As it happened (from my Journal archives)

July 23, 2016

Saturday 6:16 PM - I have taken several photos of the K. Chin painting I named Golden Dragon #2. I will be dropping it off for printing on Monday. The puzzle will be cut in straight Long Round without embedded Creative style pieces. The puzzle will be traditionally cut with straight edges and I will aim for the puzzle to have just over 1000 pieces with a figural set typical of my previous dragon puzzles. The puzzle will be about 25" high by 14 1/2" wide.

July 27, 2016

Wednesday 1:31 PM - After some further tweaking of the image of Golden Dragon #2 for puzzle #931, I dropped off the digital file for printing last Monday. Yesterday morning I picked it up, looks great! It was printed on a Lightjet printer, with really excellent results. Later in the day I prepared a board and this morning with camera rolling, mounted it. First time, I'm pretty sure, I mounted a print at my shop instead of home. Later today I'll print the figural template set for the puzzle and tomorrow I'll check and see how the mount came out. I expect to start cutting the puzzle on Friday.

Meanwhile my 16 1/2 year run at Mixed Media is drawing to a close, as I'll be moving out after the Puzzle Parley. I've already begun the culling process of old artifact and mementos, keeping some, taking pictures of others and disposing of them, mostly from the "wall of horrors".

July 28, 2016

Thursday 12:56 PM - The mount for #931, Golden Dragon #2, looks great. I expect to start cutting tomorrow.

July 29, 2016

Friday 3:10 PM - Cutting puzzle #931, Golden Dragon #2 is underway and going well. With video rolling, I did the initial cuts (into quarters), then the edges and then subdivided one of the quarters to do a figural for the documentary. Later I began detail cutting, cutting a total of 49 pieces. I was at Mixed Media for about 4 1/2 hours. Tomorrow I hope to get some more cutting done.

July 30, 2016

Saturday 6:10 PM - Good cutting session this afternoon, with the piece count up to around 275. The paper is cutting well, no problems! Meanwhile I saw a first draft of a trailer, Frank, the videographer put together, pretty cool! Hopefully we'll have something in time for the Puzzle Parley.

August 2, 2016

Tuesday 8:44 AM - Did not get to the shop yesterday. I plan to spend most of this afternoon at the shop and make good progress.

The Puzzle Parley's open table sales of puzzles at the Hawthorn Hotel in Salem, MA starts at 3:30 PM and continues to 4:45 PM on Saturday August 13, 2016. I plan to launch the auction for Golden Dragon #2 at 1:30 PM Pacific Time (4:30 PM ET) on Saturday August 6, with the one week auction ending at 4:30 PM on August 13 towards the end of the open table sales. I will be at the Puzzle Parley with a laptop monitoring the auction, plus I'll have Golden Dragon #2 there on display. I won't have any other puzzles for sale although I may bring a few sets of earrings if I have time to polish and prepare them.

Tuesday 10:11 PM - This afternoon I cut about 216 pieces, bringing the total up to about 629. Cutting continues to go well. I expect to get more cutting in tomorrow afternoon.

August 2, 2016

Tuesday 10:11 PM - This afternoon I cut about 216 pieces, bringing the total up to about 629. Cutting continues to go well. I expect to get more cutting in tomorrow afternoon.

August 4, 2016

Thursday - 4:02 PM - Yesterday in several hours of cutting I brought up the piece count to about 813. Today less cutting, the count is up to about 891. I expect to complete the puzzle tomorrow and launch the auction on Saturday, timed to end during the puzzle sales at the 2016 Puzzle Parley in Salem MA. I did hit a void yesterday and that will be repaired tomorrow.

August 5, 2016

Friday - 7:05 PM - Puzzle #931, Golden Dragon #2, is complete! Went down to the wire as I need to launch the auction tomorrow so it will end during puzzle sales at the Puzzle Parley on August 13. The picture here is not the official picture, I'll do that tomorrow morning, the one here was taken in sunlight to accentuate the cut. I'm guessing the puzzle has about 1010 pieces, I'll do the counting before auction launch tomorrow.

Cutting went really well. No chip outs on the back; the only piece affected by a void has been repaired.

This is the end of a long era. I'll get deeper into dismantling my puzzle shop and begin moving things out to storage tomorrow.

This is the sixth and last annual auction of a wooden jigsaw puzzle made by me in my Annual Puzzle Auction series. This puzzle, Golden Dragon #2,is derived from a painting of a dragon by K. Chin, features the sixth K. Chin Dragon image I've been able to locate.

Golden Dragon #2
About 14 3/8" by 24 7/8"
Long Round cutting style
1009 pieces including nine figurals and Signature piece.

Green Dragon	Imperial Silver Dragon	Royal Dragon	Golden Dragon	Celestial Dragon	Golden Dragon #2

Green Dragon
I was initially drawn to K. Chin's art by a picture of a dragon I saw on the web in early 2000. I later found out the print was originally titled Celestial Green Dragon and did not have a unicorn in the lower left. Later, the unicorn was added, and prints of it were sold as Imperial Dragon and the Celestial Unicorn. This image was the basis for the third puzzle I ever sold, puzzle #23, Green Dragon, in May 2000 (100 Puzzles Project puzzle #2). At the time I sold the first puzzle, I had not come across either name used by K. Chin, so Green Dragon was the name I used and continued to use.

