About my ratings

Perhaps because of my day job, I'm a tough rater. Everything 3/5 and above I consider worth the time and money. If I purchase on Etsy or a similar platform and the puzzle is as expected, I will give a top rating on the platform because of how seller ratings work, but here "as expected" is probably a 3/5 in most cases.

Monday, October 29, 2018

Summer Fashion Number

Liberty, 446 pieces.  Fun swimming-themed Liberty with nice color contrasts and an adorable multi-piece ship in a bottle whimsy.  3/5





McCabism Series #18, Jonathan McCabe

Nervous System, 410 pieces. I enjoy the tricky, organic Nervous System cutting style. Otherwise delightful puzzle harmed by what was probably improper storage; the pieces stuck together and that tore little bits off of the colorful picture, which was very sad!  3/5




Friday, October 26, 2018

Night and Day, Escher

Jigsaw Creations, approx. 200 pieces.  A new cutter for me--very solid, thick pieces, hand-cut, with scattered whimsies including some that match the puzzle.  Nice, reasonably priced hand-cut puzzle, with some surprise extra pieces at the end that were a very nice touch. 4/5.




Acatène Bicycles

528 pieces, Liberty.  Another old ad with bicycle-themed whimsies; pleasant and typical of Liberty. 3/5




Thursday, October 25, 2018

Ultra Tiger

481 pieces, Mr. Gogo.  As usual, just a very haptically pleasant puzzling experience, with enough color variation to be doable but not easy, and nicely shaped pieces.  7/10 Stave scale.



Glories of Nature

Zig-Zag (Chicago), 400 pieces. Another antique--nice piece shapes, and though the colors looked faded before assembly, the picture was quite legible once assembled, which just goes to show the power of contrast. 4/5



Thursday, October 18, 2018

The Sky was Beautiful on Fire, Steve Driscoll

390 pieces, Stumpcraft.  I really enjoyed this puzzle--the combination of the image and the pieces, which were constellation-inspired, produced a truly oneiric effect.  5/5





Street in Tahiti, Paul Gaugin

Liberty, 454 pieces.  Nice colors on this one, and connecting floral vines as whimsies--a very pleasant Liberty. 3/5




Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Farm Truck

Nook Puzzles, 376 pieces.  Another new cutter, a US-based laser cutter.  Thickness comparable to Liberty, but I would say the whimsies are more like Wentworth--somewhat less detailed in the edges.  Also, very notably, the pieces and thus the puzzle are a lot larger--they're like the Liberty large cut, which may provide a new option for people who can't deal with lots of fiddly little pieces. The resulting puzzle was therefore also large, despite the moderate piece count.  The other different feature is that there's a really big outline of a truck in the pieces--so big I wouldn't even call it a multipiece whimsy.  3/5




Some repeating whimsy shapes in the corn up in the sky--the upper edge of the truck outline is just above the treeline in the picture


Eye of the Tiger, Caleb Fleisher

Bewilderness, 326 pieces. I don't know if this geometric cut is the same as the other Bewilderness puzzle I've done, but I honestly couldn't tell because the picture made assembly so much different. Very difficult given the cut! 3/5




Friday, October 12, 2018

Mountain Scene

Unknown, 213 pieces. Another vintage hand-cut puzzle with some unusually spiky piece shapes.  Pleasant!  3/5



Court Day

Liberty, 540 pieces.  Nice, pleasant to do Liberty with good color variation and some large marketplace whimsies; I really liked the Coca-Cola signs.  3/5




Thursday, October 4, 2018

American Flag

Cub Creek Puzzles, approx. 160 pieces.  Hand-cut puzzle with a bear cub whimsy and otherwise conventionally cut (not quite strip-cut) pieces.  A perfectly fine hand-cut puzzle, like Victory but not vintage so the wood has a different feel in the hand (and the wood seems very high quality, as you can see from the back).  3/5

Not a distress sign so much as a sign that I can't figure out why in transferring these pictures from my computer Google decides to flip them