Jigsaw Puzzling
May. 13th, 2012 10:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moominmuppetI don't expect most folks to be at all interested, but I feel like geeking about it anyway. Pulled into a separate post for ease of skippage.
First of all, I've been surprised to find how much posting pics of my puzzle-in-progress and completed puzzle adds to my overall enjoyment of the process. Nifty. Given that I take the puzzles apart and rebox them, often minutes after completing them, this gives some sense of permanence to the feeling of accomplishment. Or something. Whatever. Good use for FB, though.
I go through phases with jigsaw puzzles; either I am not doing them at all, or I'm doing them obsessively (like almost everything else in my life). In the past few weeks I've gone through half a dozen. As I often say to people, they're a good outlet for my obsessive side: turning chaos into order with the added bonus of pretty colors. I find it semi-meditative and calming, and a good accompaniment to TV or conversation (I'm a twitchy, twiddly person, and anything to do with my hands is good; it's a lot of why I've had such a hell of a time trying to quit smoking over the years).
I started doing jigsaw puzzles because Mom always did them, and there was often one in progress on a table in our house. I still inherit most of my puzzles from her; once she's finished she saves them for me and I collect them next time we get together (usually once or twice a year, so I come home with a big haul). At this point I'd very roughly guess I have about a hundred or so. This does mean I get a few more cute bunnies and lovely pastoral scenes than I would personally choose, but our tastes aren't too horribly divergent, and it's the process more than the image that I enjoy anyway.
Speaking of which, the process is very dependent on a number of factors, and I've been thinking about how to reliably document that. I've decided I'd like to start cataloging my puzzles as I do them. That way I'd know which have missing pieces, which are too big for my portapuzzle, which are maddeningly frustrating, etc. More importantly, I'd start collecting more info about which puzzle companies make the puzzles I like best, so I have an easier time finding more in the future. Puzzle sites and puzzle boxes themselves rarely clarify the types of pieces in a puzzle, but that's one of the biggest elements of the enjoyment for me, so it matters a lot. As I was trying to come up with appropriate language, I did some googling to see what lingo already existed, and found a few interesting links:
Glossary of Jigsaw Puzzle Terms
Wikipedia: Jigsaw puzzle
I find the terms for piece types and the explanation of common strategies really fascinating. I've noticed my strategies shift a lot depending on the particulars of the puzzle I'm working at the time.
I still didn't find most of what I'm trying to describe, so I went ahead and made up my own terminology to use. Here are the cataloging attempts for my recent puzzles:
Basically, I've decided on the following format:
Title/Name
Manufacturer
Size
Piece Count
Border Shape
Border Continuity
Puzzle Layout
Piece Shape
Piece Size
Difficulty
Notes/Special Features
Before those of you who know me well even ask, yes, this is in a spreadsheet. I'm incorrigible.
Explanations on some of the categories:
Border Shape: Standard Rectangle, Standard Ovoid, Shaped Puzzle
Border Continuity: Fully Interlocking or Not Fully Interlocking
Puzzle Layout: Most puzzles are a Basic Grid, when all's said and done. Some are a Modified Grid, with sections that get weird, but the majority in grid form. A few (and some of my favorites) are essentially Random.
Piece Shape: I consider the most "Basic" piece shape to be the traditional "two tabs opposite each other" that we tend to imagine as a default. Some puzzles have nothing but these (and are damned hard as a result!) Most, though, have what I'm calling "Standard Varied" shapes -- they're still basically meant to fit within a grid, and have four sides with pretty clear innies and outies in various combinations. That leads to six basic piece shapes, if I'm counting correctly. When I'm working with these kinds of puzzles I tend to sort them first by basic piece shape. Then there are puzzles with "Unusual Varied" pieces that don't fit this basic format, and puzzles with some "Representational" pieces (known as Whimsies in the puzzling world)
Piece Size: Tiny pieces make for rough puzzling, regardless of the number of pieces total. Big pieces eat all the space on the board, and often produce puzzles that won't fit my puzzleboard. It's all about a happy medium (that phrase always takes me back to A Wrinkle in Time)
Difficulty: This one's my own subjective opinion, but it's based on how the combination of the puzzle cut and the puzzle image work together in terms of challenge. A puzzle with a bunch of what I think of as "color fields" that don't repeat is much easier than one in which the same color appears in different contexts all over the place. A puzzle with clear edges and lines is easier.
Notes/Special Features: Whether it fits my puzzleboard, other random stuff. And if the puzzle is one that has nifty extra bonus stuff, like lenticular images, secret images, glow-in-the-dark, etc. I'm still very sad that I lost all my Harry Potter secret image puzzles. Those were nifty and fun (they came with a little viewer you could use to find them after you assembled the puzzle).
