New year's resolution

This Amish quilt puzzle is kickin' my butt. When I dumped it out of the box I managed to put the border together. Then I stared, gobsmacked, at the other 900 pieces, all jumbled together in colorful cacophony, and was not able to wrap my brain around how to organize anything.

No single color anywhere that was more than an inch in diameter. No recognizable image to speak of, to build around.

Data Dad takes a quick look. He says, just organize the pieces into piles according to the colored lines of boxes in the pattern. Hmmph. Says you, I said. Well, I don't like to admit it but he was right. His suggestion made me look at everything in a new way. I'm eating humble pie as I write.

Working from the image on the box, it took a day to organize everything into piles (see pix). Then, I started in the middle at the bottom and have been working my way up ever since. The pix show my progress thus far. I'll post more as I move through this.

So what's my new year's resolution? Admit to Data Dad more often that he's right. It will be dang hard but hey, if it shifts my paradigm, why not?

In fully interlocking solidarity,
Jigsaw Maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

Transported to another place and time . . .

Isn't this lovely? Plum and Peach Bloom, by artist Gustave Baumann, makes me yearn for farm living: an orchard, a water pump, hens and chicks roaming the yard, a bloomer-clad tot—the whole bucolic enchilada.

Baumann's paintings were strongly influenced by the landscape of New Mexico and, in addition to painting, he was a puppet maker and an expert woodblock printer!

Finishing the the white blossoms of the trees was just plain hard. Maybe not as hard as completing a large section of one solid color—but close. Assembling it was tedious, a process of moving piece by piece, looking for shapes that would fit (rather than going by colors and images).

I'm now working on something harder, though—a puzzle that is a reproduction of an Amish quilt. Will post when it's done, which may be Christmas 2011, given the challenge—I'll post pix in progress!

In fully interlocking solidarity,
Jigsaw Maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

Holidays & puzzles

Extra! Extra! Jiggy Jr. returns, inspires Jiggy Senior to resume blogging!


Yes, dear readers, Jiggy Jr.'s lovely presence (home for the holidays) has reminded me of the pleasures of blogging. It was Jiggy Jr. herself who taught me the fine art of uploading photos onto the blog site and using the blog tools. And it was with Jiggy Jr. that I last encountered (and bought) a pile of wonderful puzzles. While she has been benefiting from the hallowed halls of higher education, I have been swamped by those halls and, alas, blogging has fallen by the wayside.

Nevertheless, those who know of my love for jigsaw puzzles have continued to forward pictures of things (statues, games, books, monuments) that demonstrate the "jigsaw puzzle as metaphor for life." And, despite Jiggy's absence, I have continued to work on puzzles. Above, a puzzle based on the wonderful Diego Rivera mural. The details of this manufacture—engine assembly in Detroit—kept me absorbed over the fall season. Later, I'll post a new puzzle which has absorbed me in the early days of winter!

In fully interlocking solidarity,
Jigsaw maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

Wild dogs of Roy De Forest

I count ten "Country Dog Gentlemen" in this splashy picture (click on the pictures for a detailed look). Very fun to assemble, with sections so uniquely colored that I could pick out the correct pieces from a pile just by eyeballing them. De Forest is called a "humorous figuration" artist; he taught at UC Davis from 1965-1982.

This is another Pomegranate puzzle—I love this line of jigsaw puzzles. The cardboard is really substantial, the pictures are fun, and, wow, do the pieces snugly interlock.

Sadly, Jiggy Jr. has returned to the hallowed halls of higher education; thus, I no longer have a jigsaw buddy or blog master. This is the first time I've created an entire blog posting on my own, including transferring photos from camera to computer. But Jiggy taught me well! Queen of the Cabin in the Woods will soon leave the beauty and solitude of the Woods to join us here in civilization; she's a much better puzzler than me (has more patience with hard puzzles, for one thing). Jiggy must have inherited her patience from the Queen.

Jigsaw trivia: National Jigsaw Puzzle Day is January 29th!

In fully interlocking solidarity,
Jigsaw Maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

Charley Parker: now you see it, now you don't

Loved this Charley Parker puzzle by Pomegranate. Whimsical design, sturdy pieces that are the very definition of "interlocking," discrete images that are challenging but straightforward to assemble. But the real joy came upon completion. Turn the puzzle upside down? The beaver's pond turns into the Rocky Mountains (the title of the puzzle), an unidentifiable object (at the top of the puzzle on the left, on the bottom of the puzzle on the right) became a chipmunk, and shadows morphed into deer heads (see the dark brown, shadowy area around the light brown tear-drop shaped objects that cross the puzzle, one-third of the way down or one-third of the way up, depending on which position the puzzle is in—be sure to click on the images to see the details). What fun!

