Size: 750 pieces
Dimensions: 46cm x 61cm
Producer: Ceaco, Nene Thomas, series 2, 2012, 2993-4, No. 083013-21081-A
Artist: Nene Thomas
Painting: original
Puzzle: Another Ceaco puzzle based on the artwork by Nene Thomas, from the same series as A Chance Encounter. This one is much easier to complete, as there are vibrant hues and clear borders between them. The easiest regions to start are the green and white of the dress, the red of the hair, and the yellow background with tree branches. I have followed that with the arch and pillars, as the colour is quite distinct. This leaves the hanging branches at the top and the growing plants at the bottom. The puzzle is not large and the colours are bright, making it a pleasure to assemble.
Category: Puzzles
Puzzle: A Chance Encounter
Size: 750 pieces
Dimensions: 61cm x 46cm
Producer: Ceaco, Nene Thomas, series 2, 2012, 2993-6, No. 083013-21081-A
Artist: Nene Thomas
Painting: original
Puzzle: Not a trivial puzzle to do, as almost all of it is grey scale or near enough. The best guides are clear borders between black and white, and the regions of black dress and harness, black dragon, white mane, snow, and white folds of the dress, so those are good regions to start. Most of the remaining picture is the web of tree branches. Good patterns to look for are the darker vs lighter greys. Thicker branches and trunks make good vertical guides. At this point, it might be helpful to sort the remaining pieces by shape, and work along the borders of empty regions. Good lighting is a plus.
Puzzle: High Sierra Reflections
Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 48.10cm x 67.95cm
Producer: Mega Brands, Vibrant series, 2013, No. 51420ABN, A28103LP
Photographer: Elizabeth Carmel
Photo: original
Puzzle: A bit on a challenging side, this puzzle benefits from having good lighting and patience. As with most reflection puzzles, it benefits from having the line of the horizon as a horizontal guide, splitting the image into two distinct regions. This line, as well as the borders between the mountain range and the sky, together with its reflection, are good places to start. Another convenient clear border is between the dark evergreen trees and the mountain, again duplicated in the reflection. The bright green patch of the grass on the right, the water, and the sky are the next logical regions to complete, leaving a large are of the grass stalks, which presents the most challenge. Here good lighting, as well as colour and stalk size distinctions are the best helpers.
Notes: As the box does not specify where exactly this photo is taken, I assume that High Sierra refers to a region in the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
It is a mountain range in the western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Basin and Range Province. The Sierra Nevada has a significant history. The California Gold Rush occurred in the western foothills from 1848 through 1855. Due to inaccessibility, the range was not fully explored until 1912. Today, some mountain passes, such as Duck Pass with obsidian arrowheads, are artifact locations from historic intertribal trade route trails.
The literal translation of Sierra Nevada is “snowy mountains,” from sierra “a range of hills,” 1610s, from Spanish sierra “jagged mountain range,” lit. “saw,” from Latin serra “a saw”; and from fem. of Spanish nevado “snowy.” [Wiki]
Puzzle: Dragon Isle
Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 35.56cm x 45.72cm
Producer: Ceaco?, Meiklejohn Graphics, Glows in the Dark! series
Artist: Meiklejohn Graphics
Puzzle: A fun and not too complicated puzzle to do. A good place to start would be the blue segments of the wings, the waves at the bottom, and the red and orange background behind the dragon’s back. The dragon’s armour and tail are relatively easy areas to complete as well. Darker background regions and light-coloured rocks at the bottom are distinct enough as well, leaving the remaining few areas simple to finish. The pieces are large and easy to place.
