Completed my first puzzle in ten years in March. I am well and truly hooked now.
In March I took that round Janod children's puzzle you can see there in the corner, down off a high shelf one morning (no name or number of pieces on the box - it has a hundred little chefs in a commercial kitchen) and completed it in ninety minutes or so. My first jigsaw since I had last had that very one in my hands ten years previously.
And what a great ninety minutes that was - the flow...!
Now - I've turned from being a book person into a puzzle person.
Who needs a library? Out with the books! I need those shelves for my puzzles.
(Funny story about that first puzzle: My chosen family is Amish, and at that time, around 2016, the children did not have access to puzzles beyond the cut-out board type for the youngest children, except through me. The children had never seen a hundred piece puzzle before. So...I brought this Janod puzzle home one day, and the children got to it and opened it before I was there to help them. Completing it in scarcely more than fifteen minutes on the kitchen table while I was just around the corner. How? It came will a full size poster of the puzzle scene inside, which, they never having seen a puzzle before, they just laid out on the table, then hunted out and put down the pieces on top of poster one by one, completing the puzzle in minutes.)
My favorite online puzzle shop (I live in deepest rural Michigan - no local retailers here) is TopPuzzleShop in China. The quality of puzzles is just jaw dropping. Just the box alone on that Koi puzzle - it shimmers! My first order for six puzzles took 32 days from China to Michigan and delivery cost $59 (but, on the other hand - no additional sales tax), my second delivery, still on its way, cost me $69. My current wish list on their site (for titles I can't find any other retailer in the U.S. selling) has thirty-two items.
If you want to dip into Chinese quality puzzles and give them a try, a couple of the Momibook ones here, "Enchanted Magic House" "Cats in Jiangnan" are available on Amazon for a reasonable $15 and $25.
I am a fan of the designs of New York Puzzle Company as well, and have a huge wishlist there as well...do they ever have a site wide sale??
Puzzles Shown:
In Progress: The Keramikon Archives, by the artist Ni Puzz (who formerly went by the name The Handsome Mr. Ni?). He specializes in Wimmelbilder style puzzles, and you can actually see a slew of one minute videos on bilibili showing how he designed many of these puzzles step by step.
Vinlaa-Bridge City Puzzle 1000 Piece Puzzle × 1$17.99
1000pcs Jigsaw Puzzle-Vinlaa-Raining Melody × 1$17.99
Ni Puzz-1000pcs Jigsaw Puzzle-The Keramikon Archives × 1$26.99
Pin De Le-500pcs Jigsaw Puzzle-The Invasion of England by L.M. Glackens × 1$11.99
PJLT-500pcs Jigsaw Puzzle-Lucky Koi × 1$22.99
Ni Puzz-1000pcs Jigsaw Puzzle-Dear Friends × 1
Background:
Janod - ??
Laura Pemberton x 2
The Mushroom Boy by Dream World
..and that Shakespeare one everybody is doing