The beautiful Owl in this puzzle was painted by the late K. Chin. For other K. Chin prints see: K. Chin - Prints

This is the first puzzle I've cut with an irregular boundary. The area surrounding the owl was a uniform white, and I thought the puzzle would be more interesting if I cut the Owl out. The Owl is printed on paper thicker than I've encounter before, having a soft surface. After I finished cutting the Owl puzzle, I applied a fixative to strengthen the paper against wear, provide UV protection and repel moisture - worked out well.

This is one of my best puzzles. The owl image is a perfect "puzzle picture" - lots of little things going on to keep one interested, but hard enough to keep one "puzzled". I also cut it very well, another really fine "Swirl Curl" puzzle. I have a real appreciation for K. Chin as an artist - I'll be featuring his work for a long time.

Significant milestone: First puzzle with irregular boundaries.

As it happened (from my Journal archives)

August 3, 2000

Evening: Started puzzle #32, K. Chin's Large King Owl. A picture of the Owl print is in the Art Gallery's K. Chin section. I cut the Owl's outline and did very little interior work. The way the Owl is painted makes it hard to see the blade, I can't recall any other picture having this effect. The puzzle will be in the shape of the Owl, (Swirl Curl style). Someone said "Oh wow!" when they saw the outline of the Owl, that was nice. I will make a decision by this weekend as to whether or not this will be the August eBay puzzle - after I see how the thick paper holds up to the constant handling while cutting. The Owl will have three figurals (Unicorn Head, Owl, and Swirl Star).

August 4, 2000

Late evening - Felt much better later in the day and worked on the Owl again - now more than half way through. Something about the pattern of the bird feathers makes it harder to follow the blade than usual. The paper is holding up well - but I'm going to look into methods of fortifying the paper - still undecided if I 'll post it on eBay.

August 5, 2000

The owl is done, except for sanding - and yes, it is good enough for eBay. I found and tested a fixative for the paper and then applied it to the completed puzzle - made the very porous surface water resistant, UV protected, and as a bonus helped bring out the colors a little as they were a bit on the light side. I'll have a picture and description up either Sunday or Monday along with a staging announcement for the Auction which will begin on Friday August 11th, late afternoon Pacific Time on eBay.