Simply one of the most amazing puzzles I've ever made! From the day of the first cut until the puzzle finally shipped, almost two months passed, thanks in part to many interruptions!

As it happened (from my Journal archives)

August 5, 2009

Wednesday 3:50 pm - I have decided that The First Harvest in the Wilderness will in fact be the next puzzle in the 100 Puzzles Project. The image is 32" by 21 1/4", really massive. The initial cut, in Creative style, promises to be harrowing, as usual. I'll prepare a board tomorrow and do the mount tomorrow or Friday. Cutting will start this weekend. I've upgraded the number of pieces to 1000, which would be my first 1000 piece Creative style puzzle. I may scale back once I begin cutting it.

August 8, 2009

Saturday 4:11 pm - Progress for the next puzzle has been moving slowly - it's summertime and this happens in August! As mentioned, I purchased a copy of the print last Tuesday and ordered a backup print from All Posters. I went to my shop at Mixed Media on Thursday and prepared a board. I noticed that Karim continued to make progress prepping the floor in the front gallery. A short while ago I mounted the huge print. My success rate with prints this size is about 50-50 at best. I won't take apart the press until tomorrow, so I won't know until then how the mount came out. If the mount fails I will have a service bureau do the mount; I should receive the backup print sometime next week. If the mount is successful, I plan to do the first harrowing initial cut tomorrow. If that goes well, a cutting marathon starts next week.

August 9, 2009

Sunday 5:25 pm - The mount for #828 is flawed. Very, very close to being "near perfect", but there are some small wrinkles near the center, not good enough for such a major puzzle in the 100 Puzzles Project. So..... I'm going to have to wait for shipment of the backup poster and have it professionally mounted. All is not lost as I now have a practice print for doing the initial cut, which is going to be extremely difficult. I plan to do the practice cut tomorrow and prepare a new board.

August 14, 2009

Friday 4:41 pm - The backup copy of The First Harvest in the Wilderness arrived within the last hour. The print is a lithograph, appears identical to the first one I purchased elsewhere; I was concerned it might be a Giclée print, unsuitable for puzzles. It's too late to drop it off at my service bureau today to get it back today, so I'll drop it and the board off on Monday. This weekend I'll do a practice initial cut with the first board. I expect to start cutting #828 this coming Tuesday.

August 19, 2009

Wednesday 5:51 pm - Dog days of summer continue and my schedule slips. Last year I didn't make a puzzle for the 100 Puzzles Project in August, the only month I've missed since late 2005. I'm going to try this year, but whether or not I can cut the current puzzle by the end of August will be close. I picked up the professionally mounted print of The First Harvest in the Wilderness today, looks perfect. I also designed a wavy border for this puzzle. This puzzle will be cut in Creative style and at this time I am not planning to have any figurals.

I was at the shop for a couple hours today but did no cutting, except for cutting some scrap wood in a Swirl Curl pattern to re-orient myself with my large 30" Excalibur scroll saw, the saw I will have to use for the initial cut of this 32" x 21 1/4" giant puzzle. A puzzle cutting marathon will slowly ramp up starting tomorrow. I'll finally get around to doing the practice initial cut on the bad mount board and then start cutting the professionally mounted board.

August 20, 2009

Thursday 4:04 pm - I was at the shop for about five hours today. I did the practice initial cut and then the production initial cut. The practice cut went extremely well, the production cut was more difficult, two broken blades and a small "back cut" error. Still, the cut is "good enough" given the difficulty level. I did the big cut using my 30" Excalibur saw. I video taped a portion of the practice cut. Haven't looked at it - I might upload it to YouTube. Tomorrow I'll subdivide each of the halves using my 22" Hegner and then start detail work using my by far favorite saw, my 18" Hegner. Year 2016 edi:t the video no longer exists.

August 22, 2009

Saturday 3:34 pm - Yesterday I was at the shop for four hours or so. I worked on subdividing the board into eight sections and cut the puzzle's wavy border. No cutting today. Tomorrow I'm going to focus on getting one of eight sections fully cut in Creative style. If I can get one section completed each day, the puzzle will be completed on August 30th, just in time to make the August auction slot deadline. Creative style takes much longer to cut than my other styles. If I don't complete the puzzle by the end of the month, the projected completion date for the 100 Puzzles Project will be push back from May 2010 to June 2010; the auction for the puzzle in progress will be held a week or so later in September as I will traveling to Cincinnati in the first week of September.

