When puzzling brings out another dimension

Last time we put together a puzzle with a 3D picture. This time Shravani brought an actual 3D puzzle for Shravya.

I remembered when we were little, we had few books having pieces to build a house and a garden around. Shravya has built similar 3D house using foam pieces.

However this new puzzle is the tower of Burj Khalifa, the famous building from Dubai. The puzzle is actually for children around 8 yrs, so Shravya wasn't engaged enough to build it. I and my mother on the other hand were happy to build a new type of puzzle :)

Vital stats

Pieces : 43

Time to build : Less than an hour

Puzzle : 3D

3D picture puzzles can be a pain in the neck !

A few weeks back I saw a 3D picture puzzle that my nephew had. Having seen such a 3D puzzle for the first time I was hooked ! I borrowed it from him and last week finally started putting it together. 

The puzzle is quite interesting and challenging and my family ended up playing with it whenever they could. They spending as much time as they did is a surprise in itself :)

Vital stats 

Pieces : 500

Time taken to complete : 4-5 days

Puzzle picture : 3D

At the start I thought we would have to look at the picture very closely to put the pieces together. I sorted the pieces with obvious colour differences.  However, as we worked on the puzzle edge, we realised that the pieces had so many colors and shades which couldn't be seen at a first glance. I actually ended up looking at the pieces from various angles before I could decide where a piece might fit. 

Due to lesser pieces in green trees and yellow of the Tiger's face, the picture started appearing quite quickly. For the rest, I had to sort the pieces by shape. Once that was done, we could complete the rest in just 2 days.

This 3D Tiger puzzle taught me that the 3D puzzles can be a pain in the neck 🐯!!

If anyone interested, Amazon has a few such 3D picture puzzles from National Geographic.

Despite the challenges of 3D picture and different color shades that you can see depending on the angle you look from, this is still the fastest puzzle we have put together so far.

Westminster Sunset

This one is an amazing painting by the artist Dominic Davison, converted into a puzzle. 

The scene is colorful and a bit challenging to put together for the same reason :) My mother completed almost entire puzzle single handedly. 

A beautiful, refreshing view of the sky with the reflections captured are amazing to look at. The bridges and transport vehicles, such less number of vehicles on the road remind me of my city, a few years back. It feels so laid back and peaceful to look at the scene. 

Vital stats 

Pieces : 1000

Time to complete : Less than a week

CLIK puzzle 4

 Considering the response to my last blog, I had given feedback to CLIK. They have changed the puzzle format a bit more. 

Hope you enjoy it. :)

Here is the Puzzle 4

Post your answers in comments, as explained in my last blog. 

And then check the solution here.

Online Jigsaw puzzles

Since my last blog, things have drastically changed again. Everyone is feeling a lot of stress due to the Covid situation around and one has to have some way to relax a little bit.

CLIK, the puzzle room has proven that 'Where there is a will, there is a way !'. They have come up with a way to keep providing puzzles which can be solved by anyone anywhere anytime. 

Cheerful Puzzles, Cheerful moments

One of my grandmothers Suman aji had given me a puzzle with picture of Fireworks when she came to meet my daughter for the first time.
It's a beautiful, colourful puzzle. 

Vital stats
Pieces : 500
Time to complete : Few days

An opportunity for puzzle enthusiasts

At the beginning of Jan 2021, I heard of a new venture being started in Pune for jigsaw puzzle lovers - CLIK, the puzzle room. It's a club where one can join with small fee and enjoy playing with a variety of puzzles, on Saturdays.

The majestic castles

Sometime between 2015-2016, Shravani got a new puzzle. Knowing that we loved to play with puzzles and frame them, she had got one for her house :D.
It is Le Mont Saint Michel castle, Normandy, France with an amazing reflection of it. It was challenging due to many yet alike colours.

A few more puzzles

A few puzzles, full of colours and shades, making them quite interesting and challenging. 

