Puzzle #625, The Last Supper, by Salvador Dali, is one of my most spectacular Creative style puzzles. I cut around four large puzzles in my Creative style each year. Cutting puzzles like these can be a grueling experience, requiring tremendous patience. Cutting can take a week, this one dragged on for 10 days!

As it happened (from my Journal archives)

July 27, 2005

8:40 am - I prepared the board for The Last Supper and mounted it this morning. I still need to design the border and decide on the figural set. Cutting will start early tomorrow morning.

July 29, 2005

4:23 pm - Dog days of summer. The pace of the Dali puzzle will be slower than previously mentioned. Creative style puzzles take more concentration. I did complete the initial cutting and also completed the border today. The border took around four hours to cut: triangles protruding from a straight edge with knobs on the ends, 104 triangle / knobs total. I will have photos of the puzzle here when completed.

12:19 am - Yesterday [July 28] I designed the border for Dali's The Last Supper, the figural set (will have just three, they have appeared in previous Dali puzzles), and I started cutting. I have about 3/4 of the initial cutting done, and about 1/4 of the border done. Now that cutting is finally in progress, I expect to put longer hours in each day going forward until the project is done.

July 30, 2005

4:42 pm - Dog days of summer, continued. Due to getting up late because I ended yesterday late, hot weather, a massive traffic jam due to a local "Pride" parade worsened by "tons" of lost out-of-state-drivers in huge vans and SUV's, and a mid-day Waltz class, I only worked a couple hours on the puzzle today, cutting about 40 pieces in Creative style, even then some interruptions at Mixed Media. Tomorrow I'm going to get up very early before the heat, with a goal of cutting 100 pieces. Yesterday, I turned down a puzzle order from South Africa as the customer wanted it by August 15.

July 31, 2005

2:05 pm - Put in about 4 1/2 hours at the shop today. While I didn't get 100 Creative style pieces done, I did get about 75 plus a whole lot of subdivision of another section. I expect to do more than 100 pieces tomorrow. Cutting is going very well.

August 1, 2005

4:11 pm - I put in about 5 1/2 hours at the shop today, reached my goal of about new 100 Creative style pieces; The Last Supper is now slightly more than 40% done. Tomorrow morning I need to pack and ship the recent eBay puzzle, then I'll continue work on the Dali puzzle. I expect to complete the puzzle on Friday.

August 2, 2005

7:10 pm - Did just a little cutting today on the Dali puzzle; now just short of 50% completed. I hope spend more time on it tomorrow.

August 3, 2005

10:59 pm - I spent about 5-6 hours at the shop today, most of the time working on the puzzle. I got around 80-100 or so pieces done, cutting continues to go well. Final piece count may approach 550. I still have around 175 pieces to cut. I'd like to finish the puzzle by Friday, may slip to Saturday. My Creative style seems to be taking slower than ever to cut, I don't know why. After today's cutting, when I return home I napped for an hour, the style is mentally draining, unlike the nearly "auto-pilot" nature of my other styles. I probably should double the price of Creative and be done with it, lol.

August 4, 2005

11:44 pm - Incredibly "long" day, with two trips to the shop for cutting sessions and four trips to various locations for dance related activity! The Last Supper is shaping up to be amongst the best I've done, a lot of quite neat cutting in it. Got around 60 pieces done today; now expecting to complete the puzzle on Saturday. A figural I cut today contains 140 90 degree turns! That one piece took about 13 minutes to cut. Will have pictures when done.

August 5, 2005

Friday 4:22 pm - Spent most of the day at the shop working on The Last Supper. I came pretty close to completing it; I have 30-35 pieces to go, about two hours of work at my "Creative style" pace. I'll have pictures by late tomorrow afternoon. I plan inspect and pack the puzzle over the weekend and ship it on Monday. I'll then take two-three days off and then begin work on another very major Creative style puzzle Shakespeare Island.

Note: I'm now adding the day of the week to my time marker in this journal; will help me orient.

August 6, 2005

Saturday 4:20 pm - The Last Supper is finally done. I've been around this work for quite a few days and I am somewhat "inured" by it. I guess it is one of my better works! I'll have some detail pictures early next week (Monday or Tuesday) with some discussion. I'm posting a biggish picture here [moved to top of this page] so some of the cutting may be seen. I'll be taking a break from this journal and most puzzle activity until Monday.