Being a Yorkshireman, I am as tight as a duck's arse as we say in these parts. I was very reluctant to buy a new jigsaw. Couldn't I just purchase a secondhand one cheaply from a charity shop? Another determining point was this - the jigsaw image needed to be one that I wanted to work on as I knew it would take me hours to do. Google Gemini suggests that it takes between twelve and twenty hours for a "beginner" to complete a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle.
In the middle of May, I was in the local "British Heart Foundation" charity shop looking for branded "Old Fella" clothes when I spotted a jigsaw I knew I would like. It only cost £3 and the image was of a lovely village on the North Yorkshire coast that is familiar to me - Staithes just north of Whitby. "Yes!" I said to myself, "that's just the job!"
Anyway, a week later, I began. After what seemed like twelve to twenty hours I had almost completed the outer frame after sifting out all of the pieces with straight edges. I was making progress and then something happened.
The best Yorkshire summer on record broke out and I did not want to pass my time indoors working on a jigsaw. I wanted to be out doing summery things like surfing, attending musical festivals and running naked through forests. So the jigsaw was "put on hold" until normal British weather resumed. Staithes could wait.
Then ten days ago, I went back to the jigsaw. This time I set up a table in the front bedroom - right next to the window where daylight would make the task easier.
In several sessions, I made steady progress though some gaps were hard to fill because mischievous pieces were hiding in plain sight. Doing that jigsaw was a practical challenge and gradually the finishing line came close. Of course, I always knew that there was a real possibility that not all one thousand pieces would be present and sure enough, as the last pieces were pressed home, it became clear that two pieces were missing.
I didn't know how I would feel about that. Would I rage in my "Old Fella" nightgown and toss an incomplete Staithes up in the air or would I calmly accept the reality? I am pleased to report that I was cool about the two missing pieces. It was okay.
However, the next time I decide to do a jigsaw it will be a new one and I will do it in the front bedroom in natural light - hopefully when it's grey outside and drizzle is steadily drizzling. But that won't be any time soon. I am jigsawed out right now.
Well done, Mr. Pudding! I've kept a jigsaw puzzle in progress for the past twenty or more years. They are relaxing stress-relievers for me, so I take my time with them. I've featured the majority of the complete puzzles on my blog.
ReplyDeleteI get jig saw puzzles from the local library. There's not a wide choice but enough to keep my interest.
ReplyDeleteJigsaw Puzzles of 10, 000 pieces may take months to complete.
ReplyDeleteA 60, 000 Jigsaw Puzzle from Costco costs almost 600 Dollars.
It's 29 feet wide and 8 feet tall ; the entire box weighs almost 90 pounds.
Margaret Drabble the novelist is a dedicated dissectologist.
She wrote - A Pattern in the Carpet : A Personal History With Jigsaws.
She said Jigsaws saved her sanity during a stressful period of her life.
Jigsaw Puzzles can alter timelines and transport us to strange worlds.
That's the plot of *Christmas At the Puzzle Store* by Richard Freeborn.
Readers of Borges liken his fiction to Multi-Dimensional Jigsaws ; stories
such as Garden of Forking Paths, Death & the Compass, Library of Babel.
I do not possess a Jigsaw but my Dad left me his Wooden Toolbox.
His Motorised Jigsaw Tool is a fearsome object which remains unused.
Sometimes in the middle of the night I can hear it buzz-buzzing away in its Box.
As soon as I saw 998, I knew I had to search where the missing pieces would have been, and I found them quite easily. I have a jigsaw from a thrift shop/charity shop/opshop, also 1000 pieces and nowhere to set up and put it together! I should have read the completed size on the box before I bought it. The huge old chest of drawers in my bedroom is wide enough, but not deep enough and doing the puzzle on my one-and-only smallish table is out of the question. This is where I do everything else that needs a table, so can't possibly begin a jigsaw that takes up more than half its surface. I will give the puzzle to my brother who just happens to have an enormous old dining table.
ReplyDeletePredictable about the missing pieces! Only two not too bad. More would get maddening.
ReplyDeleteWe have quite a few jigsaw puzzles, mostly bought from charity shops, and have never yet found a piece missing. Usually we take them back to a charity shop when we’ve done them. One day I found a piece of jigsaw on the floor a couple of days after I had donated it. I could sense the disappointment or annoyance of the person that next bought it so took it back to the shop. Luckily the puzzle was still unsold and the assistant was able to put the missing piece in the box.
ReplyDeleteDid you know that many people drop the term “jigsaw” and just refer to them as “puzzles”, which seems daft to me.
Wow, that jigsaw is truly gorgeous. You say you are familiar with the village? Lucky Yorkshire man to live in such beauty! Also, I must admit a great fondness for charity shops in England. I really enjoyed them. You have so many and it makes you feel good to find something useful and it helps that particular cause.
ReplyDeleteI made the image very large and had to hunt to find the two missing spaces. Sometimes the gaps are a part of the beauty. A great way to spend a winter week.
ReplyDeleteGreat job! And by the way, I'm MerMer Moon, not Grandmaw Moon.
ReplyDeleteIt takes me between 12 and 20 months to do a jigsaw puzzle. Still, I enjoy them. I think.
I recognized "Steers", Staithes to the initiated, right away. Childhood vacation spot, remembering tired little legs from the steep streets. That's a picture worth doing.
ReplyDeleteThe uninitiated, hard to type!
DeleteThose two missing pieces would ruin it for me.
ReplyDeleteThose two missing pieces would ruin it for me.
ReplyDeleteIt is a beautiful village but two missing pieces is annoying. Jigsaw puzzles take up so much time, I think I'll save them for when my legs stop working (hopefully never).
ReplyDeleteJigsaw puzzles are fun to do,although, my back gets sore when I try to do them so I don't do them often.
ReplyDeleteMust have been decades since I last tried a physical jigsaw puzzle at all, and I'm sure I've never done one as large as 1000 pieces (or even 998). On my tablet I have a jigsaw app which can be set to different numbers of pieces, I think I've kept it on around 100 so far as that suits my eyes (as well at my patience...) ... ;)
ReplyDeleteI did a jigsaw puzzle about 12 years ago and haven't felt the need to do another one. But perhaps in time!
ReplyDeleteWe sell jigsaw puzzles at the charity shop I volunteer at. I often wonder whether there are pieces missing but it would take too much time to count them all before we put them up for sale
ReplyDeleteTight as a ducks arse…lol I’m not heard that spoken for a long time
ReplyDeleteThe only way the shop can check the jigsaw is complete is by someone completing it, which may be fun for some volunteers. The jigsaw made up a nice scene.
ReplyDelete