"Stargazing"
293 pieces
My 51st puzle
February 1993
This is a prime example of a puzzle in which I was able to "change" the scene by cutting a unique irregular border. The original print (a Maxfield Parrish scene) had blue sky all the way up to the top edge of the rectangular print. I decided to give the appearance of falling stars by cutting them in to the edge. The other stars which are inside the sky are emphasized by dropping out thin slivers of the wood next to part of the star's shape.
The soft "curl" style combined with the colors make this a challenging puzzle to assemble. Inevitably, when people assemble this puzzle, the top of the sky (specifically, the areas with the "falling stars") is the last section that is assembled. It is a joy to watch the puzzle-assemblers when they suddenly realize that the falling stars are in fact the top edge of the puzzle.
This puzzle was on display as part of an exhibit of wooden jigsaw puzzles held in Worcester, Massachusetts, during October of 1997. Click here for more details on the exhibition.