Review: “Butterfly Garden” by Barbara Behr, Cobble Hill 8.75/10
Publisher: Cobble Hill (Canada), 2018
Title: “Butterfly Garden” by Barbara Behr, 1000 pieces, 26.625″ x 19.25″
Review by Jane
OUR RATING: 8.75/10
Here in Pennsylvania, we’ve had a serious cold snap, as has much of the country. So in looking for a puzzle to work, I was in the mood for something that would give me a blush of spring. I chose this lovely nature puzzle from Barbara Behr.
Box Quality: 8.5/10
The box is shown above and below. Cobble Hill has attractive and sturdy rectangular boxes similar in size to Ravensburger and Jumbo. They have a nice linen finish which makes them look and feel different from other brands. The front of the box 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.
Below: A close-up of the back blurb in English.
The sides:
The box sides have a nice close-up detail from the image, the Cobble Hill logo, piece count, puzzle dimensions, artist name, and puzzle name. The year of production is not listed anywhere. The Cobble Hill boxes all have a similar layout but the color is unique for each puzzle. The boxes look nice arranged together on a shelf.
Inside the box:
Inside the box is the bag of puzzle pieces and a small poster of the image. The pieces were fully separated with no damage and little puzzle dust.
The poster is not much larger than the box image, however, it does show the entire image, part of which is obscured on the box cover by the logo, so that’s helpful. It’s also nice to have a second reference if more than one person is working on the puzzle.
The back of the poster is blank.
Overall I’ve given the box an 8.5 score.
The Image: 10/10
I really liked this image the first time I saw it. I like nature puzzles when painted or hand-drawn (not so much the photographic ones). This image has an almost cartoon simplicity in the art style, yet the image is packed with color and detail. I like that there are many different types of flowers and butterflies in the image and very few are exactly the same, meaning that when assembling it won’t be super difficult. And, indeed, while working it, you can usually compare any piece to the box image and figure out where it goes. There are lots of small details, such as the color of the stamen on a yellow flower, or the iridescent dots on a butterfly, which made each object in the puzzle unique. This image is perfectly designed to be a jigsaw puzzle.
Above: The completed puzzle. Click for closer view.
Puzzle Quality: 8/10
You can see our full brand comparison on Cobble Hill here.
This 1000 piece puzzle has a random cut with a wide variety of piece shapes. I like both grid and random cut puzzle, though random cut gets the edge for variety’s sake. Most of the pieces were average in size (similar to Ravensburger) but some were on the small side. You can see the different sizes in the close-up below.
The cut is highly visible on the finished puzzle and doesn’t blend in as much, which may be an issue if you are interested in keeping and framing the puzzle but otherwise doesn’t bother me.
The pieces are sturdy and had no damage. The fit is fairly tight as well, and I really like Cobble Hill’s linen finish, which reduces glare. The image reproduction is good.
Overall, I’ve given quality an 8 score.
Assembly: 9/10
This is a medium difficulty puzzle. There’s a lot of detail and similar colors throughout, especially yellow. I did often have to refer to the box lid (or poster). However, every flower and butterfly in the image is unique, so it wasn’t terribly challenging just a bit slow going. I happen to enjoy that level of challenge–it’s more fun than if it’s super easy and obvious.
DAY ONE:
On day 1 I assembled the border and then did the blue sky at the top. The pieces with blue sky on them were easy to separate out so this area is pretty straight forward.
DAY TWO:
In the second session I worked on some of the really distinctive colors and patterns, the ones that leapt out at me from the piece boxes. These included the butterflies and some of the flowers. There’s a large pink dahlia and is ‘feathery’ and very distinctive and some orange flowers and bright pinks that didn’t occur all over the puzzle (unlike, say, the yellow color).
The butterflies has very distinctive colors such as the green one, dark red one, and iridescent green and blue one below. That pink dahlia in the bottom center has a feathery pattern not seen elsewhere.
Note the bright red butterfly and dark purple flowers.
DAY THREE:
By the third day I was referencing the poster more frequently as the more common colors came in to play, especially the yellows. There are a lot of yellow flowers, but if you look closely, each had unique details. This is what the puzzle looked like before what I think of as the “final push”, where the hardest areas are filled in.
Below are some examples of yellow flowers and their fine details.
The image below is the bottom center of the puzzle. The aqua butterfly and pink and white lupine type flower are particularly nice patterns.
The upper left and right of the puzzle:
Overall I’ve given assembly a strong 9 score. The difficulty level was perfect for me and I really enjoyed this breath of spring!
Summary
“Butterfly Garden” is a breath of spring that is perfect for assembling on a cold winter day. The image is filled with flowers and butterflies that are all unique, making assembly fun and not too difficult if you refer to the box lid or included poster for reference. The Cobble Hill brand has random cut pieces in a wide variety of shapes which makes assembly fun and interesting. The box and puzzle pieces are sturdy and of good quality. I particularly like the linen finish on the pieces. If you enjoy puzzles with lots of detail, you’ll love “Butterfly Garden”.
Where to find:
Grab it at Puzzle Warehouse. Click on the logo below to go to the product page.
Jane
