What used to be seen as quite a dull, old-fashioned way to pass the time has swung back round again and become very Instagrammable.
Everyone wants a puzzle – Vox
Puzzles have become increasingly popular — especially for millennials — in a way that outweighs what I thought might be the white noise of my personal preference for them. On Instagram, hashtags like #jigsawpuzzles and #puzzlesofinstagram yield tens of thousands of posts. TikTokers and YouTubers often post time lapses of themselves assembling beautiful, difficult jigsaws.
You don’t have to limit yourself to completing just one jigsaw at a time, though.
Surreal jigsaw puzzle montages – The Guardian
“A jigsaw puzzle manufacturer typically uses the same cut pattern for different puzzles,” Klein explains. “This makes the pieces of their puzzles interchangeable and I find that I can combine two or more to make a surreal image that the manufacturer never imagined.” … For his work, Klein uses vintage puzzles from the 1970s-90s, the selection of which can take years: “It’s an obsessive but enjoyable treasure hunt,” he says.
Jigsaws are certainly no longer what they used to be.
Someone creates a transparent jigsaw puzzle and it’s evil – DeMilked
Jigsaw puzzles are a great way to pass time while you’re stuck in quarantine. However, someone came up with a way to make this fun and relaxing activity into a nightmare. We present to you – transparent jigsaw puzzles.Assemble the jagged pieces of this shattered puzzle and fix ‘The Accident’ – Colossal
While most shattered glass heads straight to the trash, Yelldesign’s panes actually can be reassembled into a single sheet, turning a groan-inducing mistake into a delightfully tedious activity. Comically titled “The Accident,” the acrylic puzzle is comprised of 215 jagged and cracked pieces resembling a broken window. Yelldesign warns, though, that although you don’t have to worry about getting cut or scratched by the pointed edges, assembly isn’t an easy feat.
A 224 piece jigsaw puzzle featuring 43 different cat shaped pieces that need to be herded together – Laughing Squid
The Herding Cats Puzzle by Nervous System (previously) is an aptly named wooden jigsaw puzzle made up of 224 pieces in 43 different feline shapes. When all the cats are herded together, the result is a brilliantly colored giant blue-eyed fluffy kitty designed by Anne Sullivan.An ‘infinite’ galaxy puzzle that can be built in any direction – Colossal
The team over at Nervous System recently designed this fun Infinite Galaxy Puzzle that tiles continuously in any direction. Pieces from the top can be removed and added to the bottom, and likewise from side to side. So regardless of where you start the puzzle can continue in a seemingly infinite series of patterns.
I love the idea of a seemingly infinite jigsaw. Here’s another, and my favourite. From Darren Cullen, whose Spelling Mistakes Cost Lives project is more used to producing hard-edged, satirical advertising campaigns than dizzying Christmas gifts.
Descend into the endlessly repetitive loop of ‘Jigsaw Jigsaw’ – Colossal
If 2020 were packaged in a box, it would be Darren Cullen’s “Jigsaw Jigsaw.” Just like our repetitive days and seemingly endless fascination with simple pastimes, the 1,000-piece game relies on the Droste effect and features a recursive image that spirals into the same black-and-white puzzle over and over.
I was happy to help crowdfund this when plans were first announced to make this a real puzzle. It arrived earlier this month, but I gotta say, it’s not easy. This is as far as we got.
Miscellaneous Details 