Puzzle: Golden Light
Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 67.95 cm x 48.1 cm
Producer: Mega Puzzles, Vibrant series, 2013, No. 51420AAN, A 29073 LP
Artist: Adrian Klein
Original: Golden Light
Puzzle: Not a trivial puzzle, but a calming one to do, listening to some zen music or a good narrative. I would say a good region to get started is the horizon line separating the snow from the water. This line splits the puzzle into two areas, providing a horizontal guide. The darker blue regions in the corners of the puzzle and a dark rounded stone area in the top left, as well as the bright blue patches of snow on the mountain slope and their reflections in the water could be tackled next. For the trees, I found it easiest to start with the reflections in the water, as the ripples assist in determining the orientation of the pieces. The few rocks in the water and darker patches of land on the shore are distinctive as well. For the trees above water, tree trunks can serve as vertical guides. The gradients in the water, from yellow to blue, allow for gradual completion of that region, from light to dark. I have enjoyed this puzzle quite a bit.
Notes: “Larches turned gold in fall along the lakes The Enchantments in Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Washington while backpacking with my friend Zack Schnepf.” [Adrian Klein site]
Puzzle: Grand Canyon, Arizona, U.S.A.
Size: 750 pieces
Dimensions: 59.69 cm x 39.37 cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, The Canadian Group
Puzzle: A beautiful puzzle, a pleasure to do. Might be a little challenging for a beginner, due to the large areas of orange rock. The sky is only 4 pieces deep, with a clearly defined bottom boundary with the rock, the sea area is well-defined with two arc shapes of foam dividing it into easily-managed gradient-coloured regions. The trees at the bottom right and the top of the orange rock are darker than almost anything else in the puzzle. All these regions are good places to start. The bright green trees help split the bottom left region into separate areas. The white gnarled tree in the bottom right quarter is also quite distinct. That leaves the orange rock and the white ground with trees in the lower left quarter, and a few areas of colour fading between already-completed regions.
Notes: I have completed quite a few puzzles depicting the Grand Canyon so far.
Puzzle: Kirwan – Dream of Euripides
Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26cm in diameter
Producer: American Publishing & Television, Candu Toy & Sport Co. Inc, 1995, Rose Art Industries, Made in USA, No. 6524 (thank you to PuzzleMan for the producer information)
Artist: Jim Kirwan
Painting: original
Puzzle: A beautiful painting bringing to forefront the issues of ecology, consumerism, and the police state. The artist explores the two sides of the coin: how we see the idyllic society and what it costs in the environmental damage and lack of freedoms.
A fun puzzle to do, not very trivial for a beginner, mostly due to nearly-uniform colouring of the puzzle border pieces, and a large uniformly-patterned area in the bottom half. Easiest places to start are the “no”, “don’t”, and “stop” signs, yellow and blue outburst in the bottom left quarter, the horizontal separating black band between the top and bottom halves, and the smaller circle with two halves. In the top half, the sky and the sea, the sailboat, the tree and mountains bordering on the sky, and the red window are good as starting regions. The yellow leaves and the buildings in the top half and the smoke and brighter red and yellow spots are easy to distinguish. Once all these are in place, the puzzle is small enough to make the rest manageable.
Notes: “The symbol for Ecology was created by Euripides; it was a simple circle with a single horizontal line through the middle. In this version of that idea the world is portrayed in two extremes: in the upper portion of the painting the world seems almost idyllic; proportional; and livable with breathing room, clean water, and real possibilities without apparent limits.
In the lower half, concealed from what we think of as our opportunities; we can see what we have made of that bright vision of that fantasy world above. Pollution, oil pumps, the roots of the world amid the chaos of our failures and the trash we so abundantly produce in mega-volumes. That is what we have allowed ‘the developed world’ to become: A world composed of “NO” and “DON’T” and “STOP.” It is a world without light or grace or freedom of any kind. It is the underbelly of unchecked capitalism as we practice it and as we worship the material- philosophy with an incessant and nearly religious ‘consumerism.'” [Jim Kirwan on Rense.com]
Puzzle: The Terrace at Sainte-Adresse by Claude Monet
Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 33cm x 48.3 cm
Producer: Warren Industries, RoseArt, Magic Effects Collection, No. 97155
Artist: Claude Monet
Puzzle: A beautiful painting, this puzzle would be very pleasant if the makers had left out the “magic effects” of the shiny pieces that change hue based on the viewing angle, and had focused instead on the cut of the pieces. Not only does the shine make it hard to assemble this puzzle in anything but perfect bright daylight, it is not completely clear when the two pieces fit together, introducing a chance of error, especially in the uniformly-coloured regions such as the sky and the sea.