Remembering Harshad

When you loose any piece of a jigsaw puzzle, its place keeps reminding of that irreplaceable piece which once made that puzzle perfect. Even though you feel sad as you know you cant get that lost piece back, but the place still keeps reminding you of the times when everything was as great as possible.

At the start of 2015, it felt like a good idea to have a puzzle made of Harshad's photos. 

The most memorable puzzle

It was probably a year after the last puzzle. So I wanted a new & great puzzle! We got a beautiful sunrise with mind blowing plateau and bright blue skies which can make anyone happier just in a glance.
This was probably the fastest puzzle we put together in September - October 2014. And it is the most memorable and favourite puzzle of mine, for quite many reasons...

Puzzle Vital Stats

Pieces : 1000

Time taken to complete : Less than a month

Latest puzzles

This year in July, one of my aunts was going to come in India from USA. Harshad searched for a nice puzzle with a scene of a beach, coconut trees, brilliant blue sea and asked my aunt to get it for us.. 

Because I got married last year and not living with my parents anymore :( I could not go at home to play with puzzle very often. Somehow Harshad and my father became very busy and only my mother had some time to play with it. After a month or so, I started going at home frequently and together we progressed much more than before. In few more days, my father, Harshad and Parth joined us.

 

Few fantastic landscapes..

Another puzzle, showing scenery of a jungle with trees showing fall colors, came few years later in 2007. It was again a gift from one of my grandmothers. It was a bright, beautiful picture. It took us quite a while since there were lot many colors and same colors at many places. After it was done, we didnt know where to hang that one. Few days before we finished it, my grandparents had moved in their new home, so we decided to give this puzzle frame as a gift for the new house.

Few more puzzles

When people see that dog puzzle, they can never believe that it’s a jigsaw puzzle. They always appreciate the picture and once they hear that it’s a puzzle, they are always amazed. And then we take their amazement as an opportunity to show them all other puzzles we have done till date and see them wonder how could we do so many of these... :)

Puzzle Vital Stats  

Pieces : 1000

Moving to bigger puzzles :)

When we moved in our new house in August 2002, we wanted to do another big puzzle soon. It had been few years since our 1st puzzle. In that Diwali, my mother and Harshad had gone for some diwali gift shopping in ‘Khelia’. This shop was our favourite cause it always provided some brain storming games for all age groups rather than only dolls and such toys. The shop had some puzzles but they didnt keep any bigger puzzles due to less demand. Then they had gone to ‘Popular Book House’ for further shopping. The Popular had a catalogue of puzzle pictures, from which any picture could be ordered. My mom and Harshad found this picture of a gorgeous alsatian dog sitting on a lawn. They liked it and bought it immediately.

My First Puzzles...

I dont really remember when I did my first jigsaw puzzle. I only remember the puzzle I had. It was my favourite.  It had a picture of 2 cats sitting on a pile of wool, looking forward to play with the balls of wool. It had 63 pieces in all. I guess I was 5-6 at that time and we did not use to get such big puzzles for kids, in India. One of my grandmothers had bought it for me from USA.

Around the same time I had another puzzle which had a picture of a hot air balloon with 2 bunnies in it. A few other animals, gathered below near a house to see off those 2 bunnies. This had 60 pieces. This puzzle had many colors in it, so I guess it may have been a challange for me at that time..

How we started “Puzzling”

A few months back when my parents, Harshad (my brother) and myself were playing with a new jigsaw puzzle , my husband Parth had come over to join in. Knowing our family’s interest in puzzles, he started nagging me to write a puzzle blog. We started taking pictures of the puzzle as we progressed... and finally, I decided to give it shot and write something...

How we started “Puzzling”

In 1996-97 when I was around 13 years old, my mother’s friend Sadhana mavshi who had came back from a USA trip, gave us a jigsaw puzzle as a gift. It was a scene having snow clad peaks, below which there were trees showing fall colors having 1000 pieces. We were very excited about the puzzle as we had never solved such a large one till now..