Birducopia pt. 1

"Birducopia"
Charley Harper
Pomegranate

Stats:

Pieces: 1000

Size: 32" tall x 16" wide

Shape: rectangle

Location of printing: China

Location of manufacture: ?

Artist: Charley Harper

Purchase location: Amazon.com

Start Date: January 23, 2018

I waited to start a new puzzle after I finished the Ravensburger pencils because I wanted to do my initial sort at my friend DCatz's house.  She and I like to get together periodically for quiet evenings of puzzling and knitting and complaining about Paul Hollywood's ways.

I chose this one carefully; it's a puzzle I purchased last summer, as part of my goal to only have puzzles depicting fine art.  I realize this is a bit silly now considering that the first two puzzles I examined on this blog were assuredly not fine art (sorry, Adrian Chesterman), but that was my goal, and something I like to do.  In examining each piece, I find that I am looking at the art itself in a different way, noticing the strokes of the paint brush, the composition of the piece, and creating a better appreciation in myself for the art and the artist.

The reason I had not done this puzzle previously is when I got it in the mail, I noticed the dimensions:

My old puzzle table was not big enough to make this puzzle.  Before cracking open the box, I measured the puzzle table I have now.

Victory!  With an inch to spare on each side!

The box says this about the artist, Charley Harper:

As an avid naturalist, Charley Harper’s life’s work was painting the insects, plants, birds, and animals he loved. Early on, his ultrarealistic works gave way to familiar scenes based on bold geometric shapes, crisp lines, and jolts of unmodulated color. Harper’s posters for conservation organizations have become some of his most enjoyed works—skillful and playful menageries of local wildlife. Populated by ferns and fawns, salamanders and scarlet tanagers, Birducopia presents a multitude of creatures from Ohio’s Penitentiary Glen.

Pomegranate also publishes Charley Harper's wildlife art in a variety of products, including What's in the Woods? A Nature Discovery Book (2013), which highlights Birducopia'a creatures up close.

There is a multiple-part retrospective on Charley Harper here, should that interest you.

This is my first Pomegranate.  They are very high quality pieces with minimal dust, and excellent cuts.  I noticed on the box the puzzle was printed in China, but I was not sure where it was otherwise manufactured, so I emailed the company.  I will update when I get a response.  I did see on their website that they will replace missing puzzle pieces, so that is very cool!

Anyway, since I don't have a satisfactory travel method right now, but I do have my sweet sorting trays, and they are very easy to transport, with very minimal spillage.  Huzzah!

I did the sort for edge pieces, found the corners without incident, and then took out a handful or so of middle pieces to try to determine some clear color themes to do the first inside piece sort.

This puzzle is so colorful, and I haven't studied the image in detail (I plan to build it blind), so I wasn't sure at first how to sort.  Based on the edge pieces, the orange bits with stripes, and the stripey green ones seemed like ones I would use early on.

There were some colors that were substantially bold, and I picked those out, too.

This was looking pretty good, and I had few enough of the blue, and black and white pieces to start building.

Due to the portability issue, I have started on the insides before the frame, which is not something I have done in my late-30s puzzling hobby.  UNTIL NOW. Hahaha.

Color My Heart (3) pt. 4

It is done!

Huzzah! 

This is an excellent puzzle.  Easy build, superior quality pieces in both cut and printing, and a pleasing final image.  Great for speed runs, and still satisfying to pick at slowly over time.

Good job, puzzle.

Color My Heart (3) pt. 3

I have a wicked headcold at the moment, and so it has been a bit hard to brain properly.  I get distracted, forgetting what I was doing, and suddenly I realize I am down a rabbit hole of proper French Macaroon construction from Mary Berry, and wondering if I should be instead knitting right now, and being angry about how awful the town manager of the town of Jackman is.  Where are the good tissues?  My cat Dave is so handsome.  Should I try to make macaroons this weekend? I should do laundry on Sunday. 

Right!  Focus!  Puzzling!  Yes ok so I finished the grey bit in the middle, with the help of tea and persistence.

Looking pretty good!  All that's left is the wood of the pencils, and that means another strategic sort!

Should I do it by color? 

I started this, and it didn't feel right.  It's really too nuanced and I don't think this is an appropriate method for what I have left. 

Plus, honestly I had a lot of fun with the shape-based building of the grey bit.  So, let's sort it that way.

Brilliant.  That is honestly so satisfying for me to look at.  I've been enjoying picking away at these last few pieces, and should be done tonight probably.

