Puzzle Page

Puzzles!!

This is the puzzle that I have devoted 2 pages to. It is 24,000 pieces and
is the largest in the world. Yes, you read that correctly and it is not a typo.
It is a twenty four thousand piece puzzle. Before this one, the largest was
18,000. There are actually a few designs available of that one, one of
which was very tempting. The finished puzzle is 14 feet by 5 and 1/2 feet
and the pictures on the 2 pages follow my progress as I worked on it.

New York City - a little over 3,100 pieces, and is the largest 3-D puzzle. It took
me 6 days. Overall it is just under 40" long by 30" wide by about 18" high at
the tallest point (obviously the world trade towers). It is very hard to find now
(found again out of curiosity's sake in Jun '09) and the price has tripled since
I got it, I believe in '05, but I'm not positive.

Neuschwanstein Castle - just over 800
pieces. About 20" long by 15" wide by
13" high at the tallest tower. It also has
a battery operated lighting systwm
inside so that four of the rooms light up.

Most of the puzzles that I do are between 1000 and 1500 pieces, although I have done a couple 750 or 500
piece ones. It depends on the design. Almost all of my puzzles are of the big cats such as cougars, leopards,
etc. or of wolves, but there are a few other ones that are dragons or unicorns. Almost all of the 3-D ones I have
done are castles or monuments, but there is of course one of New York, a grandfather clock (that actually
works) and one of San Francisco that I just finished in '08. The pictures below are just a few of the ones that I
have, there are many that are not on here. Although some may be pictures of the actual finished puzzle and
some are pics off the website I got them from, every puzzle here I do have. There is no actual scale of the
pictures, some in reality are a lot bigger than others, some are smaller.

A few over 775
pieces, the clock
on top actually
works. It's about
8" long, 5" wide
and is almost 3
feet tall.

Notre Dame Cathedral - a little over 350 pieces; 7"
long, about 15" wide, almost 9" high.

A little over 600 pieces, Camelot Castle is one of my
favorites. It's about 15" long, 20" wide and about 10" high. I
have a 3-shelf display that it sits on. It's on the bottom shelf
and I have a bunch of dragon statues on the upper shelves.

This is only about 4"
in diameter and
took me 20 minutes
to do, but I only got it
cause it was cool.

Sistine Chapel - I don't remember how many pieces (it's not sold on the regular websites I go to anymore), I
think it's a few hundred. I got it in '03, I think. It's about 14" by 6" by about 8" high with the roof closed. The
cool thing about this one is that they are double-sided pieces and the roof part actually comes off so you can
see the ceiling design. It's really detailed considering how small a scale it is. I do remember that it only took
me a few hours to do. It was in college when I got it. It was after class but a few hours before my roommate /
friend, Nicci, and I were going to get dinner. I checked the mail and sat down on my bed to open the box. By
the time we were ready to get dinner, I had it finished, and Nicci looked at me with the funniest look. It was
hella funny 'cause even I didn't think I would finish it that fast.

Some of these puzzles are glow-in-the-dark such as these ones with
the unicorn and pegasus and the one with the unicorn in the moonlight.
The glow paint outlines the horses and the edge of the mountains and
columns. The trees and moon are also outlined, I believe.

This one is a photomosaic. It
was actually a little easier since
you know which way the pieces
are turned. It still took a little over
a week, though.

2 different views of my San Francisco one. Its a little over
1500 pieces and was completed January '08. Overall size is
about 23" width by 19" length. Aren't the little cable cars cute?

These are a couple
of my favorites and I
do actually have a
couple more
designs in this
style: the hidden
image. There are at
least 7 or 8 images
of the animal in
each puzzle. Some
will be hidden in the
trees or the rocks or
the clouds. I love
hunting for them.
The artists on these
were very creative.

I couldn't wait to finish the jaguar. The shaped puzzles are also some of my favorites. The picture of the jaguar one is
the actual finished puzzle, the others are off the websites. I finished the jaguar in Feb '09. I practically started working on
it as soon as I got it in the mail. It just amazes me sometimes how artistically they are able to show so many animals
and still have it look good. Seeing the jaguar in person is actually a little breathtaking (at least to me). It is so beautiful.

This puzzle above is the 1000 piece version of one of the 18,000 piece
puzzles. With some puzzles, they have 2 different sizes, usually its 300 and
1000 or its 500 and 1500 or 2000. This particular one was really tempting
to get in the 18,000 piece version, but I'm glad I got the smaller version. I
had enough of a problem finding a place for my 24,000 piece one. :)