Hide
and Seek was made from a fairly new
art print (probably within the past 10 or 20
years), a reproduction of the 1908 painting by
Arthur J. Elsley. Children are dressed in
Victorian style clothing, it appears the children
could be playing hide-and-seek... and the little
girl is hiding from her brother behind a large St.
Bernard. (I wonder if the brother will find
her?) Really cute. The print has been
mounted with acid-free adhesive. The puzzle
measures 12" X 16".
There is an average of 1.2 pieces per square
inch. Puzzle has been cut from 1/4" 5-ply
Finland Birch using blades with a thickness of
just 0.010!
There are 6
figurals in this puzzle. Two of them
were a bit difficult and time-consuming to make,
as parts of them involved drop-out sections which
I had to cut first. They are part of the puzzle
too of course so are not true drop-outs, but only
in the figural sense (no pun intended). Notice
that there is a jump rope at the bottom
of the painting, that's why I chose the figural
of the girl jumping rope! I thickened up the rope
to make sure it wouldn't break and as a result,
it is a very strong figural piece and not
delicate at all.
Figural list as follows:
• Boy riding Scooter
• Girl jumping Rope
• St Bernard (sitting)
• St Bernard (lying down)
• St Bernard (standing)
• "Key" signature piece
(The back of the Key is
signed, numbered, and dated.)
The puzzle was
cut in swirlie style and it interlocks
well.
Section of backside shown
below:
Selection of
pieces shown below - all pieces except for the
figurals are swirlie cut. Most of the pieces
resemble each other and puzzle will not be easy
to solve.
Scan of back-side of pieces,
illustrating the swirlie style cut:
Now unfortunately
I need to mention something about 2 of the pieces.
Making swirlie style puzzles involves a lot of
rotating of the wood as I cut.. At one point I
noticed I cut one of the sections a little too
thinly and I said to myself I will have to be
careful turning the wood on my next rotation to
avoid putting pressure on it. But I wasn't
thinking and as I made my next cut I must have
forgotten and grabbed the wood right at the wrong
area, this put extra pressure on it and I heard
the sound of the wood crack and although it
didn't break completely off sure enough there was
a semi-broken area - this is the puzzle piece
shown to the right below (see where arrow is
pointing; this is in pencil and can be erased) I
strengthened it up with wood glue and it should
be ok if handled carefully.
Now the other
piece (shown to the left) - believe it or not I
made the same mistake twice, however with this
piece even though I heard something, I examined
it and didn't see any break at all anywhere. It
was like it healed itself, but I know I heard
something, so one of the interior plies may not
be as strong as the rest of them. I tried to
strengthen it up anyway with wood glue, although
it wasn't easy because there wasn't really a
break to be seen. I am going to wrap these 2
pieces separately. The one to the left may be ok
and possibly never break. The one to the right
may possibly break again if pressure is put on it
the wrong way. However wood glue is very strong
and I am hoping it is almost as good as new.
Puzzle comes with
the beautiful wood box with sliding
lid shown below. I made this box myself from
solid pine (sides) and 3ply Finland Birch (bottom
and lid). The outside has been finished with
stain and varnish. My label is affixed to the
outside of the box with the puzzle title, number,
and piece count. There are also multiple layers
of sealer over the label so it cannot be peeled
or scraped off. It is embedded inside the layers
of finish- has an "antiqued" or "aged"
look to it- pretty cool... one of my first boxes
like this. The box measures 6 1/2" X 9"
X 5 1/2" high.
Note: This puzzle contains small pieces which may
present a choking hazard to children. It has been
designed for adults or older children and is
not meant for young children.
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