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Post by workingclassdog on Jan 4, 2023 16:36:23 GMT
What is your process for doing puzzles? I have semi-recently started using those puzzle sorter trays, instead of putting all the pieces on the table. I get a little twitchy when the table is a mess due to all the puzzle pieces.
Since using the trays, I sort more than I used to. Trying to put 'like' pieces together when possible. If there are lots of faces, I put the faces together or bodies. If lots of words I first put any piece that have letters on it, then break it down to 'like' type pieces.
I always still do the outside first then work on the inside, usually picking the easiest section, depending on the puzzle.
After finishing, I started putting my initials on the box, cause I forget which ones sometimes I have put together...and write down if there are missing pieces..
I get puzzles from the thrift store which surprisingly usually if the box is retaped pretty good all the pieces are there. Sometimes from garage sales and brand new.
I HATE puzzles that have scenery on them.. like lots of trees or sky... (think those 1970s puzzles.. blech) or ones that are all the same color.. nope... I LOVE ones that have lots of color and individual stuff on them.. White Mountain is my favorite for those kind.
Then I either give them to friends who do puzzles, sell at a garage sale or donate to the thrift stores. 1,000 pieces are about my favorite. Less than that to quick, more than that to slow. Just depends on the puzzle too.
Oh and I hate cheaply made puzzles.. I will toss if I end up with one that is cheap.
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Post by scrapmaven on Jan 4, 2023 16:43:25 GMT
Rule #1: Looking at the box is cheating!!!!!! (Hello, my real name is puzzle snob!) My sil and I don't use the box. Though once in a while I do cheat if I'm truly stuck. I have a porta-puzzle thing. It's is like an art portfolio, but the sides fold out and there are two felt boards so that I can sort my pieces. Then I just close it up and store it when I'm not working on my puzzle.
I always do the boarder first and then I do the insides.
This isn't what I have, but it's very similar: Puzzle matI work on puzzles w/lots of bright colors, usually baked goods and sweets and I enjoy Aimee Stewart puzzles. |
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Post by workingclassdog on Jan 4, 2023 17:12:58 GMT
Rule #1: Looking at the box is cheating!!!!!! (Hello, my real name is puzzle snob!) My sil and I don't use the box. Though once in a while I do cheat if I'm truly stuck. I have a porta-puzzle thing. It's is like an art portfolio, but the sides fold out and there are two felt boards so that I can sort my pieces. Then I just close it up and store it when I'm not working on my puzzle.
I always do the boarder first and then I do the insides.
This isn't what I have, but it's very similar: Puzzle matI work on puzzles w/lots of bright colors, usually baked goods and sweets and I enjoy Aimee Stewart puzzles. Is the bottom felt where you assemble the puzzle? I have a roller up thing, but I don't like assembling the puzzle on the felt. I look at the box or picture... I am very slow as it is.. so any help for me is good. My daughter is a non looker most of the time. Aimee Stewart's puzzles are pretty! |
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Post by katlady on Jan 4, 2023 17:23:29 GMT
I sort the pieces by color/design/words. I do the edges first. Although I did one puzzle where the entire edge, and a few pieces in, was all black. I ended up doing the edge on that puzzle last. I just use old pie pans to sort my pieces. I don’t look at the cover. My friend thought I was crazy when I told her that.
I tend to like more artsy-fartsy type puzzles, like the ones I find at Barnes & Noble. I don’t care too much for landscapes. My mom loves Wysocki puzzles, which is generally not my style.
ETA - I work on a big piece of cardboard. I have two sheets so I can cover up the puzzle when I am not working on it. And I work on the dining room table. 1,000 pieces is usually my thing.