August 23, 2009

Sunday 6:21 pm - I was at the shop for over six hours today, finally working on cutting individual pieces of #828 The First Harvest in the Wilderness. As usual Creative style cutting is going slowly, I have about 100 pieces done. Cutting is going well. At the current rate, the puzzle will not be done in time for the August auction time slot. I've decided I'll check and see where I am at the end of Tuesday. Chances are that I'll put the puzzle aside and do the last K. Chin puzzle of the 100 Puzzles Project for the August auction as #828 and then resume The First Harvest in the Wilderness, as the September puzzle, #829.

August 25, 2009

Tuesday 5:40 pm - I wasn't at the shop yesterday. I was today for about five hours. I got another 75 or so pieces done of The First Harvest in the Wilderness. The high heat is causing me sweat a lot and I've dripped some sweat on the puzzle, this I was able to get off OK. I have to wear those thin surgical gloves and even that is not enough as the sweat leaks out from the wrists, so I need to purchase some wrist bands, in the meantime I've have to hassle with the situation. I have two fans going. Anyway there is no way I'm going to get this record setting, massive, Creative style puzzle done in time for the August auction. I have now officially suspended cutting at around the 175 piece mark.

I'm moving up the K. Chin puzzle as the next puzzle. It will be a small 8" x 10", titled, Beyond the Rainbow. This will a Swirl Curl with about 200 pieces with a few figurals. I'll easily have this puzzle done by Friday.

Meanwhile here is a picture of some of the cutting I've done so far with #829 The First Harvest in the Wilderness. Some nice stuff here! Cutting while resume after #828 is completed.

August 26, 2009

Wednesday 6:53 pm - I unsuspended cutting for #829, First Harvest in the Wilderness for a day, putting in almost six hours of work today. I did around 82 more pieces, now passing the 1/4 mark at just more the 250 pieces. At the current rate it will take nine more days of cutting to complete this major Creative style puzzle. Cutting continues to go well, with more cool cutting. I'll have a picture of my current progress tomorrow.

Meanwhile I mounted #828, Beyond the Rainbow late this morning. I plan to start cutting tomorrow and finish it by Friday at the latest. Auction will will start Saturday.

Again very hot inland, 94 outside the shop, 98 inside. It's supposed to get even hotter tomorrow and Friday, with record temperatures likely, inland.

August 27, 2009

Thursday 5:51 pm - It was just too hot to go to the shop today, inland temperatures were in the 105-110 range, breaking a bunch of records. I do plan to cut Beyond the Rainbow tomorrow even though the heat was is forecasted to last one more day - I'll get up very early. My camera memory card is not accessible at the moment; I'll have the in-progress picture of #829 here tomorrow.

August 28, 2009

Friday 6:39 pm - Edit: took time out to cut #828, Beyond the Rainbow.

I plan to peck away at #829 First Harvest in the Wilderness a bit over the next several days, but only during early morning hours when it is cooler. As for the weather, cooler temperatures are predicted, but it will still be well above normal. No cutting is planned for tomorrow.

There's a big fire in Mexico, maybe 100 miles south of here. Smoke is visible to the south and west. This picture was taken yesterday in the locally clear hot air near sunset. The smoke is still there today, but fortunately still well away from San Diego.

Sunday 4:49 pm - Puzzle marathon today. I started cutting shortly after 8am and cut for about seven hours. Yes, it was hot again, but a couple degrees under 100 at the peak, makes a big difference, believe or not. I made a lot of progress today, cutting about 135 Creative style pieces with the total count now around 380. Cutting went very well today, lot of neat stuff done. No cutting tomorrow and then I'll be in Cincinnati for the remainder of the week, returning late Friday. Cutting will resume next weekend.

September 6, 2009

Sunday 7:34 pm - I was at the shop for about five hours, most of the time spent working on puzzle #829, First Harvest in the Wilderness. I cut a few more than 70 pieces and have about 540 to go. Cutting continues to go well. Weather much cooler, although it was a little over 90 in the shop.

