“Threaten by a Foreign Crunch” is what it says on the box, but I would translate the Finnish title as “Threatened by external danger” or “When an external danger threatens”. The duck certainly looks terrified.

Anyway, I enjoyed the puzzle a lot. I did the duck and the window first, and then I was afraid it would become difficult, but the cut was good and there was still enough differences in shade.

This was the last of the Stenvall duck puzzles, there are 30 in all. I started collecting them in early 2019, and by the summer I already had 29 of the 30 puzzles. I had to wait until January 2021 before I got the last one. Now that I’ve completed them all I’m going to sell them to make room for new puzzles. Here they all are:

This is the only Kaj Stenvall painting I’ve seen with no Finnish title. Given the duck as a turkey, the flag on the wall reminiscent of the American flag, and the title, it seems to be a reference to the American holiday of Thanksgiving, but as usual, I have no idea what the message is supposed to be.

The puzzle itself was one of the easiest in the series, and I did it pretty much in one sitting. Unfortunately, two missing pieces. This is puzzle #29/30 in the series, and amazingly, these are the first missing pieces that I’ve had. Getting really close to the end of the duck puzzles now, just one to go!

This was a really fun to do, I enjoyed it a lot! You can’t see it in the photo, but the duck is holding a paint brush (the kind you use for art), and I think the everything except the duck and the floor he is standing on is a painting that he has just finished.

The first Stenvall puzzle with portrait orientation – I only realized, when I started on it. There is one more puzzle with this orientation in the series, and I think they might have been the last to be produced, because the pieces are thinner and the fit is not as good as with the other puzzles in the series. The less than stellar quality made it less enjoyable than usual, but still ok.

The title is an exact translation of the Finnish title, although the word open is also used figuratively in the meaning “undecided”, and without context that would be my first interpretation of the Finnish sentence, but here, of course, we can see a literally open window in the image.

This image is from a series called Come to Finland that features travel ads for Finland. Some of them are actual, vintage travel ads, but they also have modern designs. The year for this one is given as 2017, and the other one I’ve done was from 1898.

Close Your Eyes by Adrienne Széll, Tactic, 1000 pieces. Completed on March 23, 2024.

The woman in the image is clearly a modern rendering of the Maid of Finland, a sort of personification of Finland, a bit like Uncle Sam for the US, I suppose. She is wearing a Marimekko dress (design instantly recognizable to any Finn), and her long, blonde hair is full of things associated with Finland. Here is a more traditional rendition of the Maid of Finland from a postcard in 1906 (artist unknown):

Anyway, back to the puzzle image. Here’s some coffee, cookies, mushrooms and strawberries in the hair:

The reason I chose to do this now was, however, this creature:

This puzzle is #14, a fox, for the puzzle challenge. It’s a very small fox, but it was the best I could find in my to-do pile.

Unfortunately, this was not a good quality puzzle. I’ve mentioned previously that Tactic is hit and miss, and this was an annoying puzzle with many false fits. Too bad, because I like the image, and I still have three puzzles to do from the same series.

This is one of the most enjoyable of the duck puzzles so far. It looks much more difficult than it is, and I have really come to enjoy puzzles where there are large areas with a slight shift in colour tone. Loved it!

The Light and Warmth in November by Kaj Stenvall, Tactic, 1000 pieces. Completed on March 21, 2024.

Another Stenvall, another cranky duck. The word “cabin” in the title should really be wardrobe, I think, and it’s a reference to a Finnish saying, where “showing where the wardrobe should stand” means to assert yourself, to show that you are in charge.

The Place of the Cabin is at Home by Kaj Stenvall, Tactic, 1000 pieces. Completed on March 19, 2024.

The chair in the painting is a famous design by Ilmari and Anneli Tapiovaara, originally produced for a building with student apartments in 1947. The building was called Domus Academica, and the chair is known as a domus chair. Later, the Undergraduate Library was also moved to the area, and they were furnished with the same chairs. We still have some of those chairs in the library I work in (the Undergraduate Library merged with many faculty libraries to form the current library). The domus chairs have been very popular, and they are still in production, but at about 1000 EUR they’re not cheap.

The wood paneling in the background was surprisingly difficult, otherwise, this was an easy puzzle.

Back to the duck puzzles, and I really enjoyed this. I started with the sky and the dark green trees, then moved on to the grass, and the road was the last thing I did. Usually, I do the duck(s) pretty early, but this time, the pieces were somehow not that easy to find.

I had to look up the word drophead, and apparently, it means convertible, which makes sense, for once. I wish I could say the same about the Finnish title, “Hyvissä merkeissä”, which might be translated as “in good faith, in a good spirit”.

Another duck on a bed. The cut was not quite as good as with the previous one, it’s not bad, but a bit off. Some of the duck puzzles are like that, unfortunately, and I’m doing the newest puzzles last, so it’s likely to become worse. Despite the less than excellent cut, I enjoyed the puzzle a lot.

The Finnish title contains a non-censored swear word (Helvetin hyvää huomenta), and I might translate it as “Bloody good morning”.

For the puzzle challenge, #28-29 is two puzzles from the same series, and this is #29.

Back to the Stenvall duck puzzles. I hope to have them all finished this year. This was actually a really entertaining puzzle. Doing these duck puzzles, I’ve come to realize how much I enjoy puzzles with large areas of similar colour, where there is a gradual change in colour tone, like the wall (and some other parts as well) that goes from very light on the left to quite dark on the right. The quality was also excellent, and the puzzle was factory sealed.

For the puzzle challenge, #28-29 is two puzzles from the same series, and this is #28.