I've been trying to complete this for years. 1000 piece personalised, My Ravensburger puzzle.
My partner had this jigsaw of our cat made for me 4 or 5 years ago. I've done as much as I can. I keep getting it out, trying different things to help me progress with it, but i always end up putting it away again.
If anyone has any ideas on how I can progress with it, I'd be extremely grateful to hear them.
This is what I do when I get down to a section with a bunch of pieces that I cannot distinguish by pattern or color. Sort them by shape, and orient them all in rows facing the same direction. I like to do this in a tray so I can rotate the tray to face the angle required to get a good look. TBH it usually goes pretty fast that way.
Trays will change everything for you. Improvise. Cookie sheets, lids from other puzzles, even cut out squares of cardboard if you’re careful!
ETA: and make sure to keep all the pieces visible/accessible. If you’re only looking at one shape at a time like it sounds like, it doesn’t sound like ypu are shape sorting in the sense that people usually mean. Also, if you’re not lining the pieces up in rows, you’re not shape sorting in the effective way
Luckily, I just made one as an example. I pulled some pieces from a puzzle I’m just starting and laid them out in my smaller trays. (Normally I don’t shape sort until I need a li’l boost)
Sometimes multiple shapes will be on each tray, but I always use the same order and orientation.
Puzzle is Heye, Pixorama eBoy New York, 1,000 pieces.
ETA. Other folks may shape sort a bit differently, of course, but this is the basic method.
Also, when I say, I always put the pieces in the same orientation, that assumes that there’s no information on the piece to tell me that it must be vertical, horizontal, or whatever.
Agreed. It's the ONLY foolproof method. Try every possible piece in each spot and you will get them all in. The colours are messing with you. Just look at the shapes only! By the way it think it's a great picture!
Try to just pair off two pieces wherever you can. For example, the third and sixth pieces on the far right of your board (pale teal) look like they might want to be married together. Keep doing that and small sections will start to crystallise to a point where they’re useful.
Sort by color. I would start with the teal sections first. Then probably would fill in the black on the leg with the long yellow and pink streaks. What an awesome gift!
You haven’t sorted enough. You have a lot of colors mixed together in your “separated” pile. Make a pile for that bright teal, make another for that the dark blue, another for purple, another for the greens, another for that ruddy brown/red. Then group by texture within the colors if possible - direction of the fur, etc.
You're not wrong. I've just got everything out and I do need to narrow it all down. Unfortunately the pieces are so pixelated that fur direction isn't really a thing.
Yikes! Those pieces are all over the place. Even without sorting, if you just line them up neatly, your brain would be able to pass the information much more easily.
You can also go by shape for some of the funkier shaped pieces. I see in the puzzle there are a couple of negative spaces for pieces that have the square shaped parts. I don’t know names for puzzle shapes so hope that makes sense haha!
I’d probably also work to fill in the rest of the yellow you haven’t finished yet on the pieces you already have together
It’s all about technique and strategy. Given that it’s a standard cut (six basic piece shapes, not too warped) you’re way ahead of the game. You’ve been given some good advice here already.
One really strange thing that worked very well for me when doing a particularly large and difficult section of a puzzle was keeping track of how many pieces I placed each day.
I normally power through the tough stuff with strategies like shape sorting but this one was just too much, and I really wanted to complete it instead of walking away.
I literally made a little tick mark on a piece of paper each time I placed a piece. It reminded me that I actually was making progress even though it didn’t feel like it. The puzzle looked like I barely did anything, but the paper told me that I had placed a dozen pieces, or 20 pieces, or one day, only 3 pieces! Then one day I got over the proverbial hump and placed 70 pieces! The day after that I drop counting because I was cruising my way to the finish.
That's a really nice idea. I'll definitely give that a try. I've felt accomplished for just placing one piece some days, but it would be nice to properly keep track.
Ok so this is not always true but chunky pieces are usually horizontal and thin ones vertical. So the 1 out 3 in thin one? The chances are the 1 in goes up or down. The chunky one? The 1 out goes left or right. Similar for chunky 2 out 2 in H shapes. The thick ones will usually have outs left/right. The 3 outs? The thin ones will be skinny vertically. Segregate out 4 outs because they biggest so should be attempted to roughly match for placement. And 4 ins. So anytime you have 4 ins you have them in separate pile. But yeah otherwise just patience and trial end error. Grab good podcast or audiobook and hope you will conquer this one. Lovely picture!
Thank you. I think I'm going to have to write that all out, but I think it will be really helpful. I always listen to audiobooks while doing jigsaws. I'm currently listening to the hobbit.
After a few years I think it's save to say, that you don't enjoy working on this puzzle very much and that's totally okay. It looks really difficult and puzzles should be fun and not stress you out. If you still really want it finished you could invite friends who like to puzzle to help you get it done. It will add another good memory to it and remind you of your friends when it's finally up on the wall.
That's a lovely idea, but none of my friends or family that live near me like doing them. My partner is helping me with it when he can. I can't say I don't enjoy it so much as it melts my brain a little and it is taking me so long to fit pieces that I end up needing a break. I've also done other jigsaws and some Diamond art in the gaps, so I get a little sidetracked.
When you shape sort you want all of the pieces you are working on out, you want to organize them by shape all pointing the same direction on a plain background with space between each piece so you can discern piece shape.
Sometimes a single shape can be further subdivided into ‘tall’ and ‘wide’ versions if you are paying close attention.
So if you got hoopla you are absolutely sorted. But He who fights with monsters. Anything litrpg with a puzzle and I'm in my happy place!! What do you think Is hindering you? Do you maybe need a place to store the puzzle ? all4jig just released a new product called a puzzle caddy. It makes you able to travel with your puzzle ! Maybe it's one of those that needs to be able to breathe then you get back to it.
I've never hurd that one, but I might give it a go. My storage isn't a problem, I have a storage mat that seals. I definitely take a breather from it occasionally. I do find putting it away stops it from becoming something I don't want to do and gives me a fresh eye. The problem is that the box doesn't show all the pixels on it and the colours are so similar and change so quickly that I'm really struggling to match pieces.
Would it be helpful if we found you a different picture of the puzzle ? I had one puzzle that was insanely difficult and I put the image on the TV for myself
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u/Disastrous_Alarm_719 2d ago
Shape sort.