Thus, I do recommend bright daylight. The puzzle is small which does help make it more manageable. One can start from the flags and the flag poles, setting up two vertical guides and separating the top of the picture into thirds. The horizontal guides of sea and sky, and sea and railing, once assembled, are also helpful. Bright spots such as umbrellas, the red fence, the stone underfoot, and the vibrant flowers can be completed next. The black of the larger ship, people’s figures, the red fence, and dark green grass along the stone border are relatively easy as well. I would suggest leaving the sky until the end.
Notes: “The “Magic Effects” line is alluring and sure to captivate you. It interfuses charm, art, emotion and illusion into one beautiful component. What begins as an etching rich in detail evolves to a colorful metallic surface that shimmers and shines. The image casts itself differently in every light.
Warren Industries is proud to present a wide array of new artwork in this collection.
Artists include Impressionist Claude Monet: “Terrace at Sainte-Adresse,” Americana and Wildelife artist Terry Redlin: “Night on the Town,” the magical work of Josephine Wall: “Undine,” and a nostalgic title by COCA-COLA artist Hayden: The Lady in White.” [Puzzle box]
Puzzle: All about tea
Size: 1026 pieces
Dimensions: 51.12cm x 66.52cm
Producer: Buffalo Games, Inc., Café series, 2002
Photographer: Szczepaniak/Getty Images
Puzzle: As interesting as this idea is in theory, I did not enjoy this puzzle much in practice. Sure, learning about the history and making of tea is enlightening, yet I do not think a puzzle is the appropriate medium for this. Putting together the perimeter with the small text was tedious and did not make reading the text easy until the puzzle was complete. The green arrows with headings, and the colour of the small images for each paragraph (that are so tiny it is hard to tell what is depicted on them), can serve as guides to the placement of the puzzle pieces.
The photo in the middle was more pleasant to do, as by itself it would have made a beautiful puzzle. The orange and red of the background, the shiny highlights on the tea pots, tins, and cups, and the contrasting curves of the dish edges are good places to start.
There is a poster that comes with the puzzle (since the box is too small to fit all the detail you would need as a reference image), and I found it much more enjoyable reading the poster afterwards than trying to follow the tea story on the completed puzzle.
Notes: “All about tea puzzle – a story to assemble.
A Stimulating Jigsaw Puzzle that tells you how to put it together!
The Puzzle tells a Story…
This 1000 piece puzzle features a beautiful picture of tea, surrounded by colorful scenes detailing its rich history. You’ll become a tea expert and have a terrific story-telling puzzle to display or work again.
…the Story makes a Puzzle
The puzzle leads you through the story by telling you which pieces to find next. Search for the symbols on the pieces, and assemble the attached scene. Each scene uncovers fascinating facts or amazing trivia… and then leads you to the rest of the story!” [Puzzle box]
Puzzle: The Emperor’s Dream
Size: 300+ pieces
Dimensions: 52 cm x 52 cm
Producer: Springbok, Hallmark Cards
Artist: Unknown
Puzzle: A relaxing puzzle to do, even though the pieces are very thick and snap in with a bit of effort. The imagery makes up for it though. The best places to start are the flower border, the birds, the large flowers, the water lilies, the small clusters of flowers and leaves, and the butterflies. Tall grass leaves in yellow and green, as wellas the bamboo stalks contrast well with the black of water. The water lily leaves and the gold of the river is also distinct enough, leaving the green leaves of the bamboo and the green and yellow water grass to complete the picture.
