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.

Friday, May 28, 2021

Multi-Season Earth Day

 Boardwalk Puzzles, 448 pieces. This was a great intro to this laser cutter. I really enjoyed the tesselated and semi-tesselated whimsies scattered throughout. 4/5



classic lizards

classic birds

seahorses

a flock of birds

classic butterflies

leaves

more leaves

also leaves



The Yellow Sedan and The Purple Car with Fins

 Anne Belle Thompson, 166 pieces/196 pieces. Same artist, very nice colors with unusual dimensions. 3/5








Ride the Wave

 Platinum Puzzles, 72 pieces. Clever teaser-like structure with only a few hints of overall shape (the teaser pieces roughly surround the central image) and nice colors. 7/10 Stave scale




Thursday, May 27, 2021

Orbicular Geode No. 2792

Nervous System, 345-ish pieces. A lovely example of their geode puzzles, with the usual color banding and organic piece shapes. 3/5

crystal whimsies




The Brick Walk

 Anne Belle Thompson, 145 pieces. The thicker MDF here than today's laser-cut puzzles gives this a nice hand feel which contributes to the homey vibe of the puzzle. 3/5





When Ewe Feel Blue

 Platinum Puzzles, 69 pieces. Another teaser-type puzzle, again very enjoyable. The frame pieces made this simpler but by no means very easy. 6/10 Stave scale





Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Dancing with the Stars

 Platinum Puzzles, 69 pieces. I really like the Stave version of this too--you know there's a starfish shape, but there are no guard rails/frame pieces so it takes until nearly the end of assembly to get the shape. Took many, many hours to assemble! 6/10 Stave scale


some hours later



Nico Clopp, Martigues

 Artifact, 302 pieces. Nice impressionistic colors. 3/5

I really like how the shape interacts with the image here



fisherman with very big pole



Puzzle/Doodle

 277 pieces total (267/10), Thom Spencer/Jigsaw Art. Spencer's cutting is wildly varied, and with a puzzle like this, it's all about finding the shapes because the colors are individual. This isn't even a four-color map puzzle--sometimes adjacent pieces have the same colors and sometimes not. Tremendous fun. 8/10 Stave scale.





Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Jim Tsinganos, Passion

 Mr. Bob, 651 pieces. Sturdy, relatively thick pieces, some basic whimsies. The charm comes from the letters spelling out PASSION, and then there's a fair amount of blue sky though there are a couple of things flying around in the sky on closer inspection that mean more variety than you might initially think. 3/5



Mr Bob interacting whimsy



Edward Hopper, Chop Suey

 Artifact, 346 pieces. Some nice touches--the lamp whimsy that actually is part of the edge is my favorite--in this somewhat gloomy Hopper painting. 3/5






The Blue Streak

 Jigsaw Art/Thom Spencer, 292 pieces.  Very difficult--the blue isn't completely consistent and there are no clues about how it interacts with the plainer wood, other than being roughly in a line. 6/10 Stave scale