Hardwood Art Creations, 163 pieces. Laser cut puzzle from a cutter who's new to me (via Etsy). Thin pieces--a bit thinner than Wentworth even. Nice California-themed whimsies; the lack of printing on the wood means that some of the whimsies can be burned into pictures. Cutting style random enough that the puzzle stayed challenging throughout, especially given the uneven edges. I enjoyed it and it would be nice for someone looking for something a bit different or for a California-themed puzzle. 3/5
Thursday, December 27, 2018
Go for the Gold
Stave, 110 pieces. Lovely Teaser (Xmas present, thank you!) with clever dropouts to make it a little harder to assemble. 7/10 not the hardest but very pretty.
Friday, December 21, 2018
Alpha bet Soup
Stave, 1035 pieces. It's possible that this is Stave's best deal, piece for piece, but it is not for the faint of heart. Some very clever piece associations with different letters, and then very difficult swirly pieces to finish the job aided (sort of) by vague color coordination between the swirls and the specific letters. 9/10 pretty serious puzzling.
clowns and themed pieces |
everything else |
mostly assembled except for swirls and a few themed pieces that remained mysterious |
another closeup of this stage |
hah! not in order because I didn't quite manage to complete them in order |
That "yellow" submarine had me confused for a while |
"zephyr"--sure, that's what the wind is |
This fish didn't fit in until the swirl was in place--very unusual and if more of the pieces had been like that I would've gone bonkers |
"jalapeno" took forever to figure out too |
alphabetical order courtesy of my daughter |
Thursday, December 20, 2018
Tomasz Pietrzyk, Romeo and Juliet
Tea at Five
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Ocean's Orcastra
Stave, 90 pieces. A very difficult teaser puzzle with a lovely frame that was itself quite difficult to assemble because of the patterns going every which way. 7/10
Warm Feelings
Lucretia's Pieces, 960 pieces. Stave-worthy construction here. The quilt picture features repeating elements that make assembling the squares challenging, and then the remaining stripes between the squares required time and patience. 8/10 wonderful
Monday, December 17, 2018
Join the Circus
Stave, 50 pieces. This is advertised as a "Touzzle"--a teaser without a frame, as most have (the starfish and the peacock don't, and I think they're amazing, but they aren't identified on the site as being in this category for whatever reason). So you have to figure out how the pieces fit without guidance from the frame. I loved it. I used the image a bit, as it turned out that the center pieces shared a theme; it would have been even harder without that. 9/10 amazing.
Ornaments
CrowPrints, 276 pieces. I wanted to see how this cutter would do dropouts, since the others I have are rectangular--I liked the shaping of this, as well as the deep colors. More difficult than it looks! 3/5
Thursday, December 13, 2018
Seattle, Washington
Unknown cutter, 150 pieces. A nice little puzzle with a squarish, amoebaish piece style (Google decided to turn the pictures upside down though). 3/5
Fire
Stave, 255 pieces. From 1987. Also has some "NC-17" figures interacting sexually. This wasn't as difficult as the Halloween-themed puzzle of the same style, but it was of course a Stave, so there were plenty of challenges. Somehow the cut keeps you guessing until the end, even with clear color transitions. 6/10
puzzle 69 |
Copping a feel |