One of your resident puzzle makers here, and I have to say that I might have out done myself this time! Every other year, the Puzzle Parley is held, and we do an Exchange. This is my second year participating, but also managing it. It was so cool to see everyone else’s super creativity, but I digress.
My puzzle is part tessellating make-it-how-you-want-to and part tricky fitting pieces, fully double sided, multi-layered and painted with watercolors either directly on wood or on gesso-ed wood.
The completed cherry blossom tessellation set, getting ready to be sealed with triple thick clear gloss.
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The pegs are made from acrylic, with either white or alcohol ink dyed silver mirror (on the pot). I found out to my woe last year that no plywood or draftboard could handle wear and tear of being so small without breaking, thus acrylic was used.
I was surprised how creative people got with this – since the trunk is made of all the same connecting shapes as the leaf tessellation pieces, you can assemble the trunk in different ways, as well as doing more than 2 layers of “leaves”. One person even put the pot on upside down just for the creativity of it! Several combined “snow” season with “cherry blossom” season, and Summer with Autumn.
If you look very close, you can see tiny pegs and triangle-shaped holes in some of the leaf tessellation pieces. I initially had twice as many, and two hole sets for each secondary “bough” aka layer of leaves. But since the pegs are in different spots, but the holes are all the same, it turned out to be nearly impossible to get the correct ones that lines up in the right places! So I removed half of the holes and the pegs to make it easier to do it your own way. I think I went through at least 7 numbered versions, as in, I get sick of numbering them after that!
Thank you! It nearly blew mine trying to get the plywood holes and the acrylic pegs to have a Goldilocks kerf size – not too big and not too small, but just right
@jamely, I am stunned!
I love puzzles and I love tessallations, so your work really hits homerun with me.
Your creativity is inspiring and a prime example of the potential of what can be achieved with the under the bright minds of the members of this forum.
Wow, wow, wow! That is the most amazing puzzle I have ever seen! I cannot even begin to imagine how long it took you to figure that out to make it so versatile. And the painting of it is astounding and absolutely beautiful. Your Puzzle Parlay group must really have enjoyed it!
versions, as in, I get sick of numbering them after that!
under the bright minds of the members of this forum.