Art City

On January 23, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

I love unique and interesting images, and there’s nothing like this one anywhere but at Mr. Bob Puzzles. The colors, the movement of the artwork, it’s just astounding and I absolutely adored this puzzle and the assembly!

The first thing I do when I get a wooden puzzle is to look through all the pieces to see the shapes, hopefully whimsies, and get a feel for the colors and the image. This one definitely didn’t disappoint. Not only where there plenty of whimsical shapes, there were a lot of words too – so fun!

Art City whims 1

I didn’t even notice when I was going through them that “ciao” is spelled wrong, in fact if I hadn’t received an email from the company I probably never would have realized it! They were horrified at the mistake and have offered to fix it immediately. Honestly I don’t think I’ll bother, it makes it more interesting I think. 😉

Art City whims 2

The whimsy pieces have a roaring 20’s feel, jazzy and fun and they made for fun surrounding pieces too.

Art City 2

The image made for a difficult assembly, but it was the lovely kind of difficult that keeps you engaged and engrossed.

Art City 1

This woman taking a picture with her iPhone is the artist’s way of bringing the image into the present as many of the whimsy pieces suggest older times. (Or so Mr. Bob tells me 🙂 )

This assembly was absolutely the right amount of challenging, but not too difficult as to make it frustrating. The cut of the pieces seems mostly regular, but it is quite deceptive and not at all as easy as it looks. If it were too easy it wouldn’t be much fun at all, so thankfully these puzzles have struck an excellent balance.

Even with the shipping from Australia, I’ve found Mr. Bob Puzzles to be relatively reasonably priced; with the exchange rate for the Australian dollar shoppers in the US start out with a bit of a discount already. And with the wildfires in Australia I also like the idea of sending some of my puzzle money down there.

New Puzzle In Progress

On January 18, 2020January 18, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlingLeave a comment

My husband surprised me this past week and bought me a new wooden puzzle! Then he went one better and got one from a company I’ve never tried before, AND he picked out an image that I really like. He is the sweetest man, and after 31 years he still loves me and loves to surprise me. 💗

The image is The Prague Clock, or The Prague Astronomical Clock – which I must admit that I had never heard of before and knew nothing about. I’ve been reading about it since he presented me with the puzzle and am now completely fascinated by it. Did you know it’s the oldest working astronomical clock in the world? It was built in 1410 and is still working today; and it’s amazing the things this clock face can tell you.

prague_clock_label_1024x1024

Astronomical clocks are designed to show you astronomical information (obviously), like the positions of the sun, moon, and certain constellations. The Prague clock, however, shows this information and much more. If you know how to read it you can tell the date, how long until sunrise or sunset, the location of the Sun on the ecliptic (which tells you the date in relation to the sign of the zodiac), what lunar phase the moon is currently in, and, oh yes, it tells time too (both current standard time and Ancient Bohemian Time). There may be more, I haven’t read through everything yet or committed all the information to memory.

I’m fascinated by the clock, and I’m excited to get started assembling the puzzle! I’ve looked through the pieces and picked out all the whimsies, and hopefully all the edge pieces too. The puzzle is on the small side, 19 x 14 inches, and only 500 pieces, so I’ve decided to just lay the pieces out on the board and work it that way with no trays to look through. I think it’s partly because of the discussion we’ve been having in the comments about the merits of sorting or not sorting; so I’ve decided to give not sorting another try. We’ll see how that goes. 😉

The North Pole

On December 28, 2019December 28, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

I love the look of this image, it reminds me of an Americana puzzle. It’s very different than the typical Christmas puzzle images that you normally see, and that’s what I love about it. If you look at the middle of the puzzle you’ll see that there’s a nativity scene – that’s something new, especially with this being the North Pole and Santa flying away to do his Christmas Eve work.

North Pole 1

The detail makes all the difference, I love the way they’ve cut that Santa whimsy! Wentworth whimsies make me happy, and one of the best parts of their puzzles is opening it up and searching through the pieces to see what shapes they’ve chosen and looking at the detail – at least it is for me.