In my Creative puzzles I almost always include one super fancy "Whirly Gear" piece. They are quite difficult to cut, threatening to ruin the puzzle if things go wrong. Today was the day to cut the one for this puzzle.

September 7, 2009

Monday 2:09 pm - Several more hours at the shop today, taking it easy. Did some nice cutting today, including a couple "I don't think I've ever done that before" cuts.

Correction: Yesterday I said the Whirly Gear piece was in the lower right of the last picture, it is in the lower left (text corrected).

September 8, 2009

Tuesday 3:40 pm - Another five hours of cutting today, with close to a 100 more Creative style pieces cut. Cutting continues to go very well; again a lot of cool cutting. I may skip tomorrow and resume cutting on Thursday, or if I do some cutting tomorrow it will be just for a couple hours. I need to hustle now to get the August eBay puzzle shipped.

September 9, 2009 "nine, nine, nine"

Wednesday 4:19 pm - I ended up putting in a fairly long day of cutting today. Cutting seemed to go more slowly. Cut around 85 pieces. Cutting continues to go well. Why does cutting Creative take so long? Because in addition to many elaborate pieces, I'm constantly trying to figure out how to make the pieces look nice together and to balance the distribution of the various fancy pieces. By the way, if this puzzle was ordered via my Custom Puzzles ordering page, this puzzle would cost $3,000, vastly higher than the most expensive puzzle I've sold so far. I wonder what this one will go for on eBay? Remember the huge Dali Metamorphosis of Narcissus puzzle? The current puzzle, First Harvest in the Wilderness, will be quite a bit bigger in size! Miscellaneous fact: With about 700 pieces done, this puzzle has already set a Custom Puzzle Craft record for a puzzle with the most pieces and no figurals. The previous record was owned by #164, The Great Peace Rose with 679 pieces, cut almost eight years ago in November 2001.

I'm going to take tomorrow off, cutting resumes Friday. I expect to complete the puzzle by next Tuesday and launch the auction on either Thursday, September 17 or Friday, September 18.

September 10, 2009

Thursday 9:07 am - I have now updated The Puzzle Queue with the remainder of the 100 Puzzles Project puzzles. I was going to have three more large creative style "famous painting" puzzles in the final seven, but due to the extraordinary amount of work required by the current puzzle, First Harvest in the Wilderness, I've changed my plans.

After the Project is completed, I'll take a two month break. I then plan to re-open for orders on a very limited basis. I have now reached a decision on how I will ration orders in 2010. I will accept up to six orders for the remainder of 2010, one puzzle per order, for a total of up six puzzles. There will be two methods of order rationing with three orders per method. Note: I also may open again for Marriage Proposal puzzles in 2010, a limit of five puzzles total, on a first come first served basis.

Method 1) Sometime well before I plan to begin work on new orders, I will conduct a lottery drawing (random) for all interested parties - I will send out emails and have announcements here well in advance of the drawing.

Method 2) Sometime after the lottery drawing, I will conduct three auctions on eBay for the right to place an order. For each auction, the winning bid gives the winner the right to place an order and does not go towards paying for the puzzle. I will make this clear in the auction, also the winner of an auction will be ineligible to bid on another auction in the same year. Lottery winners from Method 1 will be permitted to bid.

I have chosen these methods to increase the number of customers who own my recent puzzles.

Beyond 2010, I will continue to ration orders, either by the same methods or other methods if the proposed methods prove unsatisfactory.

September 11, 2009

Friday 6:07 pm - Today I was at the shop for close to five hours, making some more progress on the huge #829, First Harvest in the Wilderness. Although I was rested, I felt a bit weary; still I did some nice cutting. I now have "just" 225 pieces or so to go, three more days of cutting should do it. It was quite warm today, but a nice cooling trend is predicted. I'm not going to be doing much cutting tomorrow, but I'm planning to do a lot of cutting on Sunday. I plan to finish cutting on Monday! Tuesday will be a long day of inspecting the pieces, counting them and fixing some voids (fortunately none of the voids are "serious"), as well as taking official photographs for the auction, with some close-ups. Auction will likely start next Thursday.

