I do wooden jigsaw puzzles and take pictures of them.
Shay's Puzzle Workshop, 436 pieces. It was the cat whimsies that got me, in the end, though the fish were plenty enjoyable too. There was a lot of color variation across the overall image, with individual areas mostly distinguishable especially as assembly proceeded. A delight to put together in the traditional style. 6/10 Stave scale.
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| flipped by pulling up by a corner |
Artifact, 105 pieces. I really like the geometric style here, which breaks up the image and increases the difficulty despite a low piece count. 3/5
Stave, 215 pieces. Pleasant traditional Stave with a lot of bugs, including one clever VW whimsy and a number that interact with various objects. 6/10
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| VW Bug, get it? |
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| one interacting whimsy pair |
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| another connected to a letter from a name |
Mr. Gogo, 436 pieces. One of the joys of doing a lot of someone's puzzles is seeing them experiment. Mr. Gogo has done dropouts/shapes before, but the bird images invite long, narrow pieces and color line cutting in a somewhat different way, for a new experience. I will confess that I'm not as big a fan of bird images as some are, but I very much enjoyed putting this together. 4/5
Artifact/Ecru, 223 pieces. Takes a bit of a cue from Wentworth extra difficult cuts in that lots of the pieces are bat-shaped, though with more variation than in a Wentworth ED cut, and also a lot of whimsies. 3/5
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| closeup on a spooky whimsy surrounded by bats |
BellArt, 58 pieces. Cute little hand-cut puzzle, image created by staining, no whimsies. 3/5
FoxSmartBox, 216 pieces. This is a hard puzzle, and well-designed--almost all the pieces evoke butterflies while still being interlocking. 3/5 difficulty enthusiasts only
Liberty, 327 pieces. Unusual for Liberty--a shaped puzzle. Some big areas of red but a surprising amount of variation in the redness. 3/5
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| the also-not-so-common Liberty interacting whimsy, dog on leash--I've seen others of these but not sure I've seen this particular dog-on-wheels type |
Liberty, 321 pieces. Earlier Liberty style, where the human whimsies were more jagged and Par-like. Nice irregular edge and a multi-piece snowman down at the bottom edge. 3/5
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| interacting whimsies! |
DaVici, 254 pieces. Interesting idea--a chessboard but a puzzle, with puzzle-like chess pieces. The puzzle itself is not very hard because of the relatively low piece count and the big differences in images, but it has one striking feature, which is that the images in the dark squares come from other DaVici puzzles, and the whimsies do too I believe. 3/5 certainly unusual
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| the extra piece |
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| the cat |
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| some closeups |
Nervous System, 173 pieces. Small size makes assembly relatively easy since several bands of color usually cross any given piece, making it relatively easy to place in the puzzle. 3/5
Liberty, 97 pieces. A tiny Liberty! My daughter asked me the "what if I was a bug, mom" meme, and I asked her "what if *I* was a bug?" and she said she'd break out the tiny puzzles. Based on this, they'd still be fun.
Artifact, 347 pieces. Dark image led to slow assembly once the central figure was done; very intricate edge with a lot of similar pieces that invited false starts. Try only if you enjoy that kind of difficulty! 3/5
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| some themed whimsies |
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| the mirror crack'd from side to side |
Nautilus, 337 pieces. Nautilus has some beautiful images and, especially in its irregular-edge puzzles, some very nice piece designs. I don't know why I haven't warmed to it as much as to other brands, though maybe it's just that I really, really like the Liberty/DaVici level thickness. This is a fairly difficult puzzle because of repeated small elements in the image, and it has a lot of greenery/lizard themed whimsies. 3/5
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| central chameleon in place |
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| most of the reptile whimsies and a few bugs |
HelloFish, 300 pieces. HelloFish has really interesting ideas and clever execution, but I need to remember that it's never quite worth it for me at the price point. Different strokes! This double-sided puzzle is well constructed--and there are even hidden mini-puzzles and a 3D easel to be assembled. But I think I'm going to treat this as my reminder: Only borrowed/from Hoefnagel; not worth it for me to buy at anything like full price. 3/5
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| a musical ensemble |
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| 3D easel |