I don’t get out much, and I have PADS, so my emotions are definitely linked to puzzles. 😉

The Puzzle that Broke the Ice

On December 12, 2019December 12, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

The Puzzle that Broke the Ice – Wentworth – 40 pieces

I did it! I think. Okay, I’m 97.5 percent sure that I did it! You can see why this puzzle reminded me of Winter Aspen – so much snow and trees. *shudder* It truly was the most challenging Wentworth puzzle that I’ve ever assembled, and it was only 40 pieces! Can you imagine getting any of the larger versions? This also comes in 252 and 510 pieces. I’m not sure if more pieces would make it easier or more difficult, but I definitely won’t be finding out.

I started by turning all the pieces upside down to sort them by shapes, it’s easier if you don’t see the image and just look at the specific shape.

Ice 1

After the sorting the real work begins. Obviously. A close look at the image on the box showed the irregular edge, and that there would be the top of stars and tree trunks along the edge. I started with the darkest and thickest trunk in the image on the far left. From there it was trial and error and a LOT of squinting to be certain each piece I added matched up with all the tree trunks and branches.

It was difficult as there was snow obscuring some parts of certain trees, but as I said I’m 97.5 percent sure I put this one together properly. 😎

One more holiday puzzle down! I’m pretty proud of myself for finishing this one and not putting it off any longer, I was truly dreading it (because I had tried before to assemble it and failed – my brain is being cooked from the inside by hot flashes and isn’t as sharp as it used to be). But as difficult as it was, it was still pretty awesome, completely absorbing, and looks very festive!

Wentworth has some extremely difficult holiday images like this one with repetitive shaped pieces and they all have fabulous names like The Puzzle that Burnt the Turkey, and The Puzzle that Ruined Christmas. The silly names make me laugh, but these little puzzles are no joke! They’re the typical excellent quality that the “regular” puzzles are, and even if they take me a little bit more brain power I really do enjoy the added challenge. I’m giving this one a difficulty rating of four out of five ice cubes. 😉

Brrr! 🧊🧊🧊🧊

London In Snow

On December 5, 2019December 5, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles3 Comments

It’s my first Christmas puzzle of the season, completed the day after Thanksgiving. Not because I was in any rush to do Christmas puzzles, which regular readers know are definitely NOT my thing; but because I’ve been in a slump lately and need to get some puzzles done and ready to post. Luckily I had 4 Wentworth micro puzzles here, and they’re not only going to be part of the holiday season here on My Jigsaw Journal, but they’re going to save me with some quick and easy completions. 🙂

Wentworth Wooden Puzzles are beautifully made with excellent quality, and I absolutely adore their micro puzzles. They are tiny little puzzles (30-40 pieces) that are easy to carry and quick to put together when you’re in need of a puzzle fix. All PADS sufferers know that feeling when all you want to do is be left alone for 10 minutes so you can get your hands on some puzzle pieces and be swept up in which piece fits here and where does that color go – it’s puzzle bliss. We are all in search of a few minutes of meditation with a puzzle, and these micro puzzles are the perfect thing for it!

This image is perfect for a micro puzzle, because it looks like it would be quite difficult in a larger piece count. The top half is all shades of white and grey, and the bottom is a sea of reds and yellows. I don’t know that it would be one I’d choose to assemble if it were anything larger than a 300 piece cardboard puzzle. That said, it’s truly beautiful artwork by Richard Macneil, and it made for a excellent micro assembly.

London whimsies

My favorite here is the whimsy of the Queen, the extra detail that Wentworth adds to their whimsies makes all the difference; you know exactly who that is with all the added lines, it’s lovely!

All Grinchy-ness aside, I enjoyed this assembly, as I do for all Wentworth puzzles. It has beautiful artwork, is well crafted, and gave me a few minutes of uninterrupted puzzle time that ended with a completed puzzle. Heavenly!

*There is one coming up that I’m dreading a little bit though, it’s a micro puzzle – one of their extra difficult ones with tessellating pieces – that I’ve attempted to assemble before and had to give up on. It brings back memories of Winter Aspen – YIKES! I’m determined to master it though; but I’m not sure if I want to save it until last or just do it and get it over with. Whichever one I choose, wish me luck!