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, July 29, 2022

Squirreled Away

 Shay's Puzzle Workshop, 75 pieces. This double-sided puzzle shows a classic puzzler's search with an unusual explanation. Impressive mirror-image cutting!  4/5





Möbius Marbling Puzzle

 Nervous System, 143 pieces. Based on the colors in a Georgia O'Keefe painting that were radically altered into a marbling pattern, this infinite puzzle was extremely challenging. The colors repeat but are not the same on both sides, which is also impressive! 4/5



the other side


The Windup

 Armstrong Puzzles, 66 pieces. Given the theme, the cuts looked like fingers to me, though another puzzler said "baseball stitches" and that works too. 7/10 Stave scale




Thursday, July 28, 2022

Here There Be Dragons

 Forget Me Not Puzzles, approx. 64 pieces. Every piece here is a dragon or has dragon features, though it's not a tesselation--rather, it's an incredible hand-cut piece! 7/10 Stave scale, no pun intended, for inventiveness.





A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat

 Rebecca Boyden or Keith Cunningham--now I'm not sure since there are two names on the included cards. Leaning towards Keith Cunningham based on presentation, but if anyone knows, please let me know and I will update. 113 pieces. Nice traditional cut for this well-known image. 3/5




Jungle Quartet

 Armstrong Puzzles, 100 pieces. Colorful image, great traditional cutting, just fun all around. 4/5




Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Koi, Willy Gomez

 Dep Qua, 97 pieces. Gorgeous image (woman and/as fish), gorgeous traditional cutting with lots of dropouts and a couple of whimsies. 4/5




Boston Strong

 Armstrong Puzzles, 142 pieces. Another great use of dropouts to create a striking image. 4/5




Carl Link, Cover of Dance Magazine, Feb 1926

 Rebecca Boyden, per the card, 161 pieces. Very nicely done, fairly traditional, no whimsies. 3/5




Tuesday, July 26, 2022

Bird Feeder

 Twitchell Puzzles, 76 pieces. Charming small puzzle with wiggly cuts. 3/5




Little Woman

 Puzzlapy, 124 pieces. A lovely traditional cut puzzle. This cutter's style changes depending on the art; this would be nice to share with an older child. 4/5




Dropout Scene 1

 Armstrong Puzzles, 68 pieces. I should have taken more pictures during assembly, because this was incredibly hard--all the dropouts combined to make a negative space picture, but it was impossible to tell what until the very end. I looked at the piece count when writing this up and was blown away. I probably averaged two minutes per piece here. 8/10 Stave scale

all these pieces look pretty standard, how hard could it be?

oh, ok


Monday, July 25, 2022

Greenwood Burg

 Bumfuzzled, 94 pieces. I liked the first Bumfuzzled I did, and this continues in that vein: lots of unusual connectors, some color but not necessarily predictive of what will go together so it's mostly piece-based assembly. 3/5




Rainy Day Flowers

 Armstrong Puzzles (Conrad Armstrong), 103 pieces. This puzzle shows off Armstrong's mastery of dropouts, cleverly deployed along with near-color line cutting (just the occasional connector) to really increase the difficulty of this small puzzle. 6/10 Stave scale


just look at those tiny dropouts in the leaf! They really disrupt the continuity of the pieces before assembly, making it much more challenging even though it's obvious once assembled

I clearly need to buy a black cloth on which to assemble puzzles--look how that increases the gorgeousness


Puzzle Parley: Puzzled by Chas

I just came back from the Puzzle Parley and had a fantastic time, despite having to puzzle hunched over because my recent cataract surgery in one eye has left me a little lopsided/struggling to figure out how to puzzle. (It went well, but it's just going to be weird until I get the other done). I began and ended with a puzzle by Chas Bridges--the first a 3D puzzle in the car on the way there, so it's a little ragged in assembly:


And at the end I did another, 9 Point, 53 pieces, a lovely double-sided puzzle that highlights his unusual construction, which involves mixing veneers on both sides of the piece:




Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Mystery of the Golden Dragon

 FoxSmartBox, 290 pieces. Another difficult and clearly custom designed puzzle with lots of different multipiece dragons plus one individual one that I feel certain is from some franchise or other. Still haven't found my perfect puzzle from these folks, but interested to keep looking. 3/5






recognizable outline?


Family Photo Album, Victor Nizovtsev

 DaVici, 600 pieces. Fun puzzle with lots of stuff going on, including a hidden puzzle. 4/5




multipiece horse

bird with fish inside

central family portrait


bird in bird

big fish

puzzle in puzzle