As it happened (from my Journal archives)

February 28, 2008

Thursday 7:04 pm - I mounted the print for the March eBay puzzle, I'll Make You a Rainbow.

March 4, 2008

Tuesday 1:07 pm - Finally got everything up to date. The various links in the "Log" files are now working correctly; I've added puzzle pages for puzzles #777 (the 4th and last Poker Playing Dogs puzzle), #782 (the recent Bar Mitzvah puzzle), #783 (the recent woman proposes to man Marriage Proposal puzzle), and #784 (the Caesaria, Israel puzzle) and have all associated cross links working.

Today was supposed to be a day off, but all of the shipping and updating activities took more time than expected..... so..... I'm taking the rest of today off and tomorrow off. On Thursday I'll start cutting #787, I'll Make You a Rainbow... which will be #76 in the 100 Puzzles Project.

March 7, 2008

Friday 6:28 pm - While I was at my shop for most of the day, I only did a little work: a wavy border for #787 and about 40 Creative style pieces. Work will resume tomorrow afternoon.

Just about all of the regular members of Mixed Media were there today, so there was quite a bit of socializing, plus I slept for about an hour in the garden, helped move plants and cleaned the kitchen. The main activity, at long last, was the removal of the beehive! A bee keeper arrived this afternoon and removed the very active beehive in Erin's work area behind my puzzle shop. Mission successful, nobody stung! A smaller temporary beehive was installed by the beekeeper to attract the stragglers. This hive will be removed tomorrow and the stragglers will be rejoined with the main hive at the bee keeper's location.

March 8, 2008

Saturday 7:06 pm - Spent a few hours on #787 - as usual, the Creative cutting style is going slowly. I'm about 70% done, cutting going well although there has been some paper problems (all fixed) I feel I'll need to mention in the auction. I expect to complete the puzzle tomorrow. I'll launch the auction either tomorrow or Monday.

Saturday 11:10 am - I was looking at the pictures I took on my recent trip to Acapulco and I found this fairly remarkable picture I took of a large bird just as it was taking off from a nearby post in the water in an estuary. I happened to capture a very special moment of symmetry. Any birders out there? I'd love to know what kind of bird this is.

March 9, 2008

Sunday 1:49 pm - Got up early and completed #787, I'll Make You a Rainbow.... Looks pretty good. Auction will start tomorrow. I'll have a final piece count then. This puzzle will be the second to last K. Chin unicorn puzzle that I'll be auctioning as I've gone through the rest except for Not Everyone Can See A Unicorn, that one will be a 1000 piece Long Round puzzle that I'm saving for #80 in the project. I also prepared the board for #788. I plan to mount this later today.

No responses re: the identity of that bird I posted yesterday.

There are still some straggler bees at Mix Media. Alas, they have no home and are doomed. There are at least three lizards that did very well in the old days stuffing themselves with worker bees as the bees came to the end of their lifespan. All of them were out today, looking for food, perched in the desolate post Armageddon landscape.

March 11, 2008

Tuesday 6:52 pm - Auction #76 launched. Final piece count 226.

From the auction description:

This is the first puzzle in the project featuring a K. Chin unicorn in over four years (previous ones were #2, #3, #11, #13, #16, #18, #25, #28). This one is the most elaborately cut. I have plans for one more puzzle with a K. Chin unicorn, the 80th puzzle in the project, although the unicorn will not dominate like it does in this puzzle; the cutting style will be "Long Round".

This puzzle is cut in my fancy Creative style with smaller than normal pieces for this cutting style, and includes my standard signature piece (signed, dated and numbered on the back) and a second piece marked on the back indicating the puzzle belongs to the 100 Puzzles Project. There is no color line cutting in this puzzle, except for the Unicorn's horn. There are two figural pieces: a Dragon and a Twirl Star along with four small "Egg" pieces. My Creative cutting style puzzles are generally quite a bit easier to assemble than my Swirl Curl or more difficult Long Round cutting styles. The edges are cut in an interlocking wavy style.

Please note that the paper that this semi-glossy lithograph was printed on is not robust and I had to make several carefully executed glue-downs during the process of cutting this puzzle. My Creative style contains some very intricate detailed cutting which challenges the best papers and wood and is really designed for the collector / enthusiast; preferably one who is familiar with dealing with this kind of problem as it may occur, and not the casual or inexperienced puzzle assembler.

To the best of my knowledge, this lithograph was printed in 1980.