Oh man hundreds of people in those inflatable T. Rex costumes are going to convene on Monument Square this afternoon.  That is fantastic!  I hope there is just a ridiculous number of people. 

I need to get over this cold.

Color My Heart (3) pt. 2

I've been working on the Ravensburger pencils for a week now, and have made considerable progress.  Well, considerable progress considering that most of the time my attention is either completely consumed or at least divided by the young people with whom I share my evenings.  The last time I made this puzzle I think it took maybe four? evenings of diligent work, but this slower work has been more thoughtful instead of a speed run, if you will.

After the frame was done and first sort complete, the easiest section to start seemed the orange/red corner bit.  I realized the puzzle is upside down from my chair, but it doesn't really matter, ultimately. 

This corner came together extremely quickly, in less than an hour. The colors are all quite distinct here, and makes for a very quick build.

For me, the yellow and green corner was slightly more difficult to build, based on color alone, as the yellow-green pencil is hard for me to differentiate from the yellow.  It wasn't too bad, though, as I dreaded moving forward to the whole half of the puzzle that is in the blue-indigo-purple spectrum which is quite difficult for me to differentiate.  I don't know if I have a slight color blindness, or if this is common; but, there it is.

There is a little corner in my living room where I have my chair, near the heater, and I can tuck my puzzle table back, sort of out of the way, so I don't need to constantly roll up my puzzle and fold up the table. The last two puzzle roll felts I had got puked on by IdaCat, and isn't a fool-proof method for in-progress puzzle storage, especially in an active household like my own.  I'm hoping that my good monster and I can design and build a put-awayable in-progress puzzle solution this spring. 

Eventually I slogged through the blurple half, while enjoying season 2 of The Great British Baking Show, which is so wholesome that it brings calm feelings to my home.  Or, I like to pretend it does.  Because nice people baking.

What worked for me going through this bit was noticing subtle pattern features, since the color was not really working for me.  Faint little white stripes, thicker bold stripes, things like that.

The angle of the pencil was helpful in tricky colors as well, matching the angle of black/dark grey and the pencil color itself.

So, now all that bit is done, with just the pencil wood and grey heart in the middle to go.

The previous time I completed this puzzle, I saved the grey bit in the middle for last.  However, this time I've decided to not save it for last.  I want to savor the piece shape-based building strategy of this area, instead of feeling rushed and frustrated.

I really enjoy shape-based building.  I sort the samey color into groups by shape.

With a Ravensburger, of course, the pieces are square-based.  Each piece is unique, but not very unique in shape variation.

They grey pieces sorted into the following shapes:

A tab on two opposite sides, and then holes on the other sides.  I call these ones regulars, or plains.  They are the most common puzzle shape I have encountered, and the shape that is most commonly represented when there is a need to illustrate jigsaw puzzle.  There were twice as many of this shape than any other shape.

Three sides with holes with a tab on the fourth side, I call dancers or mans.

Three sides with tabs and with a hole on the fourth side, I call house.

The shape with two tabs next to each other, and holes on the other two sides, I call pandas or panda face.  If you put the heart shape on the bottom, the two holes become the eyes and the two tabs are the ears.  Until I saw the panda face in this shape, I had a dislike for it, but now I enjoy it much more because of the connotation to cuteness.  Or maybe familiarity.  In doing the shape-based building, having a spacial familiar relationship with the shapes has helped me successfully and happily build. 

All-holes.  The holes are also called blanks, pockets, slots, or locks.

All-tabs.  Sometimes the tabs are called knobs, or keys.

I've found a fairly decent web page discussing piece shapes, jigsaw cuts, and all sorts of technical things over at oldpuzzles.com. I've not found a satisfactory source for official names of piece parts, or the piece shapes.  So I've made up my own that are pleasing to me.  I might think about this more than other people.

So here we are.

Kitten & Puppy pt. 2

The kids were back today, and so O and I finished Kitten & Puppy.
It completed really quickly, and was fun to complete.  I let O put the last few pieces in.

I really enjoyed this puzzle, despite it being outside of my normal preferences.  I liked how it is miniaturized - it makes it easy to work in a small space, but also the pieces themselves are so cute and tiny.  They did seems to stick to cat beans more easily than the normal sized (and thus heavier pieces), and blew away a bit when I tried to blow away puzzle dust.

There was some residual puzzle dust after we cleaned up the puzzle, but not a lot. 

The box is well constructed, and I feel confident that it will hold all the pieces with any loss.

I look forward to doing a speed run on this puzzle in the future.

