Welcome to the Hive

Welcome to the Hive is a 250-piece wooden puzzle from Wentworth, and the artist is Catriona Crehan. This is another puzzle I was able to do through a traveling bundle from The Casual Puzzler.

This was a really enjoyable build. Just like the other puzzle from this bundle, the quality of the image and the pieces was excellent, even after being done several times by various people. I loved the bright colors and the fun whimsy pieces.

Here’s an image of the back of the puzzle:

And here’s a closeup of the whimsy pieces:

Sunset Mountains – My First Wooden Puzzle

Sunset Mountains is a gorgeous 250-piece puzzle from Wentworth Wooden Puzzles. This is my first wooden puzzle, but I have heard only good things about this brand, which is made in Britain. They also are quite a bit pricier than cardboard puzzles, which is one of the reasons I haven’t tried them out before now.

The opportunity to do this puzzle came about because I am a Patreon supporter of a puzzler I follow on YouTube. She decide to offer this as a traveling puzzle to her patrons, so I signed up for it. The puzzle was sent to me by the first person who got it, and I will be sending it to the next person on the list in a few days.

This puzzle was a joy from beginning to end. The pieces are laser-cut into intricate shapes with a few pieces being shaped like identifiable objects – those are called whimsy pieces.

I decided not to start with the border because it was quite dark and I wanted to get more comfortable with how the pieces fit together. So I pulled out the brightest colors first and worked out from there. Once I got about 2/3 finished, I did the rest of the border and then filled in the darkest pieces.

After I finished the puzzle, I took the whimsy pieces out so that my friend Renee could see them when she came over to my place the other day.

I would love to do more wooden puzzles, but I’m not sure they are in my budget. Either way, I’m really glad that I got to do this one!