Notes: “The Emperor’s Dream
“I had a vision,” the Emperor said –
“Last night, it was as though my soul
Had shed me while I lay abed
And slipped beyond the mortal shoal
Down to the deeps of imagination
Where night-thoughts swirl in painted streams;
Down past the level of contemplation
Through the shadowy realm of dreams;
Into a place I’d never known –
A place where only peace could reign…
My soul would claim it for its own
And there, contented, would remain.
My soul eased down and rested there
And watched the butterflies at play,
Dancing in the scented air
By the lotus’ lush display.
There was more, but suddenly
My soul was coming back again –
My soul was rushing back to me
Returning to the world of men!
I awoke still deep in thrall
My vision would not be denied –
It’s true: what we love most of all
We carry with us deep inside.
We keep it hidden all the time
Securing it with self-made locks,
Yet still it’s there – the dream sublime –
A gem within a jewelry box.”
– Pat Cadigan”
[Puzzle box]
Puzzle: Buzzard’s Roost, Fall Creek Falls
Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 67.95 cm x 48.1 cm
Producer: Mega Puzzles, Vibrant series, 2013, No. 51420ABN, A28103LP
Artist: Very unfortunately, Mega Puzzles prints a copyright for the entire series with several names of the artists (as opposed to the name of a single photographer who owns a particular featured image), and even through searching I was not able to determine which artist took this photo. If you have that information, please let me know.
Original: photo
Puzzle: Not a very trivial, but a pleasant puzzle to do. The pieces fit together well, and that removes quite a bit of ambiguity, despite many regions with similar colours. I have started with the tree trunks in the top right, the boundary between the rocks and the trees in the top left, the black cracks and shadows among the rocks, and the red rock patches. From that point on, brighter green and bluish-grey rocks can be completed with the help of black shadows under the smaller ridges. Blue and green small trees in the top left are distinct enough from the dark green bushes on the right, and the darker grey area in the bottom right corner can easily be distinguished as well.
Notes: Fall Creek Falls, a 256-foot (78 m) plunge waterfall located just west of the creek’s confluence with Cane Creek. A short trail leads from the parking lot atop the plateau down to the base of the gorge, giving access to the waterfall’s plungepool. Buzzard’s Roost is a cliff located near Millikan’s Overlook. [Wiki]
Puzzle: St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City
Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.5 cm x 35.5 cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, The Canadian Group
Puzzle: A lovely puzzle to put together, yet not completely trivial for a beginner. A good place to start is the border of the sky and the building which isolates the top third of the puzzle and provides a horizontal guide to assist in further assembly. The pillars and the lantern post make for good vertical guides. The dome, the windows, the dark archways, the red roof of the stage, the letters above the pillars, the dark building on the left, and the yellow hats of the people at the bottom are all relatively easy to put together. After that, it’s the parts of the building and the sky that are remaining.
Notes: St. Peter’s Basilica is a Late Renaissance church located within Vatican City.
Designed principally by Donato Bramante, Michelangelo, Carlo Maderno and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, St. Peter’s is the most renowned work of Renaissance architecture and remains one of the largest churches in the world. While it is neither the mother church of the Catholic Church nor the Catholic Roman Rite cathedral of the Diocese of Rome, St. Peter’s is regarded as one of the holiest Catholic sites. It has been described as “holding a unique position in the Christian world” and as “the greatest of all churches of Christendom”. [Wiki]
Puzzle: Unknown Castle
Size: 1000 pieces, 1 missing
Dimensions: 73 cm x 48.57 cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, The Canadian Group
Puzzle: This lovely castle and the old buildings around it make for a challenging puzzle. There are many ways to approach it. The easiest regions to start would be the sky and clouds, the bright cars and storefronts at the bottom, the green grass region and the fence at its bottom, and the borders of the buildings and the sky. The larger windows of the building on the right can help the assembly of that part of the puzzle. The sky and clouds are distinct enough from the rest of the puzzle and can be filled in relatively easily. The Trees and shrubs can follow. The castle has a large region of a somewhat-uniform grey pattern, making it not so easy to assemble, but it makes for an interesting challenge.
