A few days ago, a friend sent me this link with an amazing story about an artist called Tim Klein, who combines identically cut puzzles to make new images. Here are even more images on Tim Klein’s own page. The combined puzzles are for sale, although many are sold out. The train-horse is my favourite.
In the story above, Tim Klein credits Mel Andringa with the idea, and he was apparently the first artist to use this technique. Googling Mel Andringa brought up some more great images, like this:
Tut: King of Beers, Charles H. MacNider Art Museum
I am definitely going to try this one day, but I think it might be much more difficult than you might imagine combining images in an entertaining way. Which is why these guys are artists, I guess 🙂
Freedom Deluxe, Heye, 1000 pieces, completed on October 23rd 2018.
My first puzzle from the Bike Art series. Honestly, I may have preferred it without the bike, just columns in different colours 🙂 Abstract art makes great puzzles, unless there are large areas with just one colour.
Many of Heye’s puzzles with cartoon themes come in triangular boxes. I know a lot of people love these boxes, but I have to say I’ve always found them quite impractical.
Triangular boxes seem to take up more space.
I have very limited space, and I could never find a good way to stack triangular boxes. Some of the puzzles always end up behind the others. I understand that different size puzzles must have different size boxes, but even puzzles with the same piece count have different boxes depending on when the puzzle was produced. For example, the boxes for 1000-piece puzzles used to be taller and “slimmer”. This, of course, makes the stacking problem worse.
I finally had enough of the boxes, and went out and bought some plastic storage boxes. Now, when I buy a puzzle in a triangular box, I cut out the image on the box, and also a piece where the name and size of the puzzle is. Then I put the pieces into the plastic box.
The boxes are easy to stack, and you can see exactly what you have. 1000-, 1500- and 2000-piece puzzles all fit nicely into the same size box (about 4 litres). Between the stacks are some of the cut-out images.
I realize this must seem like vandalism to many, but I need to able to store puzzles efficiently. This way, I can fit up to 20 puzzles on top of one bookshelf.
All of these puzzles also come with a poster (which I put in the box), but especially with the smaller puzzles I prefer to work with the image that was on the original box. The poster for 1000-piece puzzles is almost as big as the puzzle itself. I may come to appreciate this with age and failing eyesight, but for now, I prefer a much smaller image. For some larger puzzles, I sometimes consult the poster, but mostly I use the image from the box for them as well.
For larger puzzles, I have larger boxes. This is 4000 pieces.
A tablet stand works well for an image cut from the box.
Despite all this, I really love Heye’s cartoon-themed puzzles, whether they come in triangular or regular boxes. I probably have more of them than any other type of puzzle.
So, I was back in Dortmund this weekend for the top game between Dortmund and Bayern, and this was one time when a game really lived up to the hype. After going behind twice, we eventually triumphed 3-2 and extended our lead at the top of the table. Whew! Anyway, I also got a bit of puzzling done.
During my previous visit, I had already started working on a 4000 piece Heye Puzzle called the Pig in Art, by the artist Ryba. The image shows famous works of art through the ages, but with a lot of pigs involved. The puzzle came in two bags, and I did not mix them.
So, this was the situation when I arrived on Thursday. The right half was almost finished.Nice and easy, but then I got to the border. Four pieces wide! I know I shouldn’t complain, at least it isn’t monochrome, but it was still really slow.I did make a start on the next half…Finished the right-hand half!I did make a start on the next half…But I didn’t get very far.
Here I had to leave, but I’ll be back at the end of the month.
Ok, not puzzle related, but what a great night it was! Here the team is thanking the south stand for their support.
Some more puzzles that I completed and photographed in the mid or late 90s:
I think this puzzle had miniature pieces, but I can’t be sure. There was unfortunately nothing in the picture that would allow me to estimate how large the puzzle was. Since I know Educa has miniature puzzles I tried Googling those, but no luck. 1000 pieces, I think.I think I see the Whitman logo above the text “Spartan 2000”, but none of this helped on Google. The picture looks like a small German town, but I guess it could be anywhere in central Europe. At least I know it’s 2000 pieces, at least one missing (above on the right).Finally, a King puzzle, and again, the picture looks German to me. Too bad I can’t read the text on the building, that would definitely help with placing the building at least. Google was no help this time either.
As before, if anyone reading this happens to have some information about these puzzles I would be very happy to hear about it.
Collage of Operas, Educa, 3000 pieces, completed on September 6th, 2018.
I had actually decided not to get anymore Educa-puzzles because the pieces too often fit where they don’t belong, which I hate. Then I saw this, and thought, well, maybe just one more 🙂 With virtually no monochrome areas and very distinct details it is less of a problem that pieces fit in the wrong places, and I love the image.
I don’t often have pictures of unfinished puzzles from before I started this blog, but here’s one.
Gumpert’s Swarming Machine, Schmidt, 1500 pieces, completed October 25th, 2018.
This was unexpectedly difficult, especially the dark parts. I placed several pieces wrong and had to switch them later, but the issue wasn’t so much the quality of the puzzles as that I just wasn’t paying enough attention.
Part of my stash, these are completed puzzles that I decided to keep.
In Helsinki, I have no table space available for puzzling, so I now use cardboard sheets both for spreading out the pieces and for assembling puzzles. I used to assemble puzzles on the floor, but I’m too old to spend hours on my knees crawling around. The floor was alright for 1000-1500 pieces, but with larger puzzles, there was also the problem of not being able to vacuum until the puzzle was finished. I once had a 5000 piece puzzle on the floor for about six months…
I have an extra drying rack in Helsinki as well, and it’s a great help.
The sheets of cardboard that I use are 70 x 50 cm, which fits a 1000 piece puzzle of most European brands more or less exactly. For 1500 and 2000 pieces I need two sheets, and for 3000 pieces four sheets. The largest puzzle I’ve completed this way was 5000 pieces, on six sheets of cardboard. If you want to take a longer break from a puzzle, you just stack the sheets on top of each other and put the entire stack on top of a cupboard and forget about it until you’re ready to go on. I find the simple sheets of cardboard much more practical than any commercial alternatives, and believe me, I have tried them all. Many are unnecessarily heavy, and the ones where you roll up the puzzle work well for storing finished puzzles, but half-finished puzzles tend to fall apart, at least if I’m the one doing the rolling. My only problem with the cardboard is, that pieces sometimes fall off when you move them around, especially around the edges. That is why I almost never do the edges first anymore.
Because I now have the large table in Dortmund, I don’t do puzzles larger than 2000 pieces in Helsinki anymore.
I have some photographs of finished puzzles where I no longer have the puzzles, or any idea of the name and / or brand. I completed these puzzles in the mid or late 90s, then snapped a picture but failed to record any details of the puzzles or when exactly I took the picture. Here they are:
Looks like 1200 (1250?) pieces, at least one missing (on the stairs). This one could be old, at least 70s, I would say, possibly 60s. Googling Buccaneer jigsaw puzzles only brings up pictures of pirates 🙂I actually managed to find a picture of this one with Google, but there was little information. Apparently it’s called Promenade, but that’s all I could find out.After “Alpine Landscape”, “Mediterranean Harbour” was probably the most common puzzle motive in the 70s and 80s. With no information about brand or name I didn’t even bother trying Google – it would be hopeless.
If anyone reading this happens to have some information about these puzzles I would be very happy to hear about it.
Puzzler1909 