A New Jigsaw

[Andy Kev.]

No, not that kind of jigsaw.

Yesterday, I bought on a whim and for the first time in my life a jigsaw puzzle. I had a few when I was a kid but they were all Christmas or birthday presents.

The one I got is a 1,000 piece thing of a Heironymous Bosch painting (the only artist of whom I have ever bought a book of his work).

Like an idiot in my enthusiasm I started doing it on the floor in front of my armchair. It will have to go on the table tonight. It's nice to rediscover how such an innocent pleasure can be such fun.

 

[Dr.Al]

We have a bit of a tradition of getting a jigsaw for the Christmas holiday every year. Every year it surprises me how hooked I can get on them.

Usually we get one of the Wasgij ones as they add a bit more interest than just reproducing a picture that's on the front of the box.

 

[SamQ aka Ah! Q!]

Usually we get one of the Wasgij ones

Absolutely. Good for the lateral thinking.

 

[TrimTheKing]

My wife gets one or more Wasgij's for Birthdays and Christmas, at her requests, and loves them/ She's done them all to date and waiting in new releases. Once she starts she doesn't stop until it's done, usually over the course of a couple or three evenings. They're done on a hard case that can be packed away at the end of the evening to avoid it being knocked over or pieces lost.

 

[Doug]

I love a jigsaw, there was always one on the go when I was a kid my mum was a fanatic. I usually get bought a few at Xmas this was the last one I did.



This one has yet to be done,



A couple of woodworking mates I chat to on WhatsApp bought it me, it’s an absolute swine :lol: :lol:

 

[Pete Maddex]

My wife is just getting into them, I keep being asked to help as she has been doing some difficult ones that are from charity shops so you don’t know how many pieces are missing.


Pete

 

[Peri]

I haven't thought of jigsaws in many years - thanks for sending me off down that rabbit hole

In the 70's both my parents were mad into jigsaws, the bigger the better. They had their favourites, and as we were poor and jigsaws were a luxury they re-did them many times over.

Two stick in my mind. These were huge (although me being aged 6 or 7 they probably seemed bigger than they were!) - but I'm sure they were about 6'x4' and at weighed in at 7k or maybe even 10k pieces.

 

[StevieB]

I have a secret passion for jigsaws, typically Jan Van Hasssteren or Heye. Typically 2000 pieces upwards and I am lucky enough to have all 3 of the Heye 8000 piece jigsaws (Berlin, New York and 2000 Years). The hardest jigsaw I have done recently however was a small, 1000 piece one of Van Gough's 'Starry Night' with many of the pieces containing gold flecks/paintwork in metallic paint which simply reflected the light and made them extremely difficult to place - one of the only jigsaws I had to resort to shape rather than colour to finish!

 

[sunnybob]

Not sure how poor you have to be to be able to lay out a 6ft x 4ft jigsaw in the house :lol:
We would have had to move furniture into the street to get a board that big flat. :eusa-whistle:

 

[Lurker]

Not sure how poor you have to be to be able to lay out a 6ft x 4ft jigsaw in the house :lol:
We would have had to move furniture into the street to get a board that big flat. :eusa-whistle:

Surely you would set it up in the front room/parlour. You know?, the room at the front of a terrace that was 30% of the footprint of the downstairs that was never used except for Christmas

 

[Peri]

Lurker - Spot on - I seem to remember the main board was kept in the 'front room' on the floor with a board over it, and a big rug on top of it, then they'd do a section on a board about 1'x2' on their laps while watching TV, then add the completed section to the main puzzle when it was done.

(My dad always ended up with the skies )

 

[Peri]

Wow - a 40,000 piece jigsaw (Dimension 680 x 192 cm)
https://www.puzzle-boulevard.com/ravens ... 83122.html

and a 42,000 one
https://www.puzzle-boulevard.com/educa- ... 63751.html

 

[sunnybob]

Not sure how poor you have to be to be able to lay out a 6ft x 4ft jigsaw in the house :lol:
We would have had to move furniture into the street to get a board that big flat. :eusa-whistle:

Surely you would set it up in the front room/parlour. You know?, the room at the front of a terrace that was 30% of the footprint of the downstairs that was never used except for Christmas

With 6 of us in a victorian terrace that had been bomb damaged, we didnt have a "parlour". Hell, we didnt even have an inside toilet till 1978 :shock: And never had a bathroom even then. The front room was used every night.

 

[AndyP]

Four Yorkshiremen anyone?

 

[Peri]

Four Yorkshiremen anyone?

Sounds a lot like my upbringing SB - Inner city B'ham boy, in a mid terrace, no running hot water until about 78, no usable bathroom or indoor loo until then (I wish I was joking), although there were only 4 of us - but we still had a 'best' room that only got used at Christmas (I still miss that open fire)

 

[sunnybob]

We had to use all the rooms all the time or we would have killed each other.
The landlord did nothing he wasnt forced to by law. We still had gas light in one room until about '65. It was a three down three up terrace with a toilet at the back of the concrete yard., and there was ONE 3 pin electric socket in the whole of the house. The tin bath hung on the nail on the outside of the back door. The washing copper was still in the scullery till dad knocked it out.
The street behind was bombed flat during the war (that was my playground),and our house had suffered a lot of damage. The windows barely fitted the frames. The front passage had a slope to the left of a couple of inches over the three foot width where the floorboards foundation had slipped. Dad had to cut a long wedge off the bottom of the front door and turn it round and stick it on the top to make it fit the frame.
It was funny when we had a visitor who wasnt regular. they would walk in, walk down the passage, and then when they had to veer right to go past the stairs to the back of the house they always fell into the banisters. Their faces trying to work out what had happened was priceless.
We took our amusement where we found it :lol: :lol: :lol:
Kids today dont know theyre born :eusa-whistle: :eusa-whistle:
There is a picture of the front of the house somewhere, I will try to find it. Mum got evacuated twice during the war, my brother was born in northampton during one of them. She lived there for over 60 years.
In 1958 my dad was offered the house for £500. He refused, because then he would have to do his own exterior maintenance. Current price is around £1million :eusa-doh:

 

[Cabinetman]

You were lucky ...........
That was pretty hard going.

 

[sunnybob]

Have to stress that I'm not complaining :eusa-hand:
Just recounting inner London during the 50's and 60's.
We had shoes and clothes and we never went hungry, although those loose windows meant we shivered a lot.

About 18 years ago, on my one and only trip to Oz. I was talking to a native (all right, an Australian) and he said he had always been told that the English didnt wash. So I explained the severe lack of plumbing in those days, and that the tin bath had to carried in and set in front of the fire, then be filled with 6 large saucepans of hot water that had been boiled on the gas stove, quite often shared between two or more kids, and then all scooped out afterwards with the same saucepans and poured down the sink, which is why it only happened once a week. He had no concept of life without a full bathroom suite.
I had my first bath in a bathroom when I was 18, in a girlfriends house. Now I have three shower rooms and 4 toilets :lol: :lol: :lol: The boy done good.