Yesterday I said the tentative date for re-opening for a few Marriage Proposal puzzles was October 1. I've decided to push this back two weeks to October 15 as I plan to be very well rested before making another puzzle. I will cut the October eBay puzzle (much simpler than #829) before I consider doing the possible few small Marriage Proposal puzzles. The Marriage Proposal puzzles will done in a batch before cutting the November eBay puzzle.

September 12, 2009

Saturday 7:03 pm - A little time opened up this afternoon for cutting. Round trip to the shop was about 2 1/2 hours, did one hour of cutting, cutting 23 pieces. I was in good form today, but as it was already a long day and a Tango Milonga beckons, I elected to keep the session short. Cutting will resume tomorrow

September 13, 2009

Sunday 5:01 pm - Another day, another nice hunk of puzzle #829, First Harvest in the Wilderness, done. Again, some of the cutting was fantastic, genius, etc. I seriously considered changing my mind and keeping this puzzle for myself, as I do not have a single Creative style puzzle in my own possession, excluding a couple Compulsories! However, I want to get the Project done, and I will sell it on eBay. Maybe sometime after the 100 Puzzles Project is done next year, I'll cut a nice big one for myself. Today I cut around 105 pieces and have about 95 to go.

When dividing a small chunk of the puzzle into individual pieces, again and again the challenge is how to do it nicely, the problem is never quite the same. Here is an example section and how I "solved" cutting it into three pieces:

I might get the puzzle done tomorrow - I do have some dance related things to do, more likely the puzzle will be completed Tuesday morning.

September 14, 2009

Monday 2:18 pm - Almost completed the puzzle today, had to cut the day short for lunch and a class at 3pm. Cutting continues to go well. Quick update here showing what remains to be cut. I'll finish the puzzle tomorrow morning, sand the back, take official photographs, take the puzzle apart and start the inspection progress, looking for voids and paper lifts.

September 15, 2009

Tuesday 5:21 pm - Today I completed the cutting of the massive, major Creative style puzzle #829, First Harvest in the Wilderness. I sanded the back and applied tung oil. The puzzle is currently home, still assembled, as I plan to show it to someone this evening. Tomorrow I'll take it apart, count the pieces, and inspect for voids and paper lifts, repairing as need. This process may continue into Thursday.

Alas, the puzzle has a flaw. Above the cabin there are two areas of blue discoloration. This occurred the day I cut the puzzle in the 105 degree heat, cutting the gear curl between the two blue spots, sweat affected the lithograph. Look at the picture in the August 28th entry. (Edit: I cut this section on August 26th when it was 98 degrees). I avoided other instances of this by wearing surgical gloves until cooler weather returned. I thought I could rub in some coloration to pretty much "fix" this, but today's experiments on the backup board I have, failed. I know there are all kinds of print experts at Museums and elsewhere who could make a good restoration, but this is beyond me and will have to be noted with an asterisk in the auction. The winner will have my full blessings to go ahead with expert help, but at their expense.

The cutting is incredible. There are so many outstandingly cool areas of cutting in this work. The back of the puzzle looks perfect. No chipouts. No snatches. The integration of the "lower resolution" initial cuts within the overall cutting was extremely well done. This puzzle has, by far, the most Creative pieces I've cut in a puzzle, and the most time spent cutting a puzzle, including the initial cutting, about 70 hours. Add a lot more time for driving to and from the shop over several weeks, getting the puzzle mounted, etc. Some of the puzzles I cut for a customer in the U.K., #92 Great London and #149 The Metamorphosis of Narcissus both had enormous time requirements for all the figural preparation, but less time spent cutting. While this puzzle does not contain figurals, it does contain some "egg" pieces, I found 10 when looking at the puzzle, I'll have an official count later.

This work is a "must own" for the collector of my work! Some day I may cut something on this order for myself, but it is very unlikely I'll accept an order for a puzzle on this scale next year, as mentioned I'll likely set an upper limit for Creative style puzzles of 600-700 pieces. If this puzzle had been placed as an order under my current prices, the charge would be $3000, with an option for refusal due to "blue spots" flaw mentioned earlier. Stave charges more than $5 per piece for his plain knob, none trick puzzles; the cutting in this puzzle is vastly more artistic.

