As it happened (from my Journal archives)

July 9, 2009

Thursday 6:26 pm - I have decided that the last Seewald puzzle within the 100 Puzzles Project will be another Venice photo. This will be the July puzzle, the 91st within the project. This one is from the January 2004 calendar. I may change my mind, but this is my current pick. I plan prepare the board and mount the print tomorrow morning, so my decision has to be final before then. The puzzle will be cut in Long Round style and will have around 500 pieces.

July 11, 2009

Saturday 9:33 am - Yesterday I prepared the board and mounted the image for #827, Motorcycle man visits Venice. The mount looks perfect. I will be going to Mixed Media today for a little garden work. I expect puzzle cutting to start tomorrow

July 13, 2009

Monday 8:24 am - Due to a fairly strong but now rare migraine yesterday, I put off starting the cutting of #827. Somewhat better today. Cutting starts tomorrow.

July 14, 2009

Tuesday 5:26 pm - Today I was at the shop for few hours and started cutting #827, Motorcycle man visits Venice. I cut the plain border and subdivided the puzzle into ten sections. I still need to design the lone figural for this puzzle - a Lion with Wings - a symbol of Venice. I plan to put in a longer day of work tomorrow and complete the puzzle on Thursday. Auction scheduled to start on Friday.

July 15, 2009

Wednesday 6:25 pm - Cutting for #827, Motorcycle man visits Venice, is now well in progress. Today I cut about 210 pieces and have about 290 to go. Before leaving for the shop I designed a "winged lion with book" figural, based on photos of Venice I found on the web, this figure appears to be somewhat of a symbol of Venice as it is present in many places. Cutting is going well. I expect to complete the puzzle tomorrow.

I've been getting quite a few requests in the past couple months for puzzles. I continue to turn them down and recommend other puzzle cutters for those who do not specifically want a puzzle from me only.

July 16, 2009

Thursday 5:22 pm - Pretty long day at the shop, the puzzle is done, #827 overall and #91 100 Puzzles Project. The auction starts tomorrow, Friday. Cutting went well, and I'm curious to see how close I came to 500 pieces as I focused on cutting exactly that many. Will have a piece count and more to say about the puzzle tomorrow.

July 17, 2009

Friday 6:32 pm - Auction launched. Final piece count: exactly 500, as hoped. Been a long day, I do plan to write more about the puzzle "soon". Edit: I did not write more about the puzzle in my journal - what I was going to say was that some cutting in the puzzle is "kind" to the person putting the puzzle together, allowing a touch of color to be captured by a tip of a knob so that it will be easier to find matching pieces, while other times, a subtle shift of the board during the cutting created "micro color line cutting" increasing the difficulty of the puzzle - I was going to take photographs of an example, but did not. The specific area of interest is around a blue towel hanging towards the upper right of the picture. Actually I do have a fairly hi-rez picture of the puzzle, here is the area:

The piece just above the blue towel denies the assembler from finding an easy match, while the lower left section of the towel was captured by a knob. I could have included the towel in just one piece or three, here I decided to mix a challenging interlock with something easier - I have these kinds of thoughts frequently when cutting a puzzle in my primary cutting styles.

July 24, 2009

Friday 6:42 pm - The Auction is over for the final Michael Seewald puzzle of the 100 Puzzles Project. One very determined bidder attempted to put an end to the winner's winning streak, but to no avail, resulting in a record price for a Seewald puzzle! Thank you for the bids. The last bar in my July 20th chart would have to be extended off the chart to 205 ($2.05 per puzzle piece).

From the auction description:

This puzzle, Motorcycle man visits Venice, features for the 19th and last time within the 100 Puzzles Project, an excellent photograph by master photographer Michael Seewald. My Project is at long last in the "final 10 countdown" and it is time to start closing some doors on the kinds of puzzles I've been featuring within the Project!

I've enjoyed featuring Michael's works, and although he discontinued his calendars after 2005, I still have a nice selection of pictures from which to choose. The image for this month's puzzle was removed from the January 2004 Venice calendar, of which 499 were printed. This puzzle is a limited edition of ONE, I will not accept orders for puzzles with this image.

This well cut Long Round cutting style puzzle has exactly 500 pieces, the number of pieces I was aiming for. There is some sneaky color line cutting along some of the various straight lines formed by windows, ledges, walls and railing. The puzzle is solidly interlocking. When I was preparing to cut this puzzle I wanted to find a figural which captured the spirit of Venice. A search revealed that a statue of a winged lion with one paw on a book appeared in quite a few places in Venice, so this was the choice for the figural's design. This puzzle includes my standard signature piece (signed, dated and numbered on the back) and a second piece marked on the back (the winged lion figural) indicating the puzzle belongs to the 100 Puzzles Project. I consider this to be a fairly challenging puzzle to assemble.

100 Puzzles Project - Michael Seewald history

2000: #1 Ghost of Florence, #4 Blue Bottle, Venice, Italy
2001: #10 Butcher on Break
2002: #17 Still Life, Sant'Angelo in Colle, '99, #20 Banfi Vineyard, #22 Tuscany Landscape
2003: #27 Steps, Koraku-en Garden, Okayama, #31 Coastline, Izu-Hanto Peninsula
2004: #34 Restaurant Night Reflections, #38 Fish Market, Venice, Italy '97
2005: #42 Disappearing dog and wife, Les Baux, Provence, France, 2000, #47 Red Boat, Thailand, 2003
2006: #51 Volterra, #56 Slot Canyon, Arizona, USA '98, #58 Old City Center, Tallinn, Estonia - 1992
2007: #67 Ponte de Lima, Portugal - Fall 1991
2008: #75 Caesaria, Israel - Summer 1993, #79 Gragnana
2009: #91 Motorcycle man visits Venice