanks!**

The Sunflowers

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles12 Comments

The Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh – Trefl – 200 pieces

Oh man was I super excited to find a wooden puzzle at the thrift store – it’s never happened to me before and even better than just finding it – it was new, unopened! I couldn’t believe my luck and was so excited to assemble it. I had a puzzle on my board and was looking forward to finishing it quickly so I could get to work on this one. Sigh. As you can see, it’s more than just missing a few pieces; by my count it is missing 42 pieces. ☹

Both Penny and hubby brought up that it might just look like it hadn’t been opened, someone could have opened and assembled it and then did some fancy stuff to make it look like new when it was donated. It’s a possibility, but I don’t think that’s what happened. They could have made the outside look unopened, but the puzzle itself is in a paper bag sealed with a Trefl sticker showing the image on the puzzle and what looks like a product number. That bag was also unopened, the sticker had never been removed or peeled away from the paper. I believe it came from the factory this way, but I cannot say for sure. Even though this is the first Trefl puzzle I have ever done, I can’t with certainty say whether the missing pieces are the fault of the company so I can’t speak about their quality control without knowing whose fault this was.

What makes this even more upsetting for me was not only are so many pieces missing, it is a double-sided puzzle! Have you ever heard of a double-sided wooden puzzle? I hadn’t. When I started turning pieces over I was shocked that there’s an image on the back, a black line drawing of sunflowers. If this had been a complete puzzle it would have made me so happy to have found it for only $4.99. A shaped wooden puzzle, inside a rectangular puzzle, with another image on the back – how cool is that? Now it’s basically just an extra box to put in the recycling.

It was so interesting to me that this wasn’t just a rectangular puzzle of the artwork, but the vase of sunflowers itself could be done by itself as a shaped puzzle. This puzzle is just so different from every other wooden puzzle I’ve ever done, it would have been a definite keeper had it been complete.

Other than the fact that 20% of this puzzle was missing, it was relatively good quality. The pieces were about the same thickness as a Wentworth with a matte finish, the fit was quite loose but not too much so, the pieces of the frame were regularly shaped and the inner part of the puzzle had more irregular shapes – it should have five whimsies, but they were absent. You can see from their missing shapes that they were a chair, a bed, a leaf, a sunflower, and a vase of sunflowers.

This puzzle was quite a disappointment, but here’s how I’m choosing to look at it – I didn’t pay full price and I did get about two hours of quality puzzle time out of it even if it was incomplete. My job was to put together all the pieces until none were left, I completed my mission. Where else can you get two hours of entertainment that’s also good for your health for only five dollars? And, as a bonus, I saved someone else from spending their hard-earned money on a puzzle with so many missing pieces. Yay me!

Disappointing, but still I had a good time putting together the pieces that were there. That’s how I’m choosing to look at it. Onward to the next puzzle!