I am curious what you all think.....

[cfwheeler58]

...of an alternate hobby.

When I was a shy, introverted little kid, I built a lot of jigsaw puzzles.
I still enjoy it occasionally, but who has the space, time or shortage of
curious cats ? Plus....all these figures to build and paint.....

Anyway...

A while back I downloaded a $20 piece of software from Real Arcade.
It's called Jigsaw Puzzle Platinum Addition. One of it's nicer features
is the ability to import Jpegs and bitmaps to make your own puzzles.
You can pick the size, piece count and the style of cut ( although
the puzzle is always cell structured into rows and columns ).

I have downloaded a wide variety of photos and artwork, typically
starting from Google, Images only, Large Scale. When I build, I typically
go for 500 to 1500 pieces. I study the picture once and I don't look
at it again. I put on Itunes and do a little here and there.
I find it very relaxing.

The topics I typically download are:

Dragon Artwork
Fantasy / Sci Fi Artwork
Motorcycles
Mechanical Cutaways
Racing Cars / Engine Bays
Video Game Architectural and Background
City Scenes and Skylines
Classic Artwork - I especially like Brueghel
Battle Scenes
Movie Posters / Movie Scenes
Interesting, Ornate Architecture
Grahic Novel Scenes / Artwork
Amusement Park Rides
Tall Masted Ships
Large Scale Warhammer Artwork

I like intricacy, color and detail.
I especially like connecting with the detail of what I build,
if that makes any sense to you. Perhaps similar to the mini
hobby in that regard.

I don't go for the big open meadow, lots of sky thing.
That sh*t makes me crazy.

One of my favorites ( and hardest ) for example was a collage
of classic Iron Man comic book covers. Wierd, right ?

When I get a chance ( and if there is any interest ), I will post
some of my favorite subjects here.

I am interested in people's reaction / interest in this.

CFW

 

[freakinacage]

i am colour blind so i find jigsaw puzzles to be a right pain the arse

 

[Amazon warrior]

Intriguing. So you do it on-screen then? :question:

I've got a deviantart account, and have some of my pics in the store there. No-one's ever bought any (apart from me, lol), but one is of a lizard sitting on a rock and it's available as a jigsaw. I treated myself to one, and it was fun to do. Harder than I thought it was going to be given its relatively small number of pieces, but that's what I get for photographing a red-brown lizard on a red-brown rock!

 

[Hinton]

I used to really enjoy jigsaw puzzles. However, as you mentioned, who has the time or space for them?

 

[lizcam]

On-line jigsaw puzzles are one way I keep from going insane on a 14 hour day at work. I like puzzles but a real one takes up too much room.

 

[Dragonsreach]

I am curious what you all think..... ...of an alternate hobby.

We play with little toy soldiers, ain't non of us got a right to point fingers and laugh.

Jigsaw puzzles are no different than what we do for visual acuity and spacial awareness responses.
Plus if it relaxes you and you enjoy it................Revel in it!
It's far better than the boob tube.

 

[Amazon warrior]

On-line jigsaw puzzles are one way I keep from going insane on a 14 hour day at work. I like puzzles but a real one takes up too much room.

I think you can get mats to roll them up in for storage. I had a co-worker who was doing these really big puzzles together with her husband, and they had something like that. There is something very satisfying about a completed RL puzzle. And of course you can either pull it apart and do it again, or frame it and stick it on the wall. I remember visiting some friends of the family and they had three stonking great puzzles on their wall, a kind of triptych thing (possibly Biblical in nature, can't quite recall). Seriously, they were HUGE! Must have taken them ages to do, but looked really cool.

....You know, now I'm fighting the urge to pop into Mueller when I go shopping and see if they have any puzzles I'd want to do. I've found the dining room table, so I have space at the moment..... :struggle:

 

[airhead]

When I was on the Contractor side of the fence, we tended to get laid off or weathered right around Christmas. We'd get a large puzzle and lay it out on the dining room table and work on it all week.

Did it when I lived with my folks. Still send my Dad one for Christmas.

Did it when I got married. My wife has framed a few of the nicer ones.

Now, I'm on the engineer's side, and we use that week for catching up on our paperwork.
:sad: