Variety is refreshing, and as our shop’s selection of puzzles expands, we want to make it even easier for you to explore it through more unexpected routes. The city has made its way even onto puzzles, so here I present our latest puzzle collection: Urban Muse!
When The City Meets Puzzles
“Urban muse” sounds very artistic indeed, but life in the city is much more than that. Here we are looking for something a little more abstract as we consider our relationship with the brick-and-mortar space, asphalt, occasionally poor air quality and chaotic soundscape.
However, in its ruggedness, the city also knows how to positively wow the human mind by offering us the most amazing experiences, either alone or in the company of others, smack in the middle of it all.
The Puzzles In Our Collection Introduction
The focus of our September collection was to choose wide enough a range of illustration styles rather than looking primarily at the number of pieces.
Some of our customers are very particular about only having one or very few artistic styles on their puzzle table. I personally, on the other hand, consider myself to be so omnivorous that I like to try “something new” at least once. Photo puzzles are a completely different discussion, but on the fly I mostly only come up with funny (?) bro-style puzzles (big caricature breasts on women, etc.), which always get a red card from me when they are still in the box.
We have not consciously hauled puzzles for the shop with cityscapes of all sorts, but we found a nice number of them at the end of our exploration! Window shopping in one’s own shop has its perks.
Here are the products we picked in alphabetical order!
Barcelona
The optimistic 1000-piece Barcelona is illustrated by Simply, Katy and manufactured by French Pieces & Peace.
French Bistro
The beautiful 500-piece French Bistro is illustrated by Ekaterina Zagorska and manufactured by German Piecely Puzzles. (If you are wondering about the missing piece, there was a final one in the box, but from a different puzzle!)
Imaginary City
The naivistically drawn Imaginary City consists of 300 pieces and is illustrated by Daria Hlazatova and manufactured by American Pomegranate.
Mister Pike Takes a Wrong Turn
Imaginative, detail-rich Mister Pike Takes a Wrong Turn in 1000 pieces is illustrated by Katherine Quinn and made by French Mon Joli Puzzle.
Paris Holiday
Beautifully depicting the diversity of city life, Paris Holiday consists of 100 pieces and is illustrated by Richard Faust and manufactured by American WerkShoppe. The pieces are normal-sized, so we call this a small puzzle.
SF Soul of the City
The 650-piece SF Soul of the City, which exudes an urban vibe, is illustrated by Gamaliel James and manufactured by American Unified Pieces. Of course it also includes the world’s perhaps most famous suspension bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge.
The World of Virginia Woolf
The gorgeous 1000-piece The World of Virginia Woolf, which brings us to England, is illustrated by Eleanor Taylor and produced by the British Laurence King.
Wrapping Up
People and people-made structures are a central part of urban life. Urbanisation is one of the biggest megatrends of our time, bringing with it both good and bad. Let’s create a better future in cities together, so that they do not become dystopian strongholds but oases of constructive creativity. One way to contribute is, of course, to regularly quiet down to an everyday life of mindful presence, for example by doing puzzles.
My side note (but maybe not) here at the end is that I have been writing these words on my iPad screen whilst listening on repeat to the song “Holes in the Sky” by a band called M83. It plays at the end of one of the movies in the Divergent trilogy, where life on Earth has gone down the toilet and there is almost nothing left. “Holes in the sky, pierced by the fire…” We are living in such brainless times right now that calming down with puzzles is a very sensible thing to do.
You find this puzzle collection here: Urban Muse. All our collections are here: Puzzle Collections. Enjoy!
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