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Post by workingclassdog on Jan 4, 2023 17:27:43 GMT
I sort the pieces by color/design/words. I do the edges first. Although I did one puzzle were the entire edge, and a few pieces in, was all black. I ended up doing the edge on that puzzle last. I just use old pie pans to sort my pieces. I don’t look at the cover. My friend thought I was crazy when I told her that. I tend to like more artsy-fartsy type puzzles, like the ones I find at Barnes & Noble. I don’t care too much for landscapes. My mom loves Wysocki puzzles, which is generally not my style. ETA - I work on a big piece of cardboard. I have two sheets so I can cover up the puzzle when I am not working on it. And I work on the dining room table. 1,000 pieces is usually my thing. oh never thought of a big cardboard... good idea. I could even get one of those thicker posterboards at the dollar store. I have to look up Wysocki puzzles.. not sure if I have seen those or not. |
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Post by workingclassdog on Jan 4, 2023 17:35:00 GMT
I am currently working on a Michael Storring puzzle.. that one is challenging for me.. yikes. It's 1,000 pieces and I started it over a week ago and only 1/2 way done.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Jan 4, 2023 17:56:42 GMT
I’d love one of those puzzle boards with the drawers and almost bought one a few weeks ago. We don’t do enough puzzles to justify getting one. I don’t think I would like the kind that roll up. I found a few puzzles that have lake or cabin themes that I want to glue together and frame to use as decor at our cabin, so I only buy the ones I think will work for that ultimate purpose.
ETA: I like doing the outside edge frame first and then sort the pieces by color or type. The sign puzzles are fun because they have a lot of word pieces with different colors and fonts.
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maryannscraps
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,748
Aug 28, 2017 12:51:28 GMT
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Post by maryannscraps on Jan 4, 2023 19:48:11 GMT
My husband does the initial sort looking for edge pieces. He enjoys doing the edge so much that I let him do the whole thing. I usually work from the top down from the upside down position, but I put together chunks that I notice go together and then add them with a pancake flipper later. I love doing sky and clouds. I find it meditative to look for the gradations of color in the pieces. I don’t usually look at the box at all, but my husband does. He likes to pick out a piece and figure out where on the board it goes. We complement each other well.
We’ve just gotten back into them after a hiatus. I have a spinning puzzle board and a bunch of flat plastic jewelry trays for sorting.
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lesley
Drama Llama
My best friend Turriff, desperately missed.
Posts: 7,212 
Location: Scotland, Scotland, Scotland
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Post by lesley on Jan 4, 2023 20:50:11 GMT
I love heavily detailed jigsaws like those by Colin Thompson or Shelley Davies. I always look at the picture on the box - with the kind of images I enjoy, it would take months to do without a reference image. Ain't nobody got time for that! Also, with those kind of pictures, sorting isn’t particularly helpful, so after I’ve assembled the border, I just sift through the box pulling out pieces at random. I place them using the border to visualise rough ‘co-ordinates’. After I have a couple of hundred pieces scattered around (if its a 1000 pieces) then I go through the box looking at each piece in turn, and adding them to what I already have. It works for me!
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Post by workingclassdog on Jan 4, 2023 20:53:20 GMT
I love heavily detailed jigsaws like those by Colin Thompson or Shelley Davies. I always look at the picture on the box - with the kind of images I enjoy, it would take months to do without a reference image. Ain't nobody got time for that! Also, with those kind of pictures, sorting isn’t particularly helpful, so after I’ve assembled the border, I just sift through the box pulling out pieces at random. I place them using the border to visualise rough ‘co-ordinates’. After I have a couple of hundred pieces scattered around (if its a 1000 pieces) then I go through the box looking at each piece in turn, and adding them to what I already have. It works for me! Whoa.. I have not tried those puzzles... I love them, but not sure if I love them to work one.. haha... I think you would HAVE to have a picture to refer to! |
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Post by canadianlinda on Jan 4, 2023 21:00:20 GMT
For some reason , we only do 1000 piece Christmas puzzles. We start around the end of October. I always sort the puzzle and pick out the edge pieces and put them together. My Husband then does the majority of the inside pieces and I put a few pieces in when I feel like it 😊. I look at the picture on the box but he tends not to.
