Educa puzzles in Spain will send you a replacement for your damaged or lost pieces FOR FREE. They once replaced a piece chewed up by a dog and another time a missing piece we found in another room months later. Just takes some time for the piece to arrive from overseas.
I’d love to see some of the requests to replace missing pieces. “Yeah, I need the piece that shows the left side of the pig’s eyelash, just to the right of his snout”.
For those of you who don’t have the table real estate to support puzzling, we have a puzzle mat that we use. It’s actually one large and two smaller mats. This allows us to clear the table if necessary while keeping the project intact. The only downside is that it is a felt-like material, which prevents you from sliding the pieces around. On the other hand, the surface acts to keep the pieces together once placed.
mmm
The missing puzzle piece is determined by its place in the grid of horizontal rows and vertical columns. Every puzzle has a code, so it is just a matter of finding the code on the side of the box, and determining by count the coordinates of the missing piece.
Last year I had a 1000 piece puzzle made of one of my photographs (Tintern Abbey). That made working the puzzle more interesting.
I looked up the terminology for my article, and outies are called knobs and innies are called blanks.
I’ve done them upside down also - and there is the famous old Springbok one “Red Riding Hood’s Hood:” - all red.
Different puzzle companies make this easier or harder. Ravensburger prides itself on distinct pieces. On the other hand some cheapo puzzles (the kind that come five to a box) seem to have lots of repeated shapes. The one I did upside down was a Springbok with unique shapes, and it wasn’t that hard. It helps you to discern small differences in shapes, good training for doing black areas, like in a puzzle of a famous Beethoven portrait I got as a premium for a donation to a classical music station.
My wife did some PR work once for the guy who ran Wrebbit, the 3D puzzle maker. Their buildings are good. I have one of the mosque at Mecca. Some of their other puzzles are not so good, such as one of a star destroyer which does not rest flat on the ground. He admitted even the Wrebbit people had trouble with that one.
I had a 3D Millennium Falcon puzzle that I was able to complete except for the final assembly of all the sections, where I apparently needed about six hands to hold everything together. Very frustrating to get that close to the end and not be able to finish it.
I didn’t realize this puzzle company was local but I see their puzzles in a lot of stores around town and have done a few.
Their schtick is that the image on the box is not exactly the same as the actual puzzle. Added, omitted, moved, altered objects pop up randomly as you put them together.
It is slowly taking shape.
“I’m the mascot of an evil corporation!” – Bart Simpson
My daughter-in-law loves jigsaw puzzles. She also loves doing up her nails all fancy and also love Disney. So, for her birthday I always get her either Disney themed nail polish (oh, they have very nice character color sets) or puzzle. Her last birthday I asked her if she’d like sewing notions or something else instead and she answered, 'But I LOVE the puzzles and polish!" So I got her this:
https://www.zazzle.com/nail_polish_bottles_jigsaw_puzzle-116195152155190249
Finished Wednesday night. Not recommended for the faint of heart or short of time.
Sister Boniface (Father Brown spinoff, just dropped on Britbox) Episode 3 has a puzzle theme. Her analysis of puzzle complexity came from my article. They did a good job correctly describing n**2 complexity in about 3 lines.
I hadn’t done a jigsaw puzzle in decades, but this thread got me interested again. I did this one.
It was enjoyable for the most part, but I have never had such a hard time completing the outside. Some of the pieces are so similar, it wasn’t until I was doing the innards that I discovered I had misplaced pieces. I guess some would say that adds to the challenge but I find it kind of . . .unfair.
Of course, I’m a bit out of practice and I was also trying to keep to curious kittens at bay. I don’t recall ever having encountered this and I used to do a lot of puzzles. Anyway, I look forward to doing another as soon as I find one that I find suitable for framing.
Nothing terribly deep. Just a visualization of a couple drifting apart.
Interesting. The puzzle you did was made by Buffalo Games, a company whose puzzles are generally highly rated.
Take a look here for some ideas on your next puzzle. I’m still working on the Easter egg puzzle shown in this link.
mmm
Yes, I don’t want to disparage Buffalo Games. Overall it’s nice; the pieces are sturdy and the colors are vibrant. Could just be me out of practice.
The Easter eggs are so pretty! That would have made a great gift for Easter but I’m not sure I know anyone else IRL who likes puzzles as I do. Are you going to frame yours when you finish? I now have my eye on the literary classics one, so thanks for the link 
Man, Have I gotten onto a puzzle kick the last 6 months. I have lost whole weekends to puzzles. Every few minutes my fitbit tells me that an hour has gone by and I need to get my steps in.
My favorite puzzle is this one, also by Buffalo Games. It’s the kind of puzzle I like best: a collection of discrete objects. This means that there’s lots of edges between colors and you get that satisfaction every time you finish an object.
I enjoy puzzles occasionally, probably 3-5 per year. Based on a previous thread, I bought one of these wooden infinity puzzles last year, and it was incredibly hard. No edges, and since it’s infinity, the piece you’re looking for just may have been used somewhere else on the puzzle already. But it was a lot of fun too.
Maybe that’s why I didn’t enjoy Mickey Mouse that much. There were no incremental sets of accomplishment. Just one long grind. I think I may take the Doctor Who puzzle that Squeaky gave me out next. That should be a nice palette cleanser.
