After a little break, we're back with our third Brands Breakdown series. My hope with this series is that it may help you find the brands that best fit your desired puzzling experience!
One of the things that I love at Completing the Puzzle is discovering the many companies producing premium puzzles. We are always trying new brands to include in our membership, and we specifically seek out small, independent puzzle makers, as well as women and minority owned companies.
Just one of the great things about a Completing the Puzzle membership, and having an endless supply of rentable puzzles, is that it allows you to try new puzzle brands you may be unfamiliar with.
Today's post has some sentimental favorites in it. One brand - Dowdle - produced the Park City puzzle that was the reason Completing the Puzzle came into being! And another, Pomegranate, was our very first wholesale purchase when we were still working out of our home. I'll also review Peter Pauper Press, a company that has been around for almost a century! Let's talk puzzles!
Dowdle puzzles have a unique style that make it easy to know one when you see one. This is because all of their puzzles feature art by Eric Dowdle. Eric Dowdle was influenced by the art of Charles Wysocki as a young boy and quickly adopted folk art as his signature style.
We LOVE the fun destinations that are displayed in every puzzle. However, rather than being an exact photo replica, Dowdle's puzzles have a folk art twist. And, if you look hard enough you will find "easter eggs" which are hidden items painted into the puzzle picture that may seem out of place upon first inspection. Some recurring easter eggs you can find in Dowdle puzzles are the rooster, tulips, the goose, chicken in a mailbox, the manatee, and the Dowdle van. Brian and I just did a Dowdle puzzle, Best of New York, and talk about some of the easter eggs we found in our latest YouTube video!
Although it's not for everyone, we LOVE the random cut of Dowdle pieces. (Read more on ribbon cut vs random cut). The fun piece shapes add an extra challenge, but also make it easier to spot exactly where certain ones go, especially once you have a lot of the puzzle completed and are looking for very specific pieces. They just fit right in!
And speaking of fit, we LOVE the fit of these pieces. No false fits here. The puzzle pieces fit together great, leading to great "liftability", too, which is something Brian always checks.
Peter Pauper Press was founded in 1928 when 22-year-old Peter Beilenson set up a small press in the basement of his father’s home in Larchmont, New York. Over the past almost 100 years, Peter Pauper Press has remained within the Beilenson family and stayed headquartered in New York. They have expanded beyond book printing, though, to include many other gifts and, most importantly, puzzles!
One of the things that immediately caught our eye about Peter Pauper Press puzzles and that we LOVE are the bright, bold images. They are fun to do, and they add so much light and brightness, especially during the dark, dreary winter months.
If you LOVE ribbon cut puzzles, this may be the brand for you. The shapes are different enough that you will be able to use the shape and not just the image to determine where a piece goes. We also love that Peter Pauper Press recently started carrying 500 piece puzzles (check out our video review here)! Their 500 piece puzzles are larger pieces (although not quite as large as "large piece size") and feel substantial while you are puzzling.
The fit on these puzzles is not quite as tight as some other brands, but is still good enough that you will not find any false fits. I would compare it to a Ravensburger fit.
Pomegranate Puzzles is special to us because it is the very first wholesale puzzle delivery we ever received, back when we were still working out of our home! Pomegranate is all about the artwork and bringing beautiful, high quality art into people's daily life. They have been bringing art to people for more than 50 years! If you are an art lover, Pomegranate Puzzles are definitely for you. If you like ribