I’ve also picked up a number of wooden jigsaw puzzles by non-Stave crafters and artists. This puzzle entitled “Fall by the Wayside” was painted, designed, and cut by Andrea Farnham of Thingamajigsaw.
I have done a number of Andrea’s puzzles and she has both excellent artistic talent and a lot of smarts about how to design and cut a puzzle. My favorite puzzle ever is an Andrea Farnham, “Time Traveller”.
“Fall by the Wayside” is a a traditional puzzle with a circular shape and irregular pieces.
This is a three-bolt trick puzzle from Stave. The catalog picture shows the wrong solution as do I here…
This to me was a trick puzzle that did not quite merit the three-bolt rank, at least by the time I received it, I found it easy to find the solution…
This is a very unique custom jigsaw puzzle made by Dee Rogers (Platinum Puzzles) from a photograph I took at Macchu Picchu. Dee took a huge print of my photograph and turned in into a multi-later, 3-Dee masterpiece:
This is to my mind the Stave teaser puzzle that was a precursor to the current line of troublemaker puzzles. This puzzle is entitled “What a Gem“. Putting it together reminded me a bit of playing Tetris. Skill at that, pluckiness, and some post it notes to hold pieces together while I worked helped this puzzle come together.
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Here are some more examples of Stave jigsaw puzzles I’ve worked on. These give a sense of why the puzzles are so mentally engaging. Shown are “State of Mind”, “Riding High”, “Hail Columbus”, and 1 of 4 configurations for “Cabbie … Continue reading
I’ve always loved jigsaw puzzles since I was a young kid. I first learned about Stave’s wooden jigsaw puzzles in 2004 by reading about Stave in a United’s Hemispheres magazine. Immediately the concept hooked me, when I landed, I checked the website and fell over looking at the price. I eventually got over the price thanks to a generous gift of my first Stave puzzle from my brother. That led me to realize just how fun a jigsaw puzzle targeted for adults could be. What with pieces that go together in all different ways… Some going in more than one place…
Fast forward to 2009 and Palace of Pranks became one of the first trick puzzles I would attempt. A trick puzzle is a puzzle where some pieces fit in multiple locations.
Let’s take a look at the catalog picture, you get a small sense of what it is in store:
Those “black” looking pieces are actually blue, see-through plastic that make a moat at the base of the castle. Because they are see-through, it is next to impossible to tell which side is up vs. down. Further you might notice that things like the worms are in the way of where the moat needs to be. Uh oh… That is a hint to the first trick.
When you get a Stave trick puzzle they come with a “biscuit”, or tableau, that explains the objective:
Note beyond this point I have “spoilers” about how to solve the puzzle. If you are planning to buy the puzzle and want it to be a surprise, stop reading now.