Red Sailboat Sunset, Karen Tarlton

BCB Puzzles, 400 pieces. Really like the interaction between this artist's thick strokes of color and the cutting style. 4/5

Flowers, Trees & Shrubs, Adolphe Phillipe Millot

Nautilus, 464 pieces. Probably the most difficult Nautilus I've done because of the consistent white background/widespread greenery. Still, progress was possible by focusing first on the rarer colors and then finer distinctions. Lots of floral whimsies, unsurprisingly. 3/5

lots of whimsies!

Elephant

Wongo, 330 pieces. A new to me cutter, on Etsy, with very competitive pricing ($35 when last seen). Similar to Hartmaze, except instead of random piece shape it's a bit more rounded and has whimsies, including multi-piece whimsies. If you like Hartmaze, Wongo is definitely worth a look. 3/5

Onion Dreams

Elm, 787 pieces. This one was very difficult because of the large areas of dark color. Although there were very subtle variations, they were hard to pick up on until the right pieces were near each other; there is a lot of detail in the puzzle but it is hard to get piece by piece. There were also internal "edges" surrounding some of the interacting/multipiece whimsies, which further added to the difficulty. 7/10

Humpty Dumpty and rowing man

Rowing man in context--edges visible above; bird whimsy has fallen out when flipped over

dish running away with spoon

goldfish escape

Hinds House Window, Tiffany Stained Glass

BCB Puzzles, 400 pieces. Long and narrow with beautiful deep colors that vary slightly across the puzzle, making for a challenging and fun assembly. 5/5

Charles Wysocki, Gulls Nest

Faith Kenton, 183 pieces. Marked 1989 on box. Hand-cut with some plywood splinters hanging around, but pleasant and nicely rounded pieces. 3/5

Fanning the Flame, Karyn Gabaldon

Joyful Nook, 604. Based on the shared N whimsy, I am guessing that this is a version/cousin of Nook puzzles, though the selection on the website seems different (with the possible exception of one heart-shaped puzzle). The cutting style also seems different, with less in the way of fragile whimsies. The pieces here were very small--604 pieces in a 12x12 grid is a lot. Though there were other whimsies, the main design element in the cut is a huge bonsai tree in a pot. 3/5

Majestic Wolf

Unidragon, 310 pieces. I think this is a Russian style--at least there seem to be multiple Russian sellers who like to engrave the back and use very colorful animal images of this sort. Small pieces, irregular edge, busy image that is harder than it might seem because so much is going on in any given piece. Liked the multipiece wolf head whimsy. 3/5

many of these whimsies are easier to see on the other side because of the complexity of the image

mini wolf head!

maxi wolf head

Octopus, Lymon Aksamit

Liberty, 495 pieces. Unusual shaped Liberty with multiple drop-outs and some sections (chunks of the octopus arms that are "behind" other arms in the picture) that are pure color line cut. Almost all of the whimsies are octopuses. Limited color range with subtle shifts in the color of the dots adds to the difficulty. A nice change of pace! 5/5

Mandala Stones

Nautilus, 432 pieces. Very colorful puzzle with snowflake (or mandala?) whimsies enough variety to keep it interesting. Nautilus whimsies are a bit less complex than Wentworth but otherwise pretty comparable. 3/5

Peacock and Pattern, Jane Tattersfield

Liberty, 408 pieces. The newer generation of Libertys have a lot more multi-piece figures, like the elaborate tigers and peacocks here. The colorful image with repeated techniques adds difficulty, but I think I liked the peacock feather whimsies best. 4/5

tiger!

peacock (and some others)

central peacock feather whimsies in different forms

another tiger!

another big peacock and then a slightly smaller one

Under the Ocean

Mr. Gogo, 428 pieces. Unusual for Mr. Gogo, this puzzle has multipiece whimsies in the shape of some of the fish/animals depicted--which translates to a bit of color line cutting. Very nicely done, as usual. 4/5

whimsies removed