Anyway, here are a few of my recent puzzles, notated this way:
The puzzle I'm currently working:
Chinese Zodiac
SunsOut
26x26
1000
Standard rectangle
fully interlocking
Basic grid
Standard varied pieces
Large
Easy
Too big for portapuzzle
Watching the Cats
Ceaco
16x20
500
Standard rectangle
fully interlocking
Basic grid
Standard varied pieces
Medium
Easy
soft touch (felted antislip back)
Doctor Who Exploding TARDIS
Culturnik
20x27
1000
Standard rectangle
fully interlocking
Basic grid
Few Standard Varied pieces, largely Basic.
Medium
Very hard due to lack of lines/edges or color centers
Spirit of Medicine Lake
Vibrant Vistas
Great American Puzzle Factory
24x18
550
Standard rectangle
fully interlocking
Not grid-based
Highly varied unusual pieces
Medium
Medium
Really enjoyable
Boletta
(To see the puzzle without the extraneous cat)
Ceaco
16x20
500
Standard rectangle
fully interlocking
Modified grid
Mostly standard variable with some unusual
Medium
Easy
Sunflower (images below)
Paper house productions
16x17
500
Shaped border
Not fully interlocking
Modified grid
Standard variable, unusual, and representative shapes
Small, some extremely so.
Hard due to solid colors, small piece size, and border.
Earlier this week: Waiting out another migraine. I like the island of misfit pieces on the upper left. This is progress since this morning (and my awesome puzzleboard that allows puzzles and pets and hippies to coexist.)
The entire timeline of the Sunflower puzzle (which was hard as hell!):
Progress!
And more
Getting close.
Completion...
...and Entropy
FYI, I have the Portapuzzle 1500, their largest size. It still can't handle some large 1000 piece and shaped puzzles, unfortunately, but it's the best tool I've found yet. It's not 100% sealed, so with enough bumping pieces could slide out. For the same reason, it's not best to store it on end; it'll mostly hold things in place, but not always completely. Still, it's a breeze to close up when I step away for a minute and don't want to worry about critter damage while I'm gone. I can easily carry it upstairs mid-puzzle if I want to relocate within the house. And I can stash it in all sorts of places. It's allowed me to go back to doing jigsaws after years of not doing them because of critter interference.
OK, that's more than enough puzzle rambling. My other obsession today? Audible. Post about that coming up.
First of all, I've been surprised to find how much posting pics of my puzzle-in-progress and completed puzzle adds to my overall enjoyment of the process. Nifty. Given that I take the puzzles apart and rebox them, often minutes after completing them, this gives some sense of permanence to the feeling of accomplishment. Or something. Whatever. Good use for FB, though.
I go through phases with jigsaw puzzles; either I am not doing them at all, or I'm doing them obsessively (like almost everything else in my life). In the past few weeks I've gone through half a dozen. As I often say to people, they're a good outlet for my obsessive side: turning chaos into order with the added bonus of pretty colors. I find it semi-meditative and calming, and a good accompaniment to TV or conversation (I'm a twitchy, twiddly person, and anything to do with my hands is good; it's a lot of why I've had such a hell of a time trying to quit smoking over the years).
I started doing jigsaw puzzles because Mom always did them, and there was often one in progress on a table in our house. I still inherit most of my puzzles from her; once she's finished she saves them for me and I collect them next time we get together (usually once or twice a year, so I come home with a big haul). At this point I'd very roughly guess I have about a hundred or so. This does mean I get a few more cute bunnies and lovely pastoral scenes than I would personally choose, but our tastes aren't too horribly divergent, and it's the process more than the image that I enjoy anyway.
Speaking of which, the process is very dependent on a number of factors, and I've been thinking about how to reliably document that. I've decided I'd like to start cataloging my puzzles as I do them. That way I'd know which have missing pieces, which are too big for my portapuzzle, which are maddeningly frustrating, etc. More importantly, I'd start collecting more info about which puzzle companies make the puzzles I like best, so I have an easier time finding more in the future. Puzzle sites and puzzle boxes themselves rarely clarify the types of pieces in a puzzle, but that's one of the biggest elements of the enjoyment for me, so it matters a lot. As I was trying to come up with appropriate language, I did some googling to see what lingo already existed, and found a few interesting links:
Glossary of Jigsaw Puzzle Terms
Wikipedia: Jigsaw puzzle
I find the terms for piece types and the explanation of common strategies really fascinating. I've noticed my strategies shift a lot depending on the particulars of the puzzle I'm working at the time.
I still didn't find most of what I'm trying to describe, so I went ahead and made up my own terminology to use. Here are the cataloging attempts for my recent puzzles:
Basically, I've decided on the following format:
Title/Name
Manufacturer
Size
Piece Count
Border Shape
Border Continuity
Puzzle Layout
Piece Shape
Piece Size
Difficulty
Notes/Special Features
Before those of you who know me well even ask, yes, this is in a spreadsheet. I'm incorrigible.
