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.

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Small Four Color Map Puzzle, Artifact

68 pieces, but actually worth it because of the irregular edge/lack of any images. Designed to illustrate the four color map theorem.  Fun!  4/5



Colour Study, Squares with Concentric Circles, Wasily Kandinsky

240 pieces.  Would have been a decent puzzle, with curliques to keep things interesting, except that a bunch of pieces arrived still stuck together, and one was broken.  Argh.  2.5/5



Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Vasily Kandinsky, Yellow-Red-Blue

Nikolyaaa, 249 pieces, laser cut, like Wentworth's difficult cut.  A little small for me but I really like this cut, which puts colors in unexpected places.  4/5



Cuaco Quilt, Alfredo Arreguín

Wentworth, 500 pieces.  Not quite as fantastic as the other Quilt/Arreguín puzzle from Wentworth, but lots of fun to put the colors together.  4/5



Friday, May 26, 2017

Ong Khan, Artifact

192 pieces.  Challenge provided by the fact that the pieces all have the same connectors and are cut in a repeating pattern, as well as some subtle color shifts and unusual proportions. 3/5



Sudden Shower at the Atake Bridge, Hiroshige

Liberty, 508 pieces.  Nice coloration/lines on this one.  4/5



Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Van Gogh Landscapes, double-sided

150 pieces, Artifact.  A bit harder than expected for its size because of the double-sidedness, but that was ultimately not that hard to distinguish.  4/5




So Goghs the Night, treat

170 pieces, Stave.  Very nice--the pieces fit together, but with just a few gaps to make it a bit of a challenge.  8/10



Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Stave, Tip the Scales

160 pieces. Fish!  Different portions kept the interest up.  7/10



The internal fish were very very hard to place but I'm pretty sure I got it in the end


Stave, Tiger Lily

Teaser.  Pretty picture/pieces, not as hard as some three-sword teasers.  6/10



Monday, May 22, 2017

Golden Koi, Zen

299 pieces.  Very similar to the Koi puzzle, actually.  3/5



Berry Madness, Wentworth

230 pieces, repeating scarecrow pattern.  Not my favorite of the repeating patterns, but it did make me work.  3/5

a successful strategy


Thursday, May 18, 2017

Frosted Flake, Stave

120 pieces, three-sword teaser.  A pleasant one where the snowmen are basically the same shape as the cutouts, so that's the source of the challenge.  7/10
starting out

complete

Koi, Zen

299 pieces.  Very pretty whimsies in a strip-cut.  3/5
fish whimsies

starting out

mostly done

all done

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Life's a Dance, teaser

Stave.  Pleasantly challenging.  7/10




Zen, honeybees and sea urchins

49 piece teaser and 201 pieces.  Much less difficult than my previous Zen, which had multipiece whimsies that essentially behaved like push-fit sections.  The standouts are the whimsies, elaborate laser-cut pieces that are embedded in a strip cut.  3/5


Starting out: note whimsies at bottom right