The story behind this relatively early impressionist painting, my review of the Artifact puzzle that uses its image, and a walkthrough of my assembly (about 3600 words; 28 photos)
Well, Bill, in the year or so since you've become an aficionado of these remarkable wooden puzzles, I have learned quite a lot. I myself am mostly still motivated to assemble cardboard puzzles of only medium complexity when I feel like relaxing with a jigsaw puzzle, but I do admire your research and the very close attention you pay to the assembly and analyses of your wooden puzzles. The way you have shown today how one can build trefoils and get small special pieces to combine into a further special outline (e.g., lamp on a table) within a completed puzzle really does impress me. It seems the puzzles you present to us have not only visual appeal, but also "plot." I don't know a lot about Monet, by the way, but I did order one of the Great Courses from The Teaching Company about Impressionist painters, so I may soon know more about Monet. Studying those courses on DVD is one of my devoted interests/hobbies. Thanks for all your work!
Thanks for the interesting article Bill, I learned a few new things! One minor correction is that we do make both our lines of puzzles (Artifact - glossy images, and Ecru - matte images) at both our workshops now (Fremont CA, and Port Townsend WA). Also, it pains me to see how bad the back of our puzzles look, but we just haven't been able to find a good way to keep the backs beautiful without really increasing costs, and our assumption is 99% of puzzling is with the image face-up, so that's what we focus on, but I agree it would be nice if we could prettify our puzzle backs too, we'll keep R&D'ing that! -Maya (Owner, Artifact Puzzles)
Well, Bill, in the year or so since you've become an aficionado of these remarkable wooden puzzles, I have learned quite a lot. I myself am mostly still motivated to assemble cardboard puzzles of only medium complexity when I feel like relaxing with a jigsaw puzzle, but I do admire your research and the very close attention you pay to the assembly and analyses of your wooden puzzles. The way you have shown today how one can build trefoils and get small special pieces to combine into a further special outline (e.g., lamp on a table) within a completed puzzle really does impress me. It seems the puzzles you present to us have not only visual appeal, but also "plot." I don't know a lot about Monet, by the way, but I did order one of the Great Courses from The Teaching Company about Impressionist painters, so I may soon know more about Monet. Studying those courses on DVD is one of my devoted interests/hobbies. Thanks for all your work!
Thanks for the interesting article Bill, I learned a few new things! One minor correction is that we do make both our lines of puzzles (Artifact - glossy images, and Ecru - matte images) at both our workshops now (Fremont CA, and Port Townsend WA). Also, it pains me to see how bad the back of our puzzles look, but we just haven't been able to find a good way to keep the backs beautiful without really increasing costs, and our assumption is 99% of puzzling is with the image face-up, so that's what we focus on, but I agree it would be nice if we could prettify our puzzle backs too, we'll keep R&D'ing that! -Maya (Owner, Artifact Puzzles)