As it happened (from my Journal archives)

June 16, 2008

Monday 6:37 pm - Prepared the board for #797, the Matisse puzzle. Will mount it tomorrow. Cutting still scheduled to begin on Wednesday.

Friday 6:22 pm - Puzzle #797 shipped, final piece count 544, more in line with what I expected. Getting the puzzle ready for shipment took longer than expected as I wanted to very carefully examine the pieces. I did take a lot more pictures of archetypal Creative style pieces, will have a write up here eventually [edit: to be written up in Cutting Styles].

June 20, 2008

Friday 6:11 pm - Cutting of #797, the Matisse Creative style puzzle is underway, the third of five large Creative puzzles I'm making for a customer in New York (the first, Tree with Crows completed November 2004 and the second, Escher - Concave and Convex, completed in April 2006). I did the initial cutting, breaking down the board into several sections and cut the wavy border, the initial cutting went very well.

Very, very hot at the shop today, record heat today inland with temperatures over 100 common, it was cool along the immediate coast.

June 21, 2008

Saturday 6:43 pm - A little time freed up this afternoon, got to the shop for a bit more than an hour or so of cutting, further subdividing one of the sections, generating eight pieces in the process. Extremely hot again in San Diego, particularly in the inland areas. 103 degrees in my shop when I arrived around 4:30pm, cooled slight once I got ventilation going. Even hotter further inland. Some records were destroyed, for example El Cajon's 106 breaking their vulnerable record of 92 for this date - about 10 miles further inland from my shop. San Diego itself, with the official thermometer close to the water, set a record of 92, breaking the old record of 88 set 35 years ago. Cutting will continue tomorrow, but will be reduced due to practices scheduled for midday and early evening.

June 22, 2008

Sunday 5:51 pm - Managed to get in a pretty good chunk of cutting in this afternoon working on #797, the Matisse puzzle. I now have about 85 pieces done of the projected 500. Cutting going well, and I continue to have no problems with the lithographic paper. Cutting continues tomorrow; I'm planning to put in a pretty long day of work.

June 23, 2008

Monday 4:30 pm - Got up early and put in a long day of cutting. Cutting continues to go well, and today I cut almost 120 pieces, so the big Matisse puzzle is about 40% complete. Cutting continues tomorrow, but Wednesday is questionable as the brakes on my car are failing and I need to do something about the brakes this week.

June 24, 2008

Tuesday 4:17 pm - In a day of considerable cutting, I cut another 120-125 pieces of the big Matisse puzzle, cutting continues to go very well with no problems with the wood or paper. The projected piece count is currently about 520. This puzzle looks to be destined to join the pantheon of major impressive Creative style puzzles. My currently plan is to complete the puzzle on Thursday and get my car fixed on Friday.

June 25, 2008

Wednesday 6:27 pm - Another considerable day of cutting #797 (the Matisse), with around 105 pieces cut and a lot of subdivision work within the final section. I figure I've cut around 435-440 pieces and have a little over 90 to go. Cutting continues to go well. I plan to complete the puzzle tomorrow and then start post-cutting work (sand, count pieces, etc.) The puzzle will likely ship Friday morning, then off to have urgent work done on my car.

Just as I took a break from Creative style cutting after the massive #794, Creative Art with Six Tricky Eggs, I will need to take a Creative style cutting break after I'm done with #797, so I've rearranged the sequencing for the next three puzzles. The next puzzle will the July eBay puzzle, a 1000 piece Long Round puzzle.

June 26, 2008

Thursday 6:36 pm - I was going to take the day off from puzzle work as my car must be repaired, but the garage was closed as the mechanic was away.... So.... I made it to my puzzle shop and completed the Matisse! Looks great. I've sanded the back, took pictures and came up with a preliminary piece count of 559, again I underestimated how many pieces I cut! The puzzle has six figurals and seven eggs (much smaller than the ones in the Six Tricky Eggs puzzle, and not tricky!). Year 2016 note: My records say there are 544 pieces in thie puzzle - which is correct?

I've now begun the process of preparing #797 for shipment.