Puzzle 664 - Koala Bear

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Puzzle #644 - Koala Bear
From K. Chin's The Enchanted Jungles series - Copyright 1973 Donald Art Co., Inc.
OK, the picture may be "too cute", but I like it anyway


Puzzle 664 - Figurals

As it happened (from my Journal archives)

March 29, 2006

Wednesday 4:20 pm - I have decided that this month's auction will be a K. Chin print, Koala Bear. The print is officially untitled. The lithograph is in pristine condition, having been given to me by K. Chin's sons, shrink wrapped on a cardboard backing board. I'm about to leave for my shop to prepare the board and I'll mount the print this evening. The print is 12" x 9" and the puzzle will be somewhat bigger than previously mentioned, will have around 300 pieces cut in Long Round style. I'll start cutting tomorrow and will have the puzzle completed by Friday. The auction will start Friday afternoon.

March 30, 2006

Thursday 6:00 pm - Early this morning I mounted the Koala Bear image for puzzle #664 and late in the morning I started cutting, continuing into the afternoon. I cut about 140 of the planned 300 pieces. Cutting going well. The puzzle will have two figurals: a newly designed Turtle and a Twirl Star (a fairly regular feature of my K. Chin puzzles). As tomorrow is the last day of the month I need to focus on the puzzle to get it completed and the auction underway. I expect to launch the auction by late tomorrow afternoon.

March 31, 2006

Friday 6:29 pm - Puzzle #664, Koala Bear, completed and Auction launched. The Long Round cutting in this puzzle went very well. Final piece count 299! I was aiming for 300 but when I got home and counted the pieces I was one short rather than my regular few over. I could have gone back to the shop and cut the largest piece in half in a way that no one would notice but decided to let it be.I now have just three puzzles to go in the Puzzle Queue, all of them considerable efforts particularly the next two. I will take the weekend off and then start work on #665, Reptiles, on Monday. This will be my first Geometric Style puzzle since puzzle #14 cut more than six years ago! The customer wants the same geometric pattern in #665, although I going to have to rework the design to include more pieces and to match the larger size of the Reptiles

From the Auction description: This puzzle features a print by the late K. Chin, an artist I've occasionally featured in the Project. The name "Koala Bear" is my name, the print did not have a name. The print was one of four mass produced K. Chin prints in The Enchanted Jungle series published by Donald Art Co. in 1973. I obtained my copy of the Koala Bear print, shrink wrapped in pristine condition, from K. Chin's sons.

This puzzle is cut in my Long Round style and includes my standard signature piece (signed, dated and numbered on the back) and a second piece (the Turtle figural) marked on the back indicating the puzzle belongs to the 100 Puzzles Project. There is no color line cutting in this puzzle, except for a little bit around the eyes of the Koala Bear.

The origins of my Long Round cutting style was inspired by the cutting style in a Madmar puzzle I once owned. This puzzle has 299 pieces. I could have searched for the largest piece and divided it into two to get the total up to 300, but 299 is what the total came to and at 299 it will remain. Note: I cut my puzzles using a scroll saw, hand guiding the wood into the blade, this is not a laser or water jet cut puzzle.


Specifications
Name
Koala Bear
Artist
K. Chin
Date Completed
March 31, 2006
Size
12" x 9"
Cutting Style
# Pieces
299
Color Line Cutting
Little bit around the eyes
Figurals
Twirl Star, Turtle (revised)

© John S. Stokes III - Puzzle Crafter & Webmaster

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