As it happened (from my Journal archives)

November 7, 2005

Monday 6:10 pm - Designed the printed text, figurals and word pieces for #638. Printed the images for #638, #639 Altocumulus Sunset 1980 Pennsylvania and #643 The Incredible Pea Pattern. Went to shop and prepared standard boards for #638 and #639 and a mahogany board for #643. After a Bolero dance lesson this evening I'll mount the three images. Tomorrow I'll cut and ship #638, order the print for #645 and if I have more time, prepare boards for other puzzles in the backlog.

November 8, 2005

Tuesday 5:35 pm - Didn't get to mounting the three images last night, but did so this morning.

November 28, 2005

Monday 6:26 pm - Hope everyone in the U.S. had an nice Thanksgiving break. I did, and I now face the prospect of needing to work off a few extra pounds!

Today I resumed puzzle work, spending over eight hours at the saw with very few breaks, working on #643, The Incredible Pea Pattern - this year's Geometric Pattern Puzzle. Like some of the other pattern puzzles, this one is going to be extremely difficult to assemble; probably on the order of the most difficult The Magnificent FlowScape Pattern puzzle. Mentally I'm quite exhausted as cutting this kind of puzzle takes intense concentration and I was at it for many hours. I cut about 300 of the projected 530 pieces, cutting going very well. Tomorrow I'll complete the puzzle and take the day off on Wednesday. I'll start cutting #644 on Thursday, and continue cutting until it and #645 are done. I'm assigning about a week each for the remaining two puzzles in the backlog.

The Observer, who rarely shows up in my puzzles these days decided to make an appearance in The Incredible Pea Pattern. He (this time), likes to appear in my Geometric Pattern Puzzles. The Observer was very talkative today. One thing of note was he kept asking me where in the United States I hid The Golden Observer and when I'd start offering clues for its location! For the record, I know nothing about this nor a rumored second observer in Madison, Wisconsin. Can The Observer see the future better than I can?

November 29, 2005

Tuesday 11:27 pm - In a second day of considerable work I finished cutting #643, The Incredible Pea Pattern. I've now sanded the back and have applied one coat of tung oil, as the puzzle's wood is mahogany veneer on cherry, and my practice is to apply tung oil on these puzzles. I'll apply a second (final) coat tomorrow morning. The puzzle is excellent and definitely will be extremely difficult to assemble, as just a small test area took me a considerable time to do. The puzzle is currently fully assembled (I assembled it as I cut it) and I'll take pictures tomorrow. When I post the pictures I'll also post some pictures of other recent puzzles.

From the auction description:

This puzzle is the sixth puzzle in my 100 Puzzles Project to feature one of my Geometric Patterns. My Geometric Pattern puzzle auctions are now an annual affair occurring each December. This puzzle features an image, The Incredible Pea Pattern, based on a structure formed by propagating a geometric element based on the principles and subsequent software I developed.

This puzzle was cut in my Long Round cutting style with fairly small pieces, and includes my standard signature piece (signed, dated and numbered on the back) and a second piece (the Fractagon) marked on the back indicating the puzzle belongs to the 100 Puzzles Project. This puzzle is extremely difficult to assemble, and I recommend you do not bid on this puzzle unless you are deeply into difficult jigsaw puzzles or you want to give it as a gift to someone who is! The puzzle was made from mahogany veneered cherry 5-ply wood. Back of the wood has two very thin coats of hand rubbed tung oil applied.