Puzzle Mania

I have always loved jigsaw puzzles.  I remember having a card table set up in Jodie's room when she was a baby.  During those middle of the night feedings I would work on the puzzle while I waited for her to burp.  I lost more sleep than necessary.  Even when she had fallen asleep again, I would keep working on the puzzle. That speaks to the strength of my addiction.

Since retirement, I have reactivated the craze.  Here are a few of the more recent ones I finished.

This was a loaner from a friend.  It's the first time I had ever worked with a wooden puzzle.  The pieces are all wonderful unique shapes and they feel great in your hand.

This was the second wooden Liberty puzzle.  They are a job and beautiful but a bit expensive.

This was a gift from my grandsons.  I actually put this one together twice because Nathan started it while they were visiting.  When they left I couldn't just crumble what he had started.

This was the first puzzle I purchased at the Puzzle Warehouse.  I was looking for a challenge and I found it.  There are lots of hidden objects scattered throughout that you probably would not notice unless you are the one examining each little piece very carefully.

Then I was ready for the real challenge.  This puzzle has 1000 pieces and measures 18"x 27" so the pieces are quite small.  That added to the difficulty, but the real challenge was the monotone background.  When it was finally finished, I knew I couldn't dump it back into the box.  I had mounted a few puzzles when I was in my twenties and I decided I could probably do it in my seventies as well.

I admit I spotted this one at the Puzzle Warehouse when I bought the red bike, so back I went for another shot at gray.  This one is also 1000 pieces but it is much larger so the pieces are also larger.

I purchased this one on a whim when I picked up the green VW.  It is very small as you might have guessed by the size of the box.  It's only 100 pieces so pretty easy to assemble.  I decided not to take this one apart either because I had a frame that was close to the 9" x 7" dimensions.

I bought this many, many years ago.  It was a lovely white over red crackle.  In storage some of the white seemed to dissolve in spots.  Not a bad look but, for the woman in yellow and black stripe, I wanted it to be black.  Full disclosure:  I actually have four of these.

This is another one.  I thought perhaps I'd like a pair vs just one so I went back to the PW and found--not a Vogue but The New Yorker!

Yes, I agree, four would be super cool but I will have to wait for just the right puzzle in just the right size.

For now, two frames are painted black.  The single flower you see in the frame is how I bought them.  Then I found  four prints and just taped them over the flower.   That was probably twenty years ago.  I kept them knowing that one day I might have a use for them again.

I made a big blunder when gluing the back of this one.  The glue seeped onto the front of the puzzle that I had placed face down on the cardboard back of a tablet.  Yep, disaster%*###!  When I separated it from the tablet I lost several parts of the picture.  I had two choices:  Buy another one and start over or fix this one.  I figured I could always go with the first choice but, for the heck of it, I was going to see if I could fix it.  Several spots of the blue sky were gone. I tried mixing to get the right blue with no luck.  Then I dug deeper into some old bottles of craft acrylic and found almost the exact color I needed.  I added a tiny bit of white and fixed the spot between her chin and shoulder and all the spots on the left side.  The black was fairly easy and because the green was slightly mottled, I fudged that one too.  The yellow boo boos were easy too.  They were lemon yellow right out of the tube.  The hardest spots were the flesh on her neck, the header and the coral at the bottom.  I decided it was good enough to keep and now it has a history.

No drama with this one...not yet anyway.  I think they will make a nice pair and, who knows, I might just find one or two more for the frames in waiting.

I also have plans for the two puzzles in shades of gray,  I just have to figure out the frames.