At Home in the Country, 2019-05-02

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I was inspired by Stacey at My Jigsaw Journal to pull out my only vintage, wooden puzzle. I got it from my grandmother, we found it when I was helping her clear out a closet and I was, of course, very excited.  I was probably about 14 at the time. It’s a 300-piece Victory puzzle, with no image on the box. Instead, there’s an explanation why it’s better not to have an image 🙂

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It says about 300 pieces. I counted, and there should be 302, but one is missing.

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At Home in the Country, Victory, 302 pieces. Completed on May 2nd, 2019.

It says 1949 in the bottom right-hand corner, but that would probably be the painting.

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I found 16 whimsies – some I don’t know what they are supposed to be.
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The fit was very loose, as Stacey found with another Victory puzzle.

The Spirit and the Material of the Bottle, In Progress

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I’m back in Helsinki, but before I left Dortmund I started on another duck puzzle.

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I’m doing the more difficult ones first on purpose. Unfortunately, this has both large monochrome areas and just one type of pieces (basic shape with two tabs opposite). The puzzle was factory sealed (I’m not surprised), and there were quite a few pieces not properly separated. I usually don’t like that, but in this case, I’m not complaining…

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There was also quite a lot of puzzle dust.

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So much for the easy part: the top of the table cloth and the window in the upper right-hand corner.

At this point, I had to leave for the airport.

Spices, 2019-04-30

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This was, predictably, nice and easy. The blue background could have been difficult with another brand, but with Ravensburger, it wasn’t a problem.

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Spices, Ravensburger, 1000 pieces. Completed on April 30th, 2019.

I did the bowls first, of course …

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… and then started filling in the background. I did the edges last.

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The Temple Grounds, 2019-04-29

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UPDATE: There are now further details and spoilers about the series on the dedicated page. There is also an individual spoiler page for this puzzle.

My third from the Ravensburger Exit-series (apparently also known as the Escape-series). This time I’ve fallen down a hole in some ancient temple grounds, and need to climb out.

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Just the box again, as usual, no spoilers. Compared to the other puzzles in the series, I felt that there were relatively few changes from the image on the box. It’s also the most difficult of the three, with mostly green and brown.

Some colours from butterflies.

Somehow I wasn’t in the mood to work on the mysteries and used the online hints. Actually, the pieces that were part of the final solution were kind of obvious even while working on the puzzle. Also, the reality didn’t quite match the solution provided in the closed envelope – some of the printing looks to be wrong.

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Again, there was a pile of these extra pieces. I’ve kept them for all the puzzles, and they could be useful for someone who wants to make replacements for lost pieces. That’s definitely not me, though 🙂

With the two previous Exit-puzzles, I’ve noticed that the old posts get some traffic, and I even had a question about one of the puzzles, so I’m considering doing a separate spoiler page for the series, with photos of the completed puzzles.

Shopping in Dortmund

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I haven’t been puzzling much for the last week, and I’m in Dortmund again. I’m working on one of the Ravensburger Exit puzzles, and it’s really slow going.

Anyway, yesterday there was a huge flea market in Westfalenpark with lots and lots of puzzles, but I only bought two:

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Factory sealed spice collage and an interesting image of the Berlin wall from 1990. On the bottom there are the flags of Czechoslovakia (the same flag is now used by the Czech Republic) and East Germany, the year 1989 and the word “democracy” in German and Czech (I presume, I don’t understand Czech). It’s an MB puzzle, made in Holland. MB used to have production in Germany as well, but they’ve completely withdrawn from the  European market, unfortunately.

One thing I didn’t see yesterday was a single Heye puzzle. Not one, with hundreds of sellers and lots and lots of puzzles. Not a single Heye. Perhaps professional sellers are there first thing and buy all the Heyes? The only place you can reliably find used Heye puzzles is eBay, and they’re not cheap.

I hope to have the Exit puzzle finished tomorrow, otherwise, there will be another old photo.

1970s Sweet Memories, 2012-05-23

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I’m not a huge fan of Gibsons,  pieces fit where they don’t belong far too often, but they have some really great collages, and every now and then I cave and buy one anyway.

I know some of these, Mars looks exactly like it does now (although Bounty has changed dramatically), but most are unknown to me. Even with this image, I needed to stay alert so as not to place pieces wrong.

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1970s Sweet Memories, Gibsons, 1000 pieces. Completed on May 23rd, 2012.

Beer, 2009-12-03

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Beer, Piatnik, 1000 pieces. Completed on December 3rd, 2009.

A collage of beers by Austrian brand Piatnik, and amazingly, there’s a Finnish beer in there, last on the second row from the bottom (Lapin kulta).

So, I completed this in 2009, and then gave it away, but I just realized, I still have it. I bought another copy in 2017, so that I’ve now bought a new copy of this puzzle twice 😀 It’s happened with DVDs, I’ve bought the same twice by mistake sometimes, although never one that I had already watched. I like these collages, but clearly, it was not all that memorable. I’ve not completed the new one yet.

Lustratio, 2018-07-25

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This is the second puzzle with the same theme. The photo is not good (sorry!), but you can see additional characters to the right. Also, more of the border on the top and the bottom is visible.

As a puzzle, it wasn’t all that easy, but not too difficult either. Quite enjoyable.

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Lustratio, Ricordi Arte, 1500 pieces. Completed on July 7th, 2018.

Paradise Sunset (3)

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I decided to put numbers in the posts about this puzzle to keep up with how much I post about it.

I’ve continued with the lighter sky on the right, building upwards. You can also see the base of the temple.

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The older puzzle rolls by Ravensburger were white, but I’m really enjoying the black background. I guess you could argue that it eats up light, but I think it works well.

A couple of seagulls.

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