Rooster Puzzle 
by Guest Writer Roberta Shore

We invite you to read Roberta Shore's review on the following jigsaw puzzle. Since she has discovered the advantages of jigsaw puzzling, she has reviewed/journaled several that will be available on this website. Rooster jigsaw puzzle Amazon link

Rooster Cloudberries Ribbon Cut 1000 pieces Finished dimensions: 19.125” x 26.75”

Rooster Puzzle - Roberta's Review

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Rooster Cloudberries Ribbon Cut 1000 pieces Finished dimensions: 19.125” x 26.75”

Rooster jigsaw puzzle

Cloudberries

Ribbon Cut

1000 pieces

Finished dimensions: 19.125” x 26.75”

My (advancing) Newbie Difficulty Rating; easy to moderate

Well, this regal rooster ended up in a turkey of a puzzle! Cloudberries has an excellent reputation, and I can say first hand I have thoroughly enjoyed the other Cloudberries puzzles I have completed. So, this less than satisfying box of pieces may have been a one off, but when it happens it is so frustrating.

Quality: There were good things. The sturdy box is square and attractive. Inside are a sealed bag of pieces and a full size image poster. Color match on box pic and poster to pieces was excellent. Piece fit was pick up finished puzzle off the table tight! The pieces have an almost matte finish - no glare that hampers puzzling at night in room light. No pieces were damaged in any way.

The process and the problems: Find the edge piece and sort by color. To start with there were two duplicate edge pieces. That of course leaves one forever wondering if there will be missing pieces; thankfully there were none. While building the frame there were so many false fits it took hours to actually put it together.

Sub sorting: Not my favorite task, but I spend extra time on it. After building the frame, I sub sort out distinct areas of the puzzle, as well as color hues where applicable. In this puzzle I sorted out each of the 4 left and 3 right sections of designs, the bottom middle ground, flowers, and leaves, and the individual color sections that made up the rooster’s body and tail feathers. The background was already sorted, I do it because it makes the actual build more satisfying and adds to the fun quotient. At that point I wasn’t sure how much fun there would be. Given what I described so far, sub sorting was an even bigger chore than usual! And, I did get tired of it, so there were a couple trays of leaf parts and stems to deal with . . . later.

Construction: While building the puzzle, some pieces that were 100% correct would not fit into frame pieces. I generally build in from the frame, especially when it offers a lot of color information as was true here. The only edge I felt totally confident about was the bottom one. During the build my suspicions were correct. Problems occurred on the top and right edges.

The only way I was going to get past the frustration, was to ignore it. The middle bottom and left side were going well until I found the tiny tip for the right side of the tulip shaped flower’s leaf and it didn’t fit. So, I just pulled out the frame piece and carried on. This was not my fault — the edge pieces looked like they fit together perfectly, and there seemed only one way that I was going to have a frame, so I went with it! I did feel that the feathers on top were too far apart, but I was leaving the Rooster’s tail until the end, so it could wait.

Moving on to the right side, a repeat of knowing a piece was correct that would not fit in the frame. Yup, pulled it out, carried on. Sometime later a repeat of same. In that instance I was able to swap one of the pulled out edge pieces with the new problem, so I was down to one space in the frame. For me, the most complicated area was the middle section on the right side. I think I just needed a break. I came back and that side got done.

Very early on, I was able to piece together a large portion of the Rooster’s body — sub sorting has its benefits! — so I was able to connect him into what was done. He got the rest of his body, the leaves and stems went into place, and it was time for his feathers. Originally I thought that would be at best time consuming, if not the most difficult part. And knowing what my instinct told me, I couldn’t start from the top edge, so I started from the lovely fellow’s bottom. And yes, by now, having ignored the edge issue, I was actually having fun!

As predicted, when I got to the top, the edge piece feathers had to get moved. I pulled out all the top edge pieces with no color and continued the build. It went remarkably fast. The eight background edge pieces found new places to reside (I had taken a picture so I knew they ended up in a different order), and the puzzle was complete!

I am proud of myself for not giving up. I do not want to go through this exercise ever again! But again, I learned something about myself. Patience isn’t my strong point, but I was steadfast with this and it paid off. It is amazing what puzzling offers. Its benefits seem endless.

Thank you for taking the time and patience to read what I hope you did not consider an endless review.

My grades (based on the box of pieces I got): Quality, C+, Fun Factor B+

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