Color My Heart (3) pt. 1

"Color My Heart"
Ravensburger

Stats:

Pieces: 1000

Size: 20" tall x 27" wide

Shape: rectangle

Location of printing: Germany

Location of manufacture: Germany

Artist: (unknown, Getty Images)

Purchase location: Amazon.com

Start Date: January 4, 2018

I've done this puzzle twice before, and enjoyed it very much, for a few reasons.  It's my first Ravensburger.  I'd read a lot of very positive things about the brand on the interwebs, and wanted to try it.  Generally, I prefer to build puzzles of fine art, but this was the one that not only caught my eye, but was also in my size and price range. So, I bought this to represent Ravensburger in my fledgeling interest in higher quality puzzles.

The piece quality is fantastic.  The cuts all smooth and complete, and the pieces have a good thickness and are crisp.  The printing is excellent quality and the surface is slightly textured and not too shiny.  The piece shape is square based, with not a lot of variety, which I have noticed from the other European puzzles I've built as well.

Since I've done the puzzle before and it is fairly simple in design, the first sort separated all the pieces - edge, yellow/green, orange/red, purple, blue, gray center, and pencil wood.

I'm doing the puzzle without looking at the box.  Once the frame is together, and the colors sorted, it all comes together pretty quickly, though.

Took a break to work on Kitten & Puppy with O after building the frame.  Man, now that I look at that photo, the Kitten & Puppy puzzle looks really bizarre and fractal-y. Fractal puppy. Google image search is woefully undersupplied with my desired illustrative image for fractal cocker spaniel puppy.

Kitten & Puppy pt. 1

I've been photographing my puzzles and the individual pieces, and taking note of shape variations and dust levels and all sorts of documentation for this blog. I've had all these fantastic ideas about ... lots of puzzle related things.  I've been planning and plotting and have written very little. 

So, here it is, the new year, and I have an afternoon and evening to myself.  "What about your puzzle blog?" asked my good monster, when I lamented about not having an idea for my Next Big Thing to express myself creatively. In response, I fussed about because Fantastic Ideas!  Plots! Plans!  Complete lack of motivation!

I looked at the puzzle I'm working on now.  It was a Christmas gift from my good monster's children.  "You know what," I stated. "I don't need to do all these fancy pages and whatnot, I don't need a glossary or list of links or any of that.  It will develop over time." My good monster is loving and supportive and so here I am, motivated!  Welcome to this blog, reader!  Let's talk about puzzles!

"Kitten & Puppy"
Adrian Chesterman
Cardinal Puzzles

Stats:

Pieces: 500

Size: 11" tall x 14" wide

Shape: rectangle

Location of printing: China

Location of manufacture: China

Artist: Adrian Chesterman

Purchase location: (gift)

Start Date: January 5, 2018

This puzzle, as aforementioned, was a gift to me from O and N, two of the young people who live with me.  It was a perfect, thoughtful gift.  They know I love puzzles, puppies, and kittens.  It's a can't-miss, really. 

I finished a puzzle I was working on before this, a couple of days ago.  I wanted to start another, and this is the one that was next to do.  However, the kids were not at home that evening, so I wasn't sure what to do.  My good monster suggested the Ravensburger pencils ("Color My Heart", 1000 pieces).  Reason being, it's a puzzle I've done before that is always satisfying, and a very quick build.  Excellent.  Let's do that, then. I sorted all the pieces, and built the frame.  Fine work.  I can build the Kitten & Puppy inside the frame of the pencils.

So last night the kids were home and I opened up the Kitten & Puppy puzzle.  O helped do the first sort.  We both noticed how tiny the pieces are.  The box the puzzle came in is the size of a paperback of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and there are 500 pieces. Look at how wee they are compared to the Ravensburger: 

They are wicked cute.

The first sort was edges, pink stuff, white stuff, butterflies, blue, yellow, leaves, and fur.  We then separated out the whiskers and noses from the fur pile.  I built the frame while O did this thoughtful sorting.

I chose to work this puzzle without looking at the picture after establishing the corners, and O has preferred to refer to it periodically.  O's sort was quite spot-on, and I was able to build in from the edges, first with the pink at the bottom, the greens and blues at the top, which faded into the yellow and white.  I built the whisker and nose sections, and now I've just got fur left, and eyes and such.

All the inside pieces are the same shape, which has forced me to consider the color of the pieces much more than the shape, which I generally prefer. It is funny though, because on the back of the box it declares unique piece shapes.  

I won't be working on it again until tomorrow night, when the kids are home.