One minor problem. This puzzle will not fit in my largest puzzle box. After I disassemble the puzzle, I'll try to come up with an estimate of the volume, and see if I can buy a box from another puzzle maker, or figure out what to do. Maybe make a wooden box?...... no I don't have the expertise nor equipment.

The auction will start Thursday or Friday.

I have made a change in my announced re-opening schedule. I have decided not to re-open this fall for Marriage Proposal puzzles. Custom Puzzle Craft will remain closed to all orders until the 100 Puzzles Project is completed next year. I'm currently expecting complete the Project in April 2001. In June 2001 I'll open for up to five Marriage Proposal puzzles and then in July for the six rationed puzzles I mentioned earlier.

September 17, 2009

Thursday 4:47 pm - I joined the Scroll Saw Working & Crafts community yesterday and posted a mention of the Harvest puzzle there, see http://www.scrollsawer.com/forum/scroll-saw-puzzles/25016.htm - the response has been excellent! 2016 Edit: Link no longer works.

The auction will start Friday afternoon. Everything is taking longer than expected. Final piece count 1065, quite few more than I thought I cut! I have finished the detailed inspection process, repaired a few small lifts and have set aside a few pieces which need void repairs. These repairs will be made tomorrow morning and no problems are expected. The long process of inspecting the pieces made me appreciate how great a work this puzzle is, I kept taking pictures of various pieces and had to stop myself less I never get the inspection completed!

September 18, 2009

Friday 8:04 pm - I spent about four hours at the shop today and completed all void repairs.

I'm leaving early tomorrow morning for Moab, Utah and will return late Tuesday. Due to scheduling problems and various things out of my control, the auction has been delayed. I will launch the auction on Friday, September 25th.

September 25, 2009

Friday 2:19 pm - Auction launched.

Friday 5:08 pm - Before I launched the auction I went to my shop to make a mock-up box 14" x 11" x 3" to match the size of a box available from MGC puzzles. The box is still too small. On Monday I'll call my box supplier and see if they might have something already made I can purchase in a quantity of one.

September 27, 2009

Sunday 4:16 pm - The auction is doing well on a per-piece basis. If history is a reliable guide, this puzzle could come in in the $2500-$2700 range, obviously setting a record for overall price!

September 28, 2009

Monday 9:25 am - I decided to place an order from my puzzle box supplier for some larger puzzle boxes. 10 of them. Quite expensive per box, but I think it important that my very major puzzles be shipped in boxes with the same color and texture as my other puzzles. The boxes will by 14 x 11 x 4.25, more than adequate for Puzzle #829, First Harvest in the Wilderness.

October 2, 2009

Friday 8:58 am - The Auction for my massive Creative cutting style puzzle, First Harvest in the Wilderness, the 93rd of 100 Puzzles Project, and what will be the largest Creative cutting style puzzle of the project, and has the highest all-Creative piece count to date, has about five hours to go. After an initial flurry of bids, there have been no bids for five days. While on an absolute basis the puzzle is already carrying a high price, on a cost-per-piece basis, the puzzle is priced at less than 50% my going rate for Creative style puzzle and well below what my last major all-Creative style puzzle went for when auctioned.

Historical note: I consider the watershed puzzle for the general character of my Creative to be puzzle #436, The Artist's Studio, cut in May of 2003. My Creative style is far fancier than the early Creatives I cut in 2001 and 2002.

Friday 2:43 pm - I'm in a semi-delirious state of shock, as three massive sniper bids within the last 10 seconds propelled First Harvest in the Wilderness to a level which is likely to stand as a record on eBay for a modern jigsaw puzzle for some time, at least of any that I know about. I'm deeply grateful for your bids. I have thanked the runner-ups as well as the winner.

The puzzle for October will be a "routine" smaller puzzle! I have yet to decide the image for this puzzle.

October 20, 2009

Tuesday 10:44 - I scheduled my day to be home for delivery of the new big puzzle boxes. All day and they did not arrive. Posted a sign it was OK to leave them outside and left for an evening dance class. When I returned the boxed had arrived!