Notes: I no longer have the box, so if you know of the series this puzzle is from and the building it portrays, please let me know.
Puzzle: Beach Garden by Marc Adamus
Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 34 cm x 50 cm
Producer: Hasbro, MB Puzzle, Deluxe Puzzle series, 2010, #355260000-35528
Photographer: Marc Adamus
Photo: original
Puzzle: A lovely puzzle, not very trivial for a beginner. The flowers at the bottom present the most challenge due to the similarities of the purple-on-green pattern through most of them. Thus it’s simpler to start with the top part of the puzzle. The distinct regions of the sky, the clouds, the sun, the hills, the water, and the sand, followed by the sand border with the green grass can be filled in easily. The flowers can be assembled by starting on the darker regions at the bottom first, and narrowing the remaining area by assembling the top grassy patch with orange and small white flowers. Then the rest of the flowers can be put together.
Notes: “Lupine flowers glow in the last light of sunset overlooking the sea stacks and sandy beaches of the Northern California coast.” [Marc Adamus site]
How to do a jigsaw puzzle
In this post, I will share some strategies I use when puzzling to make the experience more pleasurable. To be clear, I do not puzzle for speed, I puzzle for zen: to relax, breathe, and get lost in the sensory experience, combined with a good story via an audiobook. Thus these tips are not necessarily going to speed up puzzle assembly, but will keep things organized for smooth progress through the puzzle.
As an example, I will use the photos of the Autumn Foxfire 1000-piece puzzle.
Step 1. If you want to relocate the puzzle at some point (say, if you do not have a dedicated puzzle table, and would need to have it cleared between puzzling sessions) or to glue it after completion, set up your space with a large sheet of cardboard. It can serve as your assembly surface that can be moved elsewhere between sessions: under the bed is a good place that rarely gets disturbed. It can also provide a background for the complete puzzle if it is to be glued. I usually use black sheets from a dollar store. One of those can fit a standard-sized 1000-piece puzzle. Be sure to check the puzzle picture and position the sheet appropriately for a horizontally- or a vertically-oriented puzzle.
Step 2. Set up your reference picture (either the puzzle box or the insert/poster) in a place that is easily accessible and spread out the pieces on the piece of cardboard.
Step 3. Flip the pieces face up and separate them into groups based on colour, texture, or particular structures depicted on the picture. Those can go into heaps, as table space is usually limited. Keep the border pieces separate, preferably laid out so that the flat sides of all of them are facing the same direction. It will make for easier border assembly. The border pieces can be laid out on the cardboard sheet since they usually would be assembled first. Place the 4 corner pieces aside as they will likely be the most obvious to place.
Note that some puzzles have a thick border or a uniform colour along the edges, making it harder to assemble the border. In that case, I would suggest placing the border pieces off to the side of the sheet, so that the inner parts of the puzzle can be assembled on the sheet without the border pieces getting in the way. They can then be brought in at a later stage, once the inner puzzle defines their placement.
You might want to skip this step – I rarely do. It makes for a much more enjoyable puzzling session as you can work on similar pieces together and spend less time searching in vain for that one last missing piece of a given colour or structure.
Step 4. Assemble the border. Combine together the pieces that clearly fit. You will end up with several clusters of the border which then can be put together based on the puzzle picture.
Step 5. Take the brightest batch of pieces, or the smallest similar batch, or the one that clearly connects to the border. Pieces composing large letters, bright flowers, clocks, building details, windows, etc. are good candidates. Assemble the batch and place it approximately within the border frame, or connect it to the frame if possible. A few pieces will likely be left over if similar colour exists elsewhere in the picture. If you have space, set them out in a grid outside the cardboard sheet – that will make those pieces easier to find later.
Step 6. Take the next batch of pieces and repeat. After it’s done, revisit the pieces you put aside and see if you can place any of them.
Step 7. Batch by batch, you will complete the puzzle.