Explanations on some of the categories:
Border Shape: Standard Rectangle, Standard Ovoid, Shaped Puzzle
Border Continuity: Fully Interlocking or Not Fully Interlocking
Puzzle Layout: Most puzzles are a Basic Grid, when all's said and done. Some are a Modified Grid, with sections that get weird, but the majority in grid form. A few (and some of my favorites) are essentially Random.
Piece Shape: I consider the most "Basic" piece shape to be the traditional "two tabs opposite each other" that we tend to imagine as a default. Some puzzles have nothing but these (and are damned hard as a result!) Most, though, have what I'm calling "Standard Varied" shapes -- they're still basically meant to fit within a grid, and have four sides with pretty clear innies and outies in various combinations. That leads to six basic piece shapes, if I'm counting correctly. When I'm working with these kinds of puzzles I tend to sort them first by basic piece shape. Then there are puzzles with "Unusual Varied" pieces that don't fit this basic format, and puzzles with some "Representational" pieces (known as Whimsies in the puzzling world)
Piece Size: Tiny pieces make for rough puzzling, regardless of the number of pieces total. Big pieces eat all the space on the board, and often produce puzzles that won't fit my puzzleboard. It's all about a happy medium (that phrase always takes me back to A Wrinkle in Time)
Difficulty: This one's my own subjective opinion, but it's based on how the combination of the puzzle cut and the puzzle image work together in terms of challenge. A puzzle with a bunch of what I think of as "color fields" that don't repeat is much easier than one in which the same color appears in different contexts all over the place. A puzzle with clear edges and lines is easier.
Notes/Special Features: Whether it fits my puzzleboard, other random stuff. And if the puzzle is one that has nifty extra bonus stuff, like lenticular images, secret images, glow-in-the-dark, etc. I'm still very sad that I lost all my Harry Potter secret image puzzles. Those were nifty and fun (they came with a little viewer you could use to find them after you assembled the puzzle).
Anyway, here are a few of my recent puzzles, notated this way:
The puzzle I'm currently working:
Chinese Zodiac
SunsOut
26x26
1000
Standard rectangle
fully interlocking
Basic grid
Standard varied pieces
Large
Easy
Too big for portapuzzle
Watching the Cats
Ceaco
16x20
500
Standard rectangle
fully interlocking
Basic grid
Standard varied pieces
Medium
Easy
soft touch (felted antislip back)
Doctor Who Exploding TARDIS
Culturnik
20x27
1000
Standard rectangle
fully interlocking
Basic grid
Few Standard Varied pieces, largely Basic.
Medium
Very hard due to lack of lines/edges or color centers
Spirit of Medicine Lake
Vibrant Vistas
Great American Puzzle Factory
24x18
550
Standard rectangle
fully interlocking
Not grid-based
Highly varied unusual pieces
Medium
Medium
Really enjoyable
Boletta
(To see the puzzle without the extraneous cat)
Ceaco
16x20
500
Standard rectangle
fully interlocking
Modified grid
Mostly standard variable with some unusual
Medium
Easy
Sunflower (images below)
Paper house productions
16x17
500
Shaped border
Not fully interlocking
Modified grid
Standard variable, unusual, and representative shapes
Small, some extremely so.
Hard due to solid colors, small piece size, and border.
Earlier this week: Waiting out another migraine. I like the island of misfit pieces on the upper left. This is progress since this morning (and my awesome puzzleboard that allows puzzles and pets and hippies to coexist.)
The entire timeline of the Sunflower puzzle (which was hard as hell!):
Progress!
And more
Getting close.
Completion...
...and Entropy
FYI, I have the Portapuzzle 1500, their largest size. It still can't handle some large 1000 piece and shaped puzzles, unfortunately, but it's the best tool I've found yet. It's not 100% sealed, so with enough bumping pieces could slide out. For the same reason, it's not best to store it on end; it'll mostly hold things in place, but not always completely. Still, it's a breeze to close up when I step away for a minute and don't want to worry about critter damage while I'm gone. I can easily carry it upstairs mid-puzzle if I want to relocate within the house. And I can stash it in all sorts of places. It's allowed me to go back to doing jigsaws after years of not doing them because of critter interference.
OK, that's more than enough puzzle rambling. My other obsession today? Audible. Post about that coming up.
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no subject
Date: 2012-05-14 04:22 am (UTC)Spreadsheets are fun, especially for things I like that have multiple characteristics I'd like to look at more closely.
no subject
Date: 2012-05-15 01:06 am (UTC)I'm finding it's changing how I'm thinking about the puzzles, and giving me language to use, even inside my own head, is helpfully clarifying.