Tomorrow I'm going to have a major marathon session to individually wrap every piece of this valuable puzzle. I will use a secondary box, for overflow, due to the extra space the wrapping will take up. I expect the puzzle to be stored in the one box unwrapped in the future by the customer, as the wrapping is designed for shipment protection purposes. There will be a standard tissue and foam sheet protection provided. Edit: Do to being very busy preparing for a show at Mixed Media, a journal entry was not made for the actual shipment on October 22.

From the auction description:

This month's auction features the most ambitious puzzle I have ever made!

This puzzle was cut in my Creative cutting style, known for its "whirly gears" of many types, "bubble runs", small "egg" pieces and a method of "flow cutting" which extends cutting lines from one side of an intervening piece to another. Numerous other features are present in my Creative cutting style which builds on Swirl Curl.

The cutting here is as nice as any I have done. There are so many outstandingly cool areas of cutting in this work. The integration of the "lower resolution" initial cuts within the overall cutting was extremely well done. This puzzle has, by far, the most Creative pieces I've cut in a puzzle, 1065, and the most time spent cutting a puzzle, including the initial cutting, about 70 hours. Add a lot more time for driving to and from the shop over several weeks, getting the puzzle mounted, etc., and another 10 hours inspecting the pieces, fixing little paper lifts and fixing some voids that I encountered.

The back of the puzzle looks perfect. No chipouts. No snatches.

As far as Creative style puzzle go, this is the big one for the 100 Puzzles Project! Of the seven puzzles to come in the project after this one, two others will be Creative, each with considerably few pieces; the last puzzle of the project will include some Creative.

This work is a "must own" for the collector of my work! Some day I may cut something on this order for myself, but it is very unlikely I'll ever accept an order for a puzzle on this scale cut in Creative style. If this puzzle had been placed as an order under my current prices, the charge would be $3000 and frankly for the amount of time and mental effort involved the price would be too low. Stave charges about $5 per piece for his plain knob, none trick, "traditional" puzzles; the cutting in this puzzle is vastly more artistic.

There is no color line cutting and no figurals as I wanted to express the Creative style as much as possible. The puzzle's wavy border was designed to keep the edge pieces from standing out. With a few exceptions, the edges are directly interlocking. This puzzle 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. The puzzle contains about 13 small "egg" pieces. The back side of the puzzle was coated with a layer of tung oil.

Alas, the puzzle has a flaw. Above the cabin there are two areas of blue discoloration. This occurred the day I was cutting the puzzle in 105 degree interior heat, cutting the gear curl between the two blue spots, sweat affected the lithograph. I avoided other instances of this by wearing surgical gloves until cooler weather returned. I know there are all kinds of print experts at Museums and elsewhere who could make a good restoration, but this is beyond me. Those who have seen the puzzle in person were impressed with the work and didn't notice the two spots until I mentioned them.

This puzzle will not fit in my largest puzzle box. I need one about 14" x 11" x 4" or similar volume. Puzzle markers - if you have one with similar volume, please contact me. Meanwhile I'll see what I can do about a large puzzle box. There may be a delay in shipping while I resolve this issue.

When cutting a puzzle like this, my general approach is to keep subdividing sections until individual pieces are cut. When the sections are down to several pieces in size, a problem that I enjoy solving is how to cut the little sections into pieces which look good together. Here is one example:

100 Puzzles Project - Famous Artist Puzzles History
2000: none
2001: none
2002: none
2003: none
2004: #37 Van Gogh, The Church At Auvers
2005: #48 Caspar David Friedrich, Ploughed Fields
2006: none
2007: #65 William Bouguereau, Shepherdess
2008: none
2009: #93 Asher B. Durand, First Harvest in the Wilderness

Note: I cut my jigsaw puzzles using a scroll saw, hand guiding the wood into the blade, this is not a laser or water jet cut puzzle. No templates was used for this puzzle, except to cut my signature piece and the wavy border. My puzzles cover fantasy, landscapes, my geometric patterns, famous paintings, mythology - a diverse spectrum of the human condition and more.