Review: “Rosemary’s Birds” by Rosemary Millette, Cobble Hill — 9/10

Publisher: Cobble Hill (Canada), 2016

Title:  “Rosemary’s Birds” by Rosemary Millette  2000 pieces, 39.25″ x 26.265″

Review by Jane

OUR RATING: 9/10

Box Quality:  (8/10)
The box is shown above and below. The rectangular box is sized similar to Ravensburger and Jumbo. The front does not show the artist or image name.

Back:

The back is a generic Cobble Hill back. There’s nothing specific about the artist or puzzle image here.

The sides:

The sides have a nice close-up detail from the image, the Cobble Hill logo, piece count and puzzle dimensions, and puzzle name. The name of the artist is only shown on one side in a copyright notice. I find it a little surprising that the image is called “Rosemary’s Birds”, after the artist Rosemary Millette, yet nowhere on or inside the box is there any information about the artist. So I’ve docked a few points for that.

Inside the box:

There’s nothing inside the box except the bag of puzzle pieces and a small warranty sheet.

The Image: 10/10

I was immediately attracted to this image when I saw it. It was my favorite of the new Cobble Hill puzzles for 2016. I like wildlife and bird puzzles, but there needs to be something special about it to get me to sit down and do one. This one is special in a few different ways. First, I love the bright colors. Sometimes wildlife puzzles can be very realistic, meaning a lot of browns and drab greens. But this one is full of a variety of bright colors. Second, I love the vignette/collage effect. There are seven separate scenes in this puzzle, which is a bit like working seven small puzzles together. I like the painted art style, which is soft but still detailed. And finally, I appreciate the 2000 piece puzzle size. The 2000 piece size is really utilized well here to accommodate the various vignettes without any image getting too small.

Above: The completed puzzle. Click for closer view.

Puzzle Quality: 8/10

You can see our full brand comparison on Cobble Hill here.

The quality of this puzzle is good. As you can see in the detail close-up below, the puzzle is randomly cut with a large variety of piece shapes. The pieces aren’t as thick as some (Gibsons, Ravensburger), but are not so thin as to be annoying. The pieces interlock well and there’s no confusion about where a piece goes.

Assembly: 10/10

For a 2000 piece puzzle, this is really a fast, easy, and enjoyable puzzle to assemble. I did the outside border first, then the frames that go around the six vignettes. Each vignette has a different colored frame, which makes putting in these sub-frames quite easy. Next comes the brightest colors–the birds and the large flowers and fall leaves.

It’s really nice to get those six sub-frames in place because then you have an area in which to build each of the six vignettes. At this point, there’s a lot of greenish-pinkish-yellowish pieces left. But it’s not difficult to look at the box cover and figure out what piece go in each of the six framed vignettes. Here they are below. First the three on the left.

And then the three on the right.

Each of the vignettes has a distinctive background–like pine needles or the soft pink lilac blossoms or golden pears. It’s pretty obvious which puzzle pieces go with each one and you can seaprate the pieces out and then assemble the little mini puzzle. Each vignette is around 150 pieces.

After the central flowers and the six vignettes are done, filling in the main central image is still pretty easy. There’s a wooden table and the wicker basket, both of which are easy to identify.

The last area to come together was the green at the top of the central image and around the basket. The greens were only a few hundred pieces left over at the end, and there’s enough shading within the green area, and tips of birds and flowers, that it wasn’t too difficult to assemble.

I’ve given a 10 score for assembly on this puzzle. Truly perfect!

Summary

This is a very fun and easy 2000 piece puzzle to assemble. The six lovely vignettes around a central image break the puzzle into many smaller scenes, giving it a collage effect. The colors of the birds and flowers are bright and there’s abundance of patterns like the wood table, wicker basket, pine needles, and pine cones, to make even the green and brown areas a delight to put together. It’s like getting seven puzzles in one. Cobble Hill is a quality brand with a random puzzle cut and attractive boxes. I would have liked to have seen more information about the artist and image on the box or included inside. Recommended.

Where to find:

You can grab this puzzle on sale for the next three days at Puzzle Warehouse.   REVIEW DISCOUNT: 15% off for 3 days (ends 5/27/2016).

Jane