(*See the first one here and here.)
This one is the city of Prague (serendipitously, where I am now published by those wonderful people at Mystery Press. I wonder where my publisher’s building is on this puzzle. Hmmm…I might have to go find out in person.).
It took us two weeks to to piece it together, and then we let it sit around for another five days so we could admire it. I took it apart this morning, trying not to go into flat out mourning, but we need the table for dinner with guests tonight.
The process of deconstruction reminded me yet again how finely crafted these puzzles are, and how amazingly imaginative their designers are. It takes time to take the pieces apart because they are so well made they fit together so well they don’t want to come apart again. It’s not only the larger puzzle, either–it’s the smaller puzzles within the larger puzzle that either you see right away or (more likely) are revealed to you when you finally manage to assemble the pieces around them. Take these.
None of those are one piece, allow me to point out (the horse is ten! I think.), and few of them when they are separated look anything at all like what they become after you put them together. And of course the back side of them may or may not have anything to do with the front or illustration side. (One of us muttered more than once that the designer was a sadist.)
What Liberty calls their “whimsey” pieces are many, with some relating to what the puzzle is and…some not. Prague is a city, so there are a whole lot of people.
And don’t imagine for one moment it will be obvious where any of them go. In case you thought they were going easy on you with large pieces.
Although…sometimes they do. Because all the cloud pieces go in the sky. Along with the angels. But only one kind of the birds. Just to keep you on your toes.
There are weird pieces you think will never fit anywhere, and wouldn’t in a sane puzzle. There are flowers and butterflies. There are gear wheels.
And…
I mean…calipers.
Full disclosure? I’ve already ordered my next puzzle.