Review: Cherry Jam (Castorland, 3000pc)

Completed puzzle is 36x25" wide x 26.75" tall

Description

Title	Cherry Jam
Artist	Trisha Hardwick
Brand	Castorland
No. of pieces	3000
Piece cut type	Fully interlocking ribbon
Price/Retailer	$22.95 + s&h from Simple Pastimes

Analysis
Let me start off by saying this puzzle is one of my new favorites. It might actually be at the top of the list.

Before I get into details explaining why, there are a few things to note about the puzzle quality, which, overall, is solid. The puzzle is constructed from sturdy, durable cardboard with minimal dust.

While the pieces have clean cuts and do fit well with each other, it's not a snug fit. That means picking up a patch of 2+ pieces can be tricky, but if you flip them over, you can see the pieces all fit precisely together. One good thing is that clean up will be a breeze, and it will be easy to redo and take apart again without damaging any pieces. Drawback, of course, is if you wanted to save the completed puzzle, you would need to glue the surface or find a clever way to flip it over.

Also, on multiple occasions, one piece would fit with another (wrong) one and get "stuck". Separating the two would require delicate handling, and at times, it was nearly impossible to separate without tearing the cardboard on one of the stuck pieces. It happened only a handful of times, and in most cases, a firm squeeze would make the piece look as good as new (had to pull out the glue stick twice).

That said, what makes this puzzle a standout in my book? Two things come to mind.

The first thing, entirely subjective, is the picture itself. The painting contains my favorite flower and fruit (poppies and raspberries), and I appreciate the overall composition and design. The color scheme also relies heavily on my favorite color (red, as you may have noticed from the color palette here).

The second and somewhat less subjective reason is the level of difficulty. An added perk is that there is actually a bit of choice on this matter. The pieces arrive in two separate bags, which is a nice touch. If my assumption that each bag contains one half of the puzzle is correct, then one could theoretically work on each side separately to simplify things.

To add a level of challenge, open both bags and mix the pieces. To further up the ante, hide the original box to prevent yourself from peeking at the cover photo. I love a good challenge, so I did both.

To mix or not to mix?

Challenge accepted - mix!

The most challenging part of the puzzle is definitely the size of each piece - no larger than a U.S. dime.

Left to Right:
Cherry Jam puzzle piece, Dime, Nickel, Another puzzle's piece

The final puzzle dimensions are 36"x27", so that's 3.09 pieces per square inch! For comparison, Oceanic Wonders is 1.95 pieces per square inch, which helps to explain why Cherry Jam took an extra week to complete (2 weeks in total).

With so many tiny pieces to sort through, relief comes from the fact that the picture composition can be divided into 8 sections that have fairly distinct color schemes:

1. foreground (off-white)
2. background right (rainbow sherbet)
3. background left (purple/yellow)
4. raspberries (red)
5. jam jar (red)
6. teacups (blue/white)
7. bouquet of flowers (yellow/red/white/green)
8. flower vase (blue/white)

I found the most difficult element to be the flower bouquet, and as you can see from the animation below, that section was conveniently saved for last.

Overall, in terms of difficulty, the puzzle achieves a nice balance between the challenge that comes with managing such tiny pieces, and the "ease" of being able to sort by color and work on each section at a time. To me, this type of challenge is the best kind (i.e., the most fun).

Final Evaluation - 4/5 stars
Craftsmanship - 4/5 stars
Difficulty - 4/5 stars