Roberta S.
This puzzle was hard for a couple of reasons. I think time spent is a measure, and I spent a lot of it on every part before ever getting to the blue background! I actually found piecing the background (about 1/4 of the pieces) much more relaxing and fun despite the time it took. I will explain more as this review goes forward.
Quality: Acceptable. My biggest issue (the second reason referenced to above) was that the puzzle pieces were darker than the enclosed poster or the full illustration on the box bottom. Even the brightest yellow on those had more of a greenish tint on the pieces. Obviously that made the sorting and piecing more difficult and added to time spent. Otherwise there are things to admire. The attractive, sturdy, 8” square box and every thing in it is sustainable. Just two easy to peal clear stickers hold it together. An enlarged portion of the illustration, with minimal signage, covers the top and sides of the box top. There is some interesting and upsetting information about the Reef printed along the outer sides of the box bottom. Inside is a resealable paper bag of pieces and a huge poster. The solid pieces have a matte finish, and a black core and backing. The black is not a detriment, just a bit jarring when dumped out of the bag! There was some black puzzle dust. Piece fit was amazing! Except for all of 2 instances where a piece was so close to perfect as to be in doubt, it was immediately clear when a correct piece just fell into place. (I put those two pieces aside, they eventually found their home.) All of the traditional shapes are represented. None of the pieces were damaged or together uncut. There were no false fits. No pieces were missing. I cannot recommend trying the extraneous completed puzzle pick up.
Getting started: Find the edge pieces and sort by color. I always try to sort by more than color - by objects and areas, where possible. My sorts here included the edge pieces, pieces with beige and other color that would connect to the frame, each line of type, the yellow land, the green grass, the watery blue, the horizon hills and line of distant land edge, the branch on each side, the hat, the shades of the beach dress, the buttons and logo, the lady’s skin, face and hair, the blue pieces that had other color, and tray after tray, after tray of blue sky. As I went along I sub sorted each tray by piece shape and better defined the shades of color in the skin and dress. Any shades in the sky were so subtle I only noticed them when I began the solid blue piecing.
Construction: Although the edges had some useful color information, I waited a while to build the whole frame.. I started with the bottom edge and worked my way up. Progress was mostly built piece by piece, it was slow going but never frustrating. Other than the three people, I got up through the hills and land line and the hat brim without issue. Except for the color difference from poster to pieces, those areas were well defined. At that point I got braver about the frame and filled it all in. I attached the lady’s hair and face (a lucky section that got built during the sorting) to the frame. Everything else just felt more complicated and less fun. The 3 people, the logs, her hands, the rest of the hat, the enclosed blue areas, and the illusive sock top - it all took so much time! Eventually the people showed up, from the neck down the lady got all of her extremities and got dressed, and she was relaxing on the log. And I could finally get to the sky. Seriously, I was looking forward to it! Since I sorted the different piece shapes into their own trays, I could eliminate several of them from any given search. Admittedly, the knobs, holes, and legs were not always obvious enough to find s piece first try, so I was trying possible choices, piece after piece, in the same space. But I didn’t care about the time it took. Each success was a satisfying experience. The last 50 pieces went quite quickly in comparison! And I was really having fun. Finally it was complete and I felt quite accomplished for the effort. Not as bright and colorful as the poster, but the puzzling process, that offers a clear mind and a sense of calm, is it’s own reward.
Final thoughts: Puzzles like this are my favorites - a central focus and a textured or color variation background. No, this puzzle did not have that! But I particularly like the perspective in this one. In general I like them so much more than busy puzzles - I rarely choose those any more. My puzzles of choice are easier to sort comprehensively, and honestly take no more time to piece together than a busy one. Besides, I like to choose puzzle that appeal to me visually, whether artful, or clever, or humorous, or just plain cute. Busy puzzles normally don’t have that appeal for me. There is one exception to all of that — I really love doing pure, full spectrum gradients because I’m good at them. I am blessed with excellent color vision. I hope Kazoo’s 1000 piece gradient comes back in stock. But just because I can enjoy something like that solid blue background as part of an.interesting illustration, I swore early on I had no interest in doing a one color puzzle. So why on earth did I just buy Blue Kazoo’s 250 piece, solid white puzzle? Well, that’s about the same piece count as the blue sky, and thank goodness, it has a variety of piece shapes! So I figured I could get through it, and add it to the kinds of puzzle types I have completed. I’ve only done 4 other puzzles from this brand. Quality was comparable, piece fit being the highlight where the actual puzzling is concerned. I can recommend this brand, obviously I enjoy their puzzles. I also admire the Blue Kazoo Team’s dedication to the environment shared with a kitschy sense of humor throughout their site. Laughter is a good thing!
My grades for Barrier Reef: Quality A-, Fun Factor A+