Imperial Silver Dragon
I later came across a large untitled print of what I was told by K. Chin's sons was titled Imperial Silver Dragon. I later saw these prints titled as either Celestial Imperial Dragon or Imperial Celestial Dragon. Again, the first puzzle was sold before learning the other titles, so Imperial Silver Dragon was the name I used and continued to use. Or just a nickname, Silver Dragon. There is something about K. Chin's dragon paintings that are so full of flow and energy! The first Silver Dragon puzzle was cut and sold in November 2000 (100 Puzzles Project puzzle #7) and was the first puzzle with some Creative style cutting although primitive by today's standards, and the first puzzle with the appearance of my Observer figural.

Royal Dragon
Also in the early going, I came across a picture of a Red Dragon. K. Chin's sons referred to is as such, although the print was titled Royal Dragon and was the name I used and continued to use. The first puzzle I made with Royal Dragon was in May 2001 (was not introduced / sold via the 100 Puzzles Project).

These first three images, Green Dragon, Imperial Silver Dragon and Royal Dragon were all published as lithographs by K. Chin and in some quantity, and some cases in more than one size. These prints occasionally appear on eBay. Over the years I've had my eyes out for additional K. Chin dragon images, but came up empty handed. I knew at least one more image existed as a less attractive dragon picture (St. George and the Dragon) as shown in a picture of K. Chin (see below). St. George is holding a paint brush!. Also, K. Chin's sons recalled there being two other dragon paintings: another one similar to the Imperial Silver Dragon and one referred to as a Golden Dragon.

Golden Dragon
In early 2013, I found an original K. Chin dragon oil painting on eBay! I won the auction. The dragon was golden, but was not the Golden Dragon K. Chin's sons knew about. So I decided to this one, Golden Dragon. As this dragon had three class in the front of each foot instead of four, I figured this painting might have been the first one K. Chin had done, or certainly an early one. I made a puzzle from this image later in 2013 and sold it as the third Annual Auction Puzzle. Golden Dragon has a lot of dark areas around the dragon not shown in the image here, the dark areas were included the 2013 puzzle.

Celestial Dragon
Not long after I acquired Golden Dragon, I received contact from the owner of another K. Chin dragon painting, located in NYC. The fifth dragon! In consultation with K. Chin's sons I named this one Celestial Dragon. I later worked out an agreement with the owner of the painting for the right to use the Celestial Dragon image for the fourth Annual Auction Puzzle in 2014 - limited to an edition of one. I hired budding movie maker, Michael Holcomb (www.italywithmichael.com) of lived near the owner to visit the owner of the painting and take photos for me.

Golden Dragon #2
Two years later, another dragon emerged! In August 2015 I received an email from an owner of two K. Chin paintings saying that she "might" be interested in selling them, and that one of them was a dragon! Long story short, by late 2015 I purchased the painting, another beautiful K. Chin dragon oil painting, quite a bit larger than the first Golden Dragon painting. I've decided there is enough gold in the dragon to dub it as Golden Dragon #2. I took many pictures of the painting under different lighting using a Nikon D7000 and eventually created a digital image I'm happy with. The print was done on a Light Jet printer with archival inks and paper and is very close to being actual sized. The picture I took was brightly illuminated, bringing out a bit more blue around the tail than is seen under ordinary room light.

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And now to the puzzle!

This puzzle, with 1009 pieces, was cut over a period of about a week, starting on July 29, 2016 and ending on August 5, 2016. After the puzzle was cut, I handed sanded and vacuumed the puzzle three times, once with 220 grit sand paper and then twice with 320 grit sand paper. The puzzle contains nine figures (described below).. The edges are 100% directly interlocking. There is but just the tiniest amount of color line cutting, for all practical purposes I'd say there is none.

This puzzle includes my standard signature piece, signed the usual way (Custom Puzzle Craft, overall puzzle number, date and my signature) and I marked a second piece (The Observer figural) on the back to indicate the puzzle is Annual Puzzle Action #6, 2016. For this puzzle I used 5-ply Appleply. The Appleply cut extremely well, the puzzle looks great front and back. There was one void requiring routine attention, there are no chip-outs on the back.

This puzzle will be quite difficult to assemble given the extensive dark areas!

This puzzle is historic for a couple reasons.

First and foremost, this is the last puzzle cut at Mixed Mixed Art Gallery & Studio (completed August 5, 2016), the place where I made all of my puzzles including every puzzle of the 100 Puzzles Project and all six of the Annual Auction Puzzles. I am now in the process of closing my shop and putting the saws into storage. Two or more years from now I may establish a new shop at home, this is not in the works at this time. I'm totally closed for new orders, Custom Puzzle Craft will no longer be an operating business, although I'll keep the name, just in case plans change.

Secondly, a documentary trailer has been made, currently titled "The Last Piece of the Puzzle". Snippets of me cutting this puzzle are in the trailer! I will be showing the trailer at the 2016 Puzzle Parley. The film makers are thinking of making a full length documentary about the world of jigsaw puzzles: makers, collectors, assemblers and more!

I should note that the end of this auction is timed to coincide with the period of puzzle sales at the 2016 Puzzle Parley being held in Salem, MA. This is the only puzzle I will have for sale at the Puzzle Parley.

Shipping cost for the Celestial Dragon puzzle within the U.S. via 3-Day FedEx is $25.00. Contact me regarding international rates. I accept payment via PayPal only. California residents add 8% sales tax. I'll ship to anywhere in the world.

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This jigsaw puzzle was cut using a scroll saw, hand guiding the wood into the blade. This is not a laser or water jet cut puzzle. No templates were used for this puzzle, except for the figurals and Signature piece.