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Post by heckofagal on Jan 4, 2023 21:44:15 GMT
I typically do the border first and then look for clusters from the middle that I enjoy putting together. Although one of the puzzles I did recently it was hard to determine which edge piece went where so some of the edge had to wait until I filled in some of the mid pieces. I have a large piece of black coroplast that a place on top of a folding table that we put in the living room. The folding table itself has too much padding and was not a good surface, and if I need to break the table down for some reason I can move the coroplast elsewhere and remove the table. And I typically stick to 1000 piece puzzles but will buy a lesser piece one if I enjoy the picture. I like to stick to whatever theme of the year we are in, did Christmas Cookies in Christmas week, then a snowman scene. Now I'm ready for winter to be over so my most recent was a beach scene. I need to put the puzzles away for a bit as I need to get back to working on home remodel projects and other productive things.
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Post by auntiepeas on Jan 4, 2023 22:20:44 GMT
I like quite a few different types of puzzles, and will tend to use different strategies to suit for completing them, but always start with sorting the pieces just to find and complete the outer edge. For years I just used our dining table, then later I tried a rollable piece of felt on the table top, and finally I bought a puzzle tray. It’s been a game changer and I wouldn’t be without it now.  My favourite puzzles to do are by Jan van Haasteren and I have 5 waiting to be done at the moment. I tend to mix it up between 500 and 1000 pieces depending on my mood and the time I want to spend - the puzzle tray makes it easy to pick up and put down again across a few days but my attention tends to wander after that so I haven’t bothered tackling anything with more than 1,000 pieces. I don’t sort the pieces for this style of puzzle, beyond finding the edges, but just divide them fairly evenly across the four drawers and then I look for features (faces, clothing, windows or furnishings etc) that jump out at me. I do a lot of comparing with the image to work out placement. I love that there are so many little details which reward connecting as few as two pieces together, so it’s fun the entire time. I also like the quality of Ravensburger puzzles and have this one waiting to be done. With these ones I do tend to sort by colour and will often wind up further sorting by shape. For a change of pace I’ve also got this puzzle (love that it comes with a cotton drawstring bag for storage as well) and this one which I’m looking forward to trying. I’m not big on doing the same puzzle twice so I tend to donate them to an op shop afterwards and I’ve been known to pick up the odd random retro one (like in the photo) while I’m there. ☺️ |
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Post by workingclassdog on Jan 4, 2023 22:24:42 GMT
I like quite a few different types of puzzles, and will tend to use different strategies to suit for completing them, but always start with sorting the pieces just to find and complete the outer edge. For years I just used our dining table, then later I tried a rollable piece of felt on the table top, and finally I bought a puzzle tray. It’s been a game changer and I wouldn’t be without it now. My favourite puzzles to do are by Jan van Haasteren and I have 5 waiting to be done at the moment. I tend to mix it up between 500 and 1000 pieces depending on my mood and the time I want to spend - the puzzle tray makes it easy to pick up and put down again across a few days but my attention tends to wander after that so I haven’t bothered tackling anything with more than 1,000 pieces. I don’t sort the pieces for this style of puzzle, beyond finding the edges, but just divide them fairly evenly across the four drawers and then I look for features (faces, clothing, windows or furnishings etc) that jump out at me. I do a lot of comparing with the image to work out placement. I love that there are so many little details which reward connecting as few as two pieces together, so it’s fun the entire time. I also like the quality of Ravensburger puzzles and have this one waiting to be done. With these ones I do tend to sort by colour and will often wind up further sorting by shape. For a change of pace I’ve also got this puzzle (love that it comes with a cotton drawstring bag for storage as well) and this one which I’m looking forward to trying. I’m not big on doing the same puzzle twice so I tend to donate them to an op shop afterwards and I’ve been known to pick up the odd random retro one (like in the photo) while I’m there. ☺️ I LOVE LOVE that New Zealand postcard one.. that is beautiful! I have been thinking about this puzzle tray.. I feel I will be owning this one sooner or later. |
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Post by librarylady on Jan 5, 2023 1:01:39 GMT
I had never done a jigsaw puzzle until about 10 years ago. My childhood family had too many members and barely any space so a jigsaw puzzle would have been impossible.
DH introduced me to jigsaw puzzles. He is a whiz at them.
We begin by doing the border and then the interior of the puzzle. We usually work on distinctive parts and then add them to the appropriate place in the puzzle. Sometimes I work by beginning on a place in the border and expanding it.
I once worked a circular puzzle and was not fond of that.
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