Jigsaw trivia: This blog has highlighted examples of jigsaw puzzle imagery on book covers, to signal something meaningful about the book. Jigsaw imagery and activity is everywhere, though. The symbol for autism is the jigsaw puzzle, which represents the complexity of the condition. One jigsaw puzzle manufacturer dedicates a portion of its profits to autism research. Another makes special jigsaw puzzles for people with Alzheimer's.

In fully interlocking solidarity,
Jigsaw maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

Upon my stars ☆

OMG. I just discovered the American Jigsaw Puzzle Society! Darn—*I* wanted to start an American Jigsaw Puzzle Society ☹ (although my name for it would have been something like Jigsaw Puzzle Lovers of the World—Unite).

Where do you fit in the AJPS typology of the jigsaw puzzle community? Here are the three categories of jigsaw puzzlers identified on the AJPS website: casual puzzlers (they can take 'em or leave 'em), regular puzzlers (they enjoy puzzling very much but don't do it all the time, mostly confining their puzzling activities to cold, dreary months), and the Truly Dedicated Jigsaw Puzzle People, described thusly:

"These are the people for whom assembling jigsaw puzzles is a serious hobby. When there are jigsaw puzzle competitions, they go, and they compete. Generally, they're lovely folks, but there are a few fanatics out there who take jigsaw puzzles perhaps a bit too seriously. To illustrate, I once took a phone order from a man for an expensive 13,200-piece puzzle. He had to have it shipped to his friend's home, where he was staying temporarily, because he'd just been evicted from his apartment. "

You can find me between regular and truly dedicated. I'm a passionate puzzler but still go to my job, spend time with my family, and have a permanent residence! ☺

In fully interlocking solidarity,
Jigsaw maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

Eat, play, jigsaw puzzles

I ♥ jigsaw puzzles, signed, fat cat

Jiggy Jr. and I had a marvelous little vacation in Santa Cruz last week (it's not Rome, it's not India, it's not Bali, but we take our vacation pleasures where we can). When we travel we love to visit good bookstores. I love jigsaw puzzles and my family tolerates them but books are our holy grail. Jiggy Jr., DataDad and I read voraciously and we worship well-stocked, eclectic, non-chain bookstores (all hail Powells; a moment of silence for Cody's). In this vein, Jiggy Jr. and I spent hours at Bookshop Santa Cruz—truly one of the best West coast independent bookstores.

After luxuriating for a few hours in my favorite sections (brand-new edgy novels by unknown authors! a huge section on healthy cooking! more books than can be consumed in a life time on mindful living and positive mental outlooks!) I turned a corner and lo-and-behold, there sat before me a large table chockful of jigsaw puzzles! There were jigsaw puzzles on the bottom shelf and jigsaw puzzles on the table top. I parked myself there and studied puzzle after puzzle (could not contain myself: I bought five, after a full hour of serious contemplation—see fat cat with puzzles, above).

The neat news is my discovery of a new jigsaw puzzle designer/manufacturer: new for me, anyway: Pomegranate Artpiece. Their puzzles are eye-candy: beautiful images, not tacky—and, it turns out, made on unusually hearty cardboard stock which makes it fun to work with. I'm starting with a Charley Harper image, "The Rocky Mountains," which I'll post upon completion.

In fully interlocking solidarity,
Jigsaw maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

The cosmos of jigsaw culture

Kari Peterson, Davis, California media expert, brought these beautiful covers of Community Media Review to my attention. (The "Global Policies, Global Connections" cover [volume 29:4] was designed by Scott Alumbaugh, also of Davis. No info on the designer of "Community Media Board Development.") The covers for Silent Racism and Circles of Exclusion exemplify the pervasive cultural thread of the puzzle.

In a galaxy far, far away . . .

Jiggy Jr. put this together. She is a Star Wars
fanatic. Character by character, she assembled: Luke, Leia, Darth (Vader, Maul, or Sidius, take your pick), Boba Fett, Taunwii, Padme, Ki Adi Mundi—you name it, she knows it. (For the full effect, double click on each picture; you can see the characters in satisfying detail.)

Can you find Luminara?

Who's your favorite?

I sense a disturbance in the force . . .








In fully interlocking solidarity,
Jigsaw Maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

A three-family vacation puzzle!

What a glorious puzzle—hard and so beautiful. We started this when we were in Montana--Jiggy Jr., Jiggy Jr.'s grandmother, Queen of the Cabin, and I. Hopefully, the detail of this puzzle shows—too tough for me. I tried, but this is one of those puzzles (1,000 tiny pieces) where I struggle for hours to assemble one square inch. Needless to say, we did not finish it during our visit.

But grandmother persisted and over the course of two more families' visits (one contingent from Nevada and one from Texas) to the cabin, the puzzle was completed. Photo, courtesy of the almighty matriarch—thank you! It is wondrous to behold. Nothing like an absorbing puzzle to keep people occupied on vacation (that is, when they're not taking a boat ride on the magnificent river, looking for bears and moose, barbequing at the Gazebo, driving through the Glaciers: favorite activities when visiting the cabin in the woods).

Jigsaw trivia: Will Shortz, he of the crossword puzzle and Sudoku populizer, wrote his undergraduate thesis on "enigmatology": the study of the relationship between puzzles and culture (the full story). Perfect!

In fully interlocking solidarity,
Jigsaw maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

Section by section . . . and in the end, there were only 999 pieces!

"City Market" has complexities requiring a different assembly strategy. Starting with the frame wasn't in the cards: the straight edge of many border pieces was very small, making it difficult initially to select out border pieces. Then, throughout the puzzle, many pieces were irregularly shaped and colors in some sections were very close to colors in other sections (tomatoes and chili peppers, for example; grape and cauliflower leaves, for another). This puzzle was full of mysteries! So, I concentrated on one section at a time. Your eyes become very accustomed to the unique patterns of colors and shapes of images when you work this way.

To my dismay, one piece was missing! (see above, the cauliflower section). I have read that puzzlers commonly think they've lost a piece, only to retrieve it after hunting around. Yet Jiggy Jr., DataDad, and I spent a lot of time on our hands and knees searching for the little border piece. Maybe Mr. Zippy consumed it . Yummm . . . cauliflower leaves! I may write to Springbok (the maker of "City Market") and say: "I assembled this puzzle but it is missing one piece. Would you please send me a spare?"

Jigsaw trivia: In the 1930s, Morris Einson developed the mass-production technology for manufacturing jigsaw puzzles by the millions. Mass-production techniques, along with the use of cardboard as a (cheaper) backing rather than wood, made jigsaw puzzles much more affordable; they were extremely popular during the Depression. Time magazine labeled him "The Puzzle King." For a fictionalized account of Einson, be sure to read The Puzzle King by Betsy Carter (Einson's niece).

In fully interlocking solidarity,
Jigsaw maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

Extra! Extra! Jigsaw art abounds!

Is there any realm untouched by the spirit of the jigsaw puzzle?

Jigsaw puzzle with bathroom person: graphic by James C. Best, in "Social Networking Your Way to a New Job." New York Times Thursday, August 26, 2010; F2.

Jigsaw house: illustration by New York Times. "A Simple Wireless Network? Not Likely." New York Times Thursday, August 26, 2010; B6.

Yours in fully interlocking solidarity,
Jigsaw maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

"Scoops" by Annie Lee: 1,000 pieces

I found this puzzle at Games of Berkeley. Note the candies and cookies in the display case: that part of the puzzle was very hard to assemble because of the glare in the glass—everything kind of blurred together.

Annie Lee is one of a handful of African-American jigsaw puzzle designers—finding Annie Lee puzzles was a treat! Will post a picture of the other one I bought when I finish it.

Jigsaw trivia: puzzles come in squares, rectangles, circles, animal and map shapes, not to mention 3-D, foil, and two-sided; there are floor puzzles, table puzzles, online jigsaw puzzles. Something for everyone!

In fully interlocking solidarity,
Jigsaw maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

More evidence of jigsaw puzzle culture: fact of life or conspiracy?

Ongoing evidence of jigsaw culture. Culture is a puzzle, isn't it? The pieces aren't fully interlocking but human culture suggests an entirely different approach to the jigsaw puzzle: pieces that don't fit perfectly, pieces that change and move around—you get the picture. If you see evidence of jigsaw puzzle culture anywhere, anytime, please send me a picture, a link, a note!

Jigsaw trivia: the world's largest jigsaw puzzle (at least, in 2010) has 24,000 pieces.

In fully interlocking solidarity,
Jigsaw Maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

Vacation time: Getting started on a puzzle

Family members puzzling . . . there's nothing like a good, challenging puzzle to preoccupy anyone and everyone. It seems that during family get-togethers, we choose puzzles that are really hard: they're too huge to be practical (1,500, 2,000 pieces); we have to spend hours on one square inch because the images are not crisp and clear or the bulk of the image is all one color; we continually believe we've lost pieces—in other words, the type of puzzle where we have to brainstorm, cooperate, and share triumphant moments when a precious piece is found or we assemble a difficult part of the picture.

Above are Jiggy Jr. and Jiggy Jr.'s grandmother, Queen of the Cabin in the Woods, who resides there with the King.

In fully interlocking solidarity,
Jigsaw Maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

Jigsaw culture: fact or fiction?

When you start looking around you'll see jigsaw artifacts everywhere....but what does it mean? Jiggy Jr. thinks it's random; Mr. Zippy thinks it's a conspiracy; DataDad thinks looking for evidence of jigsaw culture is pointless. I think it expresses our search for order, harmony, and perfection.

In fully interlocking solidarity,
Jigsaw maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

Hot air balloons: beautiful but a dime a dozen

This puzzle was not too difficult. Jiggy Jr. tackled some of the balloons while I did the tough stuff: sky, mountains, and lake.

In fully interlocking solidarity,
Jigsaw Maniac
Loose lips sink ships — keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

Jigsawing around the nation

To fellow jigsaw puzzlers, from Montana:

My favorite puzzles have nontraditional images and luscious colors. They're not easy to find and it's fun searching for them when traveling. "Knitter's Delight" (above) is one of my favorites. Even Mr. Zippy approves (see Mr. Zippy in chair next to "Knitter's Delight"—Mr. Zippy likes to chew fallen pieces—ignore the hairy legs to his left, which belong to DataDad).

"Knitter's Delight" was quite difficult! I couldn't even assemble the frame at first. I was so discouraged with that setback I packed up the whole thing. But a couple of days later I enlisted the help of Jiggy Jr. (my puzzle buddy) and together we tried a different strategy: focusing on one individual skein of yarn after another, working from there out to the borders, finally coming up with the image above. It was most gratifying!

Hot-air balloon puzzles are a dime-a-dozen. I've seen many variations of hot-air balloon images. However, I have to admit, assembling the different balloons was a lot of fun (see following post).

Jigsaw trivia: To enhance her children's spatial and visual skills, Maeve Leakey, wife of paleontologist Richard Leakey, encouraged them to assemble jigsaw puzzles upside down—in other words, with the image facing down. She believed this skill enabled them eventually to assist their parents in assembling skulls and skeletons.

In fully interlocking solidarity,
Jigsaw Maniac
Loose lips sink ships — keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

Jigsaw puzzle lovers of the world unite!

Join me in my spiritual quest: fulfillment through the zen of jigsaw puzzle assembly.

Fight those antiquated images of jigsaw puzzling as the activity of choice for retirees or residents of nursing homes (not that there's anything wrong with them--heck, I'll be one before too long).

Let the world know that jigsaw puzzles do not simply feature Thomas Kincaide, Disney characters, Where's Waldo, or adorable puppies and kittens. Assembling a richly colored or uniquely cut or down-right hard puzzle is fulfilling and brings families and friends together.

For me, bigger is not necessarily better: 1,000 pieces is my limit (so far). Wherever I go, I search for unusual puzzles. The Game Store in downtown Berkeley has the largest and most dazzling collection of puzzles I've ever seen — a treasure trove for our people. When you walk in and see the wall of shelves with puzzles of all sorts, your heart will skip a beat — trust me.

I'll post pictures of puzzles, pictures of people and their puzzles, links to stores and websites that sell great puzzles, tips (I'm a “frame first” person and think that's the way to go), and other odds and ends that will help us achieve nirvana through jigsawing.

Jigsaw trivia: The first jigsaw puzzle was invented in 1760 by John Spilsbury, a British engraver and cartographer.

In fully interlocking solidarity,
Jigsaw Maniac
Loose lips sink ships — keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