Road Trip!

Brand: Skittledog

Pieces: 1000
Size:  49cm x 68.5cm

Product Code: -

Another (busy) weekend, another puzzle...

Today I have decided to put up this cool travel one which I purchased one day in Melbourne. I loved the mapped out design, and the references to North American scenery and landmarks. It reminded me so much of a Contiki tour I once took there, and was a big factor when it came to me purchasing this puzzle over others I saw there. 

I really enjoy doing map-style puzzles - I have such a fascination with geography and travel and love to see these kinds of puzzles come together...

Do you enjoy puzzles of a similar nature?

Melbourne Map

Brand: Hardie Grant Explore

Pieces: 500
Size: 51cm x 51cm

Product Code: -

I'm back in the state this weekend so I am able to post as normal. 

And I have exciting news!

When individual competition tickets first became available for the Victorian State Jigsaw Puzzle Competition (held in Melbourne) I missed my chance to secure tickets and ended up on the waitlist. I didn't think anything would come of it but during the week an opening came up and I was able to buy ONE ticket! 

So now I have to practise speed-puzzling 500 piece puzzles in preparation for the event. 

It's being held on my husband's birthday which is a bummer but he was OK with me doing it, considering I've been travelling everywhere with him in his marathon and running interest pursuits. Now I need to crack down and start practising!

Today I have put up an image of a 500 piece puzzle of Melbourne- since that's where the event will be held. This puzzle disappointingly wasn't of the best quality, but I still liked the image, and was able to recognise most of the landmarks (with our city of Geelong being only about an hour's drive from there). 

The Australia Edition

Brand: Journey Of Something

Pieces: 1000
Size: 70cm x 50cm
Product Code:  -

Since Covid-19 took over the world, there has been a huge influx of puzzle brands coming onto the market so people can while away their 'stay at home' time with activities such as puzzle assembly. So many companies sold out of their designs with this unprecedented demand, and a whole new audience grew. 

Because of this, a lot of regular puzzlers had trouble locating designs from their favourite brands, and it meant having to either do ones already in their collection which had been put off for others (I'm guilty of this) and also trying new brands (also guilty). 

One of the new brands I decided to try was not necessarily new- Journey Of Something has been around for quite a few years already- but it was new to me (in that, I hadn't purchased from them before. I had always admired their artist-based designs but couldn't justify the cost. Even though they are only a small business, their prices seemed way too expensive compared to the usual $30 or so I usually spend as maximum. For your reference, their puzzles cost over $50 each for a 1000 piece puzzle. But when they had a sale, I decided to take the plunge and just buy some. Their Australian-owned and I thought I'd do my bit to support local.

I'm glad I did.

The designs are expensive (as I said) but that said, I know they have to cover the costs of manufacture, copyright for artists, shipping, promotion, etc, and still make some money at the end of it. All of the designs are carefully curated and beautiful. The pieces come in a fabric bag inside the box, whose lid lifts up and is held with ribbon. Presentation is perfect. 

I chose the above puzzle and two others, and thought I'd put up this one first because Australia Day (a public holiday which has become very controversial over the last few years- 'aka Invasion Day') is this Tuesday and I needed something Australian themed to display. 

Extremely good quality and very pretty. I loved the landmarks, illustrations, and overall design of this Australian map. If you get the chance, check out their website and see what goodies catch your eye. 

Around The World

Brand: Ravensburger
Pieces: 3000
Size: 121cm x 80cm
Product Code:  170593

Over the years I have worked on a variety of puzzles, from 50 or so pieces to the one I'm currently working on (which has 5000 pieces and is taking me forever to complete!)

While I know that there are puzzles that are even larger than this- Ravensburger's Keith Haring Double Retrospect and New York City Window, and Educa's Wildlife, just to name a few- that contain over 32,000 pieces each, I am in no way inclined to start beginning one. For starters, I just don't have the time, and what about the space that would be needed to work on such puzzles!

For now, I'm just content to work on smaller puzzles, and might consider the challenge of completing a larger one some day in the future.

In the meantime, the largest puzzle I have completed (to date) is pictured above, from Ravensburger.

With 3000 pieces, this puzzle was quite large when it was finished. The colours were vibrant and the layout of the design made it easy to sort each city into sections, although there were some similar colours in each area. If you want to tackle a larger puzzle, it's probably best to pick one like this, where there are many focal points to work from, rather than one large block of colour.

This puzzle was challenge enough for me (size-wise) and is the perfect picture memento for the avid traveller.

The Twelve Apostles, Vic

Brand: Ken Duncan Panographs (Crown & Andrews)
Pieces: 450
Size: 64cm x 24cm
Product Code: -

I'm lucky enough to live a short drive away from Australia's iconic Great Ocean Road- a scenic drive along Victoria's coastline. One of the highlights of this drive is The Twelve Apostles- if you make this trip, you'll see jutting limestone formations that rise out of the water along the shoreline of the Port Campbell National Park. While some of them have eroded in time (there are no longer twelve of them), these stacks still make a picturesque view and are often photographed by passing tourists and artists. 

One such photographer, Ken Duncan, is renowned for taking fantastic landscape images and this is one of his offerings, translated into jigsaw puzzle format. While there are only 450 pieces in this puzzle, it was still quite challenging, particularly with the similar colour tones. The colours seem to blend into one another, and I had to tackle it in sections- water in one, sand and rocks in another, and the sky and clouds together. The colours are so similar, especially in artificial light, that it could be difficult to place the pieces at times, but this only made the experience more interesting. 

This puzzle is a great way to capture the panoramic view of this world-famous natural attraction.