Birds of a feather . . .

Ten, count 'em– ten birds. The shapes of the puzzle pieces make this puzzle special–fun, too (click pic to see detail–when you see a microscope, click again for most satisfying enlargement). One becomes accustomed to the conventional shapes of most puzzle pieces: I don't know their technical names, but usually you find no more than four or five shapes (all different colors, of course). As you begin a puzzle you can group all your pieces into four or five piles, and you can also tell, as you're assembling the puzzle, which pile you'll select your piece from.

Conventional pieces have about five universal shapes: two tabs, each sticking out of opposite ends of the piece; one tab only, sticking out of one end of the piece; two tabs sticking out of two congruent sides of the piece; three tabs sticking out of three sides; or pieces with four tabs but no actual corners (kind of star-shaped). Tabs can be circular or tear-shaped.

Unconventional puzzle pieces, in contrast, are shaped in all manner of ways; virtually no one piece is alike, leaving the puzzler little option but to group pieces by color (not by shape). The birdhouse puzzle (manufactured by Serendipity) fits into the latter category. Whenever I assemble a puzzle like this, I'm continually doing mental high fives, feeling myself to be so clever for identifying matches in unpredictable places. Fun!

In fully interlocking solidarity, Jigsaw Maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

Teeny, weeny puzzles

Check out the scale of this puzzle, new in my repertoire. The puzzle series, aptly named the "World's Smallest Puzzle," is certainly the smallest of my little puzzle world. Mind you, I have much to accomplish in terms of travel around the world–there may be some microscopic-size puzzle that I don't know about. Nevertheless, let's honor the so-called "World's Smallest Puzzle" by taking a closer look. I photographed puzzle pieces as well as the completed puzzle next to well known items that should display its teeniness. Be sure to double click on photos to appreciate.

Compare the dimensions of this teeny-weeny critter to its normal-sized comrades. Its 1,000 pieces take up no more than 11.7" by 16.5", compared to the 20" by 27" dimensions of many (most?) of the 1,000 piece puzzles I've done.

In fully interlocking solidarity, Jigsaw Maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

Speaking of pleasures . . .

Is there anything better than puzzles, friends, and vacations? Here, a dear friend and I work on a puzzle with a detailed map of Eugene, Oregon. It was challenging–we were not able to complete it before parting ways.

Summer pleasures

This was our Montana vacation puzzle. "Making Friends" exemplifies the kind of cheery, sweet imagery that turns many people away from jigsaw puzzling. And usually I avoid buying puzzles of this sort, preferring those that are more contemporary and of higher artistic quality. A foal nuzzling a cat is the height of boring sentimentality, nowhere near as elegant as the "Crystal Palace" or edgy as Edward Munch's "The Scream!" However, the puzzle served us well on our recent trip. The Queen of the Cabin in the Woods, Jiggy Jr., and myself gravitated in and out of puzzling over the course of a week, assembling the golden retriever here, the milk stool and kitty there. Honestly, it was harder than I would have predicted. And all in all, who can quarrel with the theme, "Making Friends"?

In fully interlocking solidarity, Jigsaw Maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

Channeling Homer Simpson

Hmmmm . . . cho-clate.

World travel

World map, 1630, by Henricus Hondius. Puzzle, courtesy Pomegranate. Labor, courtesy, Jigsaw Maniac. Once again, brilliant nephew dazzles with his knowledge: he says that often, these antique maps would have displayed what we now call New Zealand (only first populated by humans in the 1200's and named Nova Zeelandia in 1645) on both spheres represented on the map. (You may recall that he last dazzled me with his insights about the Tower of Babel.) Thank you for this edifying insight, o' dazzling one.

In fully interlocking solidarity, Jigsaw Maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

Let there be light

Courtesy of Frank Lloyd Wright and Pomegranate Puzzles—"Saguaro Forms and Cactus Flowers." Detail is provided above—as always, click for a better view! The trick to assembling this is to work on each long, vertical strip separately. My table lined up with colorful, unconnected designs. Then I connected them and filled in the blanks. It was a lot easier than it looks!

For puzzle lovers: on a recent trip to Pacific Grove I discovered heaven in I'm Puzzled.

I'm Puzzled has products from just about every manufacturer you can think of. Puzzles are organized by themes (animals, classic art, pastoral settings, etc.). The shop has a huge range from which to choose. And the owner has a binder full of plastic sheets with little pockets, each pocket containing a couple of pieces from different manufacturers so you can see and (very importantly) feel the quality. I spent about an hour exploring and talking with the employee about the puzzle kingdom (trading info about favorites, frustrations, and so forth). And as you can imagine, I left with an embarrassingly huge bag of new puzzles. What joy. Be sure to make it to I'm Puzzled when you can.

In fully interlocking solidarity, Jigsaw Maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