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.
Flowering Elephant is a 244-piece wooden puzzle from Wentworth. I had the opportunity to do this as part of a traveling bundle from The Casual Puzzler’s Patreon.
I absolutely loved this puzzle! The colors were so vibrant, and the quality was amazing. It also had really interesting piece shapes – I especially liked the elephants.
With wooden puzzles, it is so interesting to look at the back. I really like the way the pieces line up in rows on this one:
Here’s a closeup shot of the piece shapes included with this puzzle:
Midsummer Night’s Dream is a 256-piece wooden puzzle from Victory, and the artist is Lucy Grossmith. This is the first wooden puzzle I have purchased. I did one other one as a traveling puzzle a year or so ago and really enjoyed it, so I finally decided to invest in one myself.
I was really drawn to the image and knew it was something I wouldn’t want to attempt in a large piece count but thought it would be a nice challenge in the medium size. I was impressed with the packaging, although one piece came out of the box with a small chip broken off. I was a bit bummed about that because it is noticeable on the finished puzzle.
The process of building the puzzle was very enjoyable. It was a nice change from cardboard puzzles, and I am definitely open to doing more of them. I especially liked seeing all of the whimsy pieces, which are pieces that are shaped like something instead of just being a random shape. I took a picture of the back of the puzzle, and you can see the whimsies more easily from that. I loved coming across these pieces when doing the puzzle, especially all of the different rabbits.
I did end up contacting the company about the broken piece. They had me send them some pictures and said they are going to send me a replacement piece. Here is a pic of the piece that was damaged; a little chip came off the wing of the owl. I am not sure if the wing is supposed to be connected to the owl or if they are two separate pieces, so I am interested to see what they send me.
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.
Pile of piecesFirst two pieces put togetherWhimsy 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.
Session 1Session 2Session 3
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!
In So Many Words 