1000 piece puzzle, "Le Clocher de Saint-Tropez" by Paul Signac, Blue Kazoo, USA.
Well, after my last puzzle I was wondering if I needed to change my glasses prescription, but I guess I still "have it," as this chaotically detailed puzzle flew by much faster than I was expecting.
These Blue Kazoo puzzles are remarkable. When I heard about the company a year ago, I admired their puzzles of the planets and outer space scenes, but was less excited about all of the travel poster and old advertisement images they were favoring at the time. So it's a revelation to see them branching out into fine art, and the three Signac puzzles they have dropped are impeccable. I hope that you can see from the photo just how high-resolution and perfect the print is. As I said earlier, the 2mm black board backing is the best card stock I've ever seen. With these kind of production values, it's about time that they ventured out into fine art reproductions instead of wasting their talent on travel posters and solid-color puzzles.
About every week they release a new puzzle, and for the most part sell direct to their customers rather than going through retailers. They have some Rousseau puzzles, as well as by Russian artist Alexej von Jawlensky, and more recently, a trio of circular puzzles featuring the work of Paul Klee.
While I try to refrain from hyping puzzle brands too much, I really believe that Blue Kazoo is the brand to pay attention to, far more than Art & Fable or Cloudberries or some of the other recent "indie" brands. What they are doing with their packaging, high-end materials and great web site, to me is near the level of Springbok founders Robert and Katie Lewin, who changed the puzzle game 60 years ago with their innovations.
For some reason - probably the flawless manufacture - I seem to blast through all of their puzzles very quickly, regardless of the image. This pointillist scene, I thought, would be a bit more of a challenge than my previous choices, but I got it completed in just over 3.5 hours, without ever looking at the box picture.
Completed in 3 hr., 33 mins. with no box reference. 1000 total pieces: 12.8 secs./piece; 281.7 pcs./hr. Difficulty rating: 1.3/10.
1000 piece puzzle, "Le Clocher de Saint-Tropez" by Paul Signac, Blue Kazoo, USA.
Well, after my last puzzle I was wondering if I needed to change my glasses prescription, but I guess I still "have it," as this chaotically detailed puzzle flew by much faster than I was expecting.
These Blue Kazoo puzzles are remarkable. When I heard about the company a year ago, I admired their puzzles of the planets and outer space scenes, but was less excited about all of the travel poster and old advertisement images they were favoring at the time. So it's a revelation to see them branching out into fine art, and the three Signac puzzles they have dropped are impeccable. I hope that you can see from the photo just how high-resolution and perfect the print is. As I said earlier, the 2mm black board backing is the best card stock I've ever seen. With these kind of production values, it's about time that they ventured out into fine art reproductions instead of wasting their talent on travel posters and solid-color puzzles.
About every week they release a new puzzle, and for the most part sell direct to their customers rather than going through retailers. They have some Rousseau puzzles, as well as by Russian artist Alexej von Jawlensky, and more recently, a trio of circular puzzles featuring the work of Paul Klee.
While I try to refrain from hyping puzzle brands too much, I really believe that Blue Kazoo is the brand to pay attention to, far more than Art & Fable or Cloudberries or some of the other recent "indie" brands. What they are doing with their packaging, high-end materials and great web site, to me is near the level of Springbok founders Robert and Katie Lewin, who changed the puzzle game 60 years ago with their innovations.
For some reason - probably the flawless manufacture - I seem to blast through all of their puzzles very quickly, regardless of the image. This pointillist scene, I thought, would be a bit more of a challenge than my previous choices, but I got it completed in just over 3.5 hours, without ever looking at the box picture.
Completed in 3 hr., 33 mins. with no box reference. 1000 total pieces: 12.8 secs./piece; 281.7 pcs./hr. Difficulty rating: 1.3/10.