As it happened (from my Journal archives).

July 8, 2008

Tuesday 4:26 pm - For several hours this afternoon worked on #799, currently untitled (will be something like Painted Creative Puzzle #2 unless I can think of something better). So far I've completed the wavy border and subdivided the board into four sections and cut just three pieces. The pace will pick up tomorrow.

The first "Painted Creative Puzzle" was #636, Life Complexity, an experimental work, 7" x 7", with 69 pieces. #799 will have bigger pieces.

July 9, 2008

Wednesday 5:11 pm - I've decided to continue posting on a nearly daily basis while I'm working on puzzles, as I figure customers would like to track the work on their puzzles.

Today I spent about 7 1/2 hours at the shop and am now about half done with the cutting for Painted Creative Puzzle #2. Cutting is going well although slowly, as is the case for larger piece Creative style puzzles. I expect to complete the cutting tomorrow and then inventory my spray paint supply, see what's empty or not working, make purchases as needed. Painting will start on Friday. I'll be keeping close track of the time it takes to paint 200 pieces so that I can come up with realistic estimates for pricing for future puzzles of this sort.

July 10, 2008

Thursday 6:31 pm - In today's effort I completed the cutting for #799, Painted Creative Puzzle #2. The cutting looks excellent, comparable to the other recent Creative style puzzles I've cut. The next task is a comprehensive inspection process in preparation for painting, specifically removing any tiny whiskers on the pieces as these can interfere with the spray painting. This will take several hours tomorrow morning. Later in the day, I need to inventory my paint and purchase additional paint as needed. Then come up with a plan for how to paint so many pieces - technically and artistically. I suspect work will continue into Saturday.

When there a just are few pieces to paint, coming up with a paint plan is easy, but 200? Wow! In my shop I have some early painting experiments, I may have shown these before.

July 11, 2008

Friday 7:50 pm - As I feared, I vastly underestimated how long it will take to paint both sides of the pieces, the logistics are substantial. Spent all morning prepping the puzzle pieces (final piece count 201), a few hours this afternoon examining my paint inventory, later purchasing 11 new cans of spray paint, then another trip because one can was defective. Then about 3 1/2 hours working on the painting, just 37 of the 201 pieces done. The different colors dry at different speeds, some sprays are super smooth, others spit globs and have to be cleaned off with mineral spirits and redone, bugs / ants get in the paint, etc., etc.

Like puzzle #794 I'm finding that "plain wood" puzzles are much more fragile than puzzles with pictures glued on to them. I had to make several time consuming repairs this morning, the repairs will be completely undetectable particularly after the paint is applied. I'll be contacting the customer about shipment, I think the only safe way to ship this puzzle is either assembled or with every single piece wrapped in tissue. Fortunately, except for the Compulsories, there are no more plain wood puzzles in the backlog and certainly no more painted puzzles! Prices for Creative style puzzles and in particular painted puzzles will be dramatically higher next year and rationing of work tightened. The "Puzzle Monkey" has been an ordeal, but it will be finished and it will never happen again!

July 12, 2008

Saturday 7:07 pm - Long busy day, maintenance, then a performance dance class and then puzzle work all afternoon up to a short while ago. Turns out that by setting up four "spray areas" and with the sun helping to dry the pieces I was continuously busy, and I decided to put off working on #800 until the painted puzzle is done. I got about 80-85 more pieces done today, so with maybe 80 to go I'll press forward tomorrow with the goal of completing the work. Two artists at Mixed Media examined my progress today; one said I should make sure I take good photos and contact a museum, as a work like this one should be in a museum, the other artist really liked the work too. The work has a lot of cool "local areas of interest" happening in it. I'm mixing brightly colored pieces with some "flat" colors to help with the balance. Since I've started painting yesterday, I have had no problems with the structural integrity of pieces.

July 13, 2008

Sunday 6:14 pm - In the longest day of work on puzzle #799, Painted Creative Puzzle #2, today I completed it. I started working on it around 9:30am and completed it within the last hour. My general impression of "high piece count painted Creative puzzles" where each piece is assigned a uniform color, is that such works have numerous incredibly interesting areas to look at up close, but that taken as a whole, the work is somewhat of a cacophonic jumble of colors. Being a "jumble of colors" is not bad in of itself, as the redeeming factor is the ability to zoom in to stunning beauty. So it is what it is. The work could make an interesting public square, say 300 feet by 300 feet where as you walk, each area immediately around you is cool.