Tag: Wooden Jigsaw Puzzles

Defence Against the Dark Arts

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

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

Is this not a fantastic image for the month of October? I think it is, so here we are. Honestly I wasn’t sure how this one was going to go for me, as there is a LOT of black in it even though it seems very colorful and I wasn’t sure how these aging eyes of mine would deal with all the darkness. Luckily with the help of some eyeglasses and an excellent light source it wasn’t too bad at all. 👓🕯

I cannot be held responsible for this puzzle purchase as every Harry Potter puzzle on the Wentworth website was 70% off back in June, and I was left unsupervised with access to my bank account. Consequently, of the fourteen puzzles that were available nine of them made it into my shopping cart. Getting a QUALITY 500 piece wooden puzzle for such a great price was just too good to pass up, so I didn’t! I bought many different sizes: two 500 pieces, a 450, a 225, a set of four 65 pieces, and several 250’s (which I consider to be the perfect size for a Wentworth). This is the second puzzle from this purchase that I’ve assembled, and it was an absolute joy.

If you read My Jigsaw Journal regularly you might remember this picture from the in progress post I did back in August when this puzzle was assembled. The whimsies in this puzzle are absolutely fabulous – with images of Dumbledore, Voldemort, Snape, and even Crookshanks, Scabbers, and Hedwig,. I love all of these figures, and truly appreciate all the work that must have gone into them.

I’m not sure what it is that I love so much about this little section, I just know that it makes me happy even just to look at it. It was a lot of fun to put together and still makes me smile even as I’m typing this up. 😍

Normally I show the entire back of a wooden puzzle, especially when the shapes are Victorian cut or just interesting to me. The shapes for most of these pieces were “normal” and so even though I took a picture of the back I decided to only show you this little part of it. You couldn’t tell unless you were really paying attention, but Scabbers’ whiskers extend into two of the pieces next to him. I didn’t notice at all until I flipped it over. There are a few of these extensions into surrounding pieces for a couple of the other whimsies as well. It makes me really appreciate all the work that went into these puzzles, even more than I already did!

For some reason I just dumped out all the pieces onto my board and flipped them over with no sorting, not even the edges. It was chaos! As the assembly went on I realized that 500 pieces is a bit too many for me to puzzle that way. It’s ok with a smaller piece count, but for this stuck-in-her-ways old lady, I think anything over 300 pieces will need to be sorted from now on. Lesson learned.

Chaos not withstanding, this puzzle made me tremendously happy. Buying it made me happy. Looking at the box made me happy. Finding all the whimsy pieces made me happy. And assembling it made me very happy. 😄

Interior In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling8 Comments

Interior by William Ireland – Liberty Puzzles – 527 pieces

Currently this gorgeous Liberty puzzle is on my board and I am reveling in the fun of assembling it. There are so many little wonderful tableaus going on with the whimsy pieces, it’s so entertaining to watch them all come together. In the lower right corner you can find a couple dancing, the old Victrola is playing and musical notes are floating out.

You can also see an old grandfather clock sticking out of the bottom section, what a fantastic piece! If you can’t tell yet I am very much enjoying this puzzle. 😎

I absolutely love this multipiece whimsy: lying on the couch with lots of pillows, some comfy slippers, a good book, being kept company by furry friends – it’s so good! I haven’t worked my way to the section where it fits into the puzzle yet, which is why it’s got a white background; it’s still sitting on a tray waiting for placement. But it’s so cute that I can’t seem to stop staring at it, even though I’m not quite close to where it belongs in the image yet.

It’s been so enjoyable putting this one together that I am purposely drawing it out to get maximum entertainment from the assembly. I adore the image, and the puzzle itself is just as gorgeous. 😍

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.