Some of the easiest regions to assemble are:
- those that are small and uniquely coloured or textured;
- in puzzles with humans or animals, bright garments or colouring;
- horizontal guides such as the border between land and sky, water and land, water and sky;
- curved horizontal guides such as the border between mountains and sky, tree line and sky, tree line and mountains, buildings and mountains, roof and sky, roof of one building against a wall of another;
- vertical guides such as tall plants, building corners, pillars, masts, and so on;
- in puzzles with water, direction of the ripples on the water can tell you which way to place the piece;
- in puzzles with reflections, the part of the picture which has a reflection and its reflection will have similar colours but the reflection will have a washed out texture.
The more of the puzzle is assembled, the easier it is to place the remaining pieces, as there are fewer places into which they may fit. Thus it is easiest to start with the simplest regions.
Closer to completion, when in doubt, permutation is your friend. Say you have 10 blue pieces left to be placed: try one in all the possible spaces. If it fits, continue on to the next one, else put it aside. I would not try it over a large incomplete area, or in a puzzle with poorly-fitting pieces (as in extreme cases you can’t tell whether the piece fits even after you have placed it). This strategy is often helpful with pictures containing large uniformly-coloured regions, such as sky and washed out clouds.
Step 8. Once the puzzle is complete you can glue it to the sheet if you like. I usually leave some margins if the size of the puzzle allows. Puzzle glue is usually either transparent or white that dries to transparent. It is applied over the top of the puzzle and it seeps in between the puzzle pieces anchoring them to each other and to the surface on which they reside. Depending on the quality of the glue, you might have to apply two coats (waiting for the first coat to dry fully before applying the second one).
Once the puzzle has been glued from the front, it is sometimes necessary to glue the puzzle to the sheet. This at times happens with especially well-fitting pieces, such as Sure-Lox, as the narrow gaps are not letting much glue to reach the sheet. I use white school glue to at least secure the puzzle perimeter to the sheet. I then apply weight (heavy books work well) along the perimeter and leave the puzzle for a few hours to fully set. Sometimes the puzzle glue warps the puzzle a bit, so the weights help in flattening it.
Step 9. You can frame your puzzle if you like. It is hard to find a cost-effective frame for most of the large puzzles, but if you find one or can make it yourself, that’s great. If you want to hang your puzzle on the wall without a frame, I suggest first flipping the puzzle and applying sticky tape (such as shipping tape) all around the perimeter of the back. If the puzzle is larger than 500 pieces, I also make a cross with the tape on the back of the sheet. It strengthens the places where anchoring tape will be attached and prevents the sheet from tearing when the tape is taken off.
I then take pieces of tape, wrap them into rings with the sticky side outwards and place them all around the puzzle perimeter: the bigger the puzzle, the more of these I use. Depending on the humidity level in your dwelling, the puzzle might warp somewhat, and the more sticky rings of tape are holding it to the wall, the better. I found that when the puzzle is taken off the wall, good tape leaves little trace if any. Poster mounting double-sided sticky squares can be used as well, but they might be hard to remove if needed.
After enjoying the assembly of your beautiful puzzle, you can use it as a decorating piece. Puzzles of fantasy or fairy tale scenes are great for children’s rooms and creative studios, architectural puzzles make for good living room and hallway decoration, calm landscapes or sensual gothic compositions work well in the bedroom, and food or wine nature morte paintings can liven up the kitchen. Some people even laminate a combination of many puzzles to make them into the kitchen floor. May your inspiration and imagination be your guide.
Puzzle: River Swale, Yorkshire, England
Size: 250 pieces
Dimensions: 38.5 cm x 26.5 cm
Producer: Unknown
Puzzle: Simple small puzzle to do, and a rather pleasant landscape. The obvious starting points would be the river with the rocks, the sky and its border with the hills, the red leaf bush in the bottom right corner and another one by the waterfall. The grassy area can be done next, along with the white patch of the hill and the yellow fields. The trees alongside the river have variety in colouring, and since the puzzle is so small present little challenge after the rest has been assembled.
I no longer have the box for this puzzle, so if you know the manufacturer of this puzzle, please let me know.
Notes: The name Swale is from the Anglo-Saxon word Sualuae meaning rapid and liable to deluge. The river gives its name to the valley through which it flows, namely Swaledale. [Wiki]
Puzzle: Maple leaves
Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 30.02 cm x 48.26 cm
Producer: Mega Puzzles, Vibrant series, 2013, No. 51410AAN, A 17063 LP
Photographer: Susan Ridley
Original: photo
Puzzle: Not a simple puzzle to do due to similar colour patterns across the leaves, but very pleasant visually for its bright colours. The difficulty is mitigated by the smaller size of the puzzle. A possible way to approach it would be to assemble the regions with stems first, as they are the most distinct, as well as the brighter areas of the leaves and the distinct leaf boundaries where possible: the centre leaf and the upper right corner are the easiest. From there the veins in the leaves help in assembling each one, with a few remaining pieces to fill in the gaps.
Puzzle: Autumn Foxfire
Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 67.95 cm x 48.1 cm
Producer: Mega Puzzles, Fantastic Visions series, 2013, No. 50939AAN, A 23053 PP
Artist: Stephanie Pui-Mun Law
Original: artwork
Puzzle: I have used this puzzle as an example for my “How to do a jigsaw puzzle” post, so you can see the steps I used to assemble it there. Overall a very pleasant puzzle, beautiful curves and deep colours. Not very trivial, but not extremely difficult either.
Notes: “…The fox leapt off the bed in a blur of motion. She whipped her tail around, and between one blink of the eye and the next, it was no longer a russet fox that crouched on the floor, but a woman-goddess fierce to gaze upon. She stood slowly, gracefully. Now, the Emperor had seen carvings and paintings of Liri, as I am sure you have. Sometimes she is depicted as an innocuous little fox. At other times she is a warrior of fiery hair and will. And then there is her third form – Liri of the Wood. In this form she is all that is wild. She is hidden desire whether it be passion for love or passion to kill. She is a Trickster, a Scholar, a Musician, and a Lover….”
I am fog and fickle mist
I am all that can’t be tamed
I am born of devil’s kiss
Sear potential unrestrained” [Stephanie Pui-Mun Law Shadowscapes site]
Puzzle: Peacock feather
Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 30.02 cm x 48.26 cm
Producer: Mega Puzzles, Vibrant series, 2013, No. 51410AAN, A 17063 LP
Photographer: Michael Shake
Original: photo
Puzzle: A beautiful simple puzzle with the colourful bands of the peacock feather. I have started with the purple, red, and black eye of the feather, and continued with the green outline, filling in the yellows and oranges after. The direction of the feather strands makes for a good guide in placing the pieces. From that point on, the surrounding pieces easily fall into place. A pleasure to do, this puzzle would be an easy one for beginners.
Puzzle: Detail of Roof on a Chinese Temple
Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 48.1 cm x 67.95 cm
Producer: Mega Puzzles, Structures series, 2013, No. 50941AAN, A 27053 PP
Puzzle: Another puzzle from the Structures series (see Astronomical Clock, Prague, Czech Republic, Galleries Lafayette, Paris, Sri Mariamman Temple and Church of the Savior, St. Petersburg for more).
To be honest, I did not expect this puzzle to be that interesting: from the box it looked like the too-bold lines of a too-bright building with too few detailed areas to make it interesting. It has, however, pleasantly surprised me. I’ve enjoyed following the diagonal and horizontal guide lines of the structure and the small details that revealed themselves during assembly.
I have started with the red horizontal, vertical, and diagonal regions, and built on them: each band of a different texture and colouring following the bands above or below it. The remaining regions are distinct and separated enough to be quite simple for a 1000 piece puzzle.
Notes: Unfortunately, the puzzle box does not indicate which temple is depicted on this puzzle. If you have any information on that, I would love to know.