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 ✌

An ode to cats

Meow, meow, meow. Isn't this image sweet? The pieces in this puzzle (manufactured by Lang) have the most unusual shapes—nothing predictable about them, requiring surprising twists and turns in the layout. (If you click on the images you'll see what I mean.)

Cats rule our little roost (see above). They shred our toilet paper into snowy mountains if they can. One of them hisses at our house sitters. They constantly cry for food, even though each one has an impressive fat pouch. They dominate Mr. Zippy, our dog.

Their relationship is classic love/hate, sister/sister: one minute they're licking out the inside of each other's ears and snuggling up warmly with one another; the next they're sinking their teeth into each other's nose and neck, yowling at the top of their voices.

But they can be pretty funny, too, and they're positively imprinted on Jiggy Jr. Who can resist that? Enjoy this puss—no muss, no fuss, one-dimensional and nondestructive! Cross-eyed, too!

In fully interlocking solidarity, Jigsaw Maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

God there confounded the language of all the Earth

Here, it seems, is the origin of conflict, divisiveness, and inability to hear the voices of others'. As my erudite nephew said, upon seeing this, "The Tower of Babel": "This is where God did smite the people by whom he was angered." (I was impressed; nephew is almost 16, sharp as a razor, quick as a whip, funny as hell—but I did not know of his familiarity with Genesis.)

This particular rendition of Babel is part of an illuminated manuscript housed in the British Library. It is credited to "The Bedford Master and His studio, Paris, c. 1423." The Beford Master: what a mystery!

In fully interlocking solidarity, Jigsaw Maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

Jigsaw puzzles: to craft or not to craft?

I've been pondering the appeal of jigsaw puzzles, wondering where they fit into the spectrum of creative activity. I know, I know—a jigsaw puzzle is a far cry from a craft in which you work with raw materials and tools, choose images, and actually create something original. Weaving, quilting, painting, shooting photos, sculpting, woodworking, writing, it's not. But it is this: tactile, an exploration of colors, creating a final product that can be shared with others, something to do when I just don't feel like doing anything else, and more.

I see the jigsaw puzzle more in the vein of the sand paintings of Tibetan monks (the mandala) or Navajos—it requires great concentration over a period of time, and when it's complete, it can be briefly cherished, then destroyed (as in, broken up and returned to its box).

Many women I know are strongly drawn to working with colors and textures, to creating objects that can be visually or otherwise consumed. I'm thinking of friends who produce glorious quilts, in particular. In other pursuits, my beloved sister-in-law makes ceramic nichos and other ceramic goodies; my neighbor is one of the community's best-known clay artists, a colleague has become a talented painter, a friend designs and produces the most clever ground hog day cards—you get the picture.

I inherited several of my grandmother's creations (above). Although she died many years ago (her life spanned the years 1888-1965) I still remember how much she loved embroidering, tatting, and painting (small objects such as trays and bottles). She crocheted a huge coverlet (somewhere between a blanket and a quilt) which is in my possession. It is utterly gorgeous and for years I've tried to think of how to best display it—sometime, I'll get around to doing it. It's too valuable (sentimentally and craft-wise, not money-wise) to use. All in all, I think I inherited her love for creating things. In the past I've embroidered pillows, assembled several quilts, knit mittens; I sewed the entire dolphin bag (shown here) by hand for my sister.

Jigsaw trivia: yesterday, January 29, was National Jigsaw Puzzle Day! Hope you celebrated!

In fully interlocking solidarity, Jigsaw Maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

Come on down to my hometown puzzle

Now here's a unique puzzle for you. Courtesy of Queen of the Cabin in the Woods—a master puzzle builder, if ever there was one—this is a puzzle of the area surrounding my home (4 miles north-to-south and 6 miles east-to-west). You must click on the images to appreciate the details. The image, above left, shows the entire puzzle. Look carefully at the image, above right. Do you see the piece shaped like a house? It's my house! Then, in the image below, I display several pieces, including the house—mostly to impress you, fellow jigsaw puzzle lovers. This puzzle is full of unusually shaped pieces.


This British company—Hometown Puzzle—specializes in images featuring extracts from US Geological Survey base maps centered on your own home (or, presumably, other landmarks). You custom order them. Cool, yes? What a great gift idea for the puzzle lover who has seen everything in the puzzle galaxy.


In fully interlocking solidarity, Jigsaw Maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

By the way.....

Readers, in case you don't realize: if you click on a picture in this blog, it magnifies the image. I'm posting an old favorite of mine; go on, give it a click! (Luke, I am your father! Gotta love that detail.) It's always fun to inspect jigsaw puzzles up close.



In fully interlocking solidarity, Jigsaw Maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

Blessed be the Amish

After Data Dad unlocked the puzzle of the puzzle (see previous blog), I moved full steam ahead. Voila: the Amish quilt puzzle in its final stages.

As I was doing this puzzle I dreamt that I was having a conversation with friends about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. My friends were awestruck because Tom and Katie had lots of children. I retorted, "yeah, but 15 of their children are jigsaw puzzle pieces."

When you intently focus on assembling a puzzle—especially when you're looking for the most minute bits of color or teeny fragments of patterns that allow you to match one piece to another—puzzling can really sink deeply into your unconscious. My TomKatie dream was far from the first dream I've had about jigsaw puzzles; in fact, when I'm really absorbed in a complex puzzle during my waking hours, images of colors and pieces snake through that half-asleep, half-awake zone during the night.

Long live jigsaw puzzles! Long live beautiful, rich Amish quilt patterns! Long live Tom and Katie and may they have endless number of jigsaw puzzle cherubs!

In fully interlocking solidarity,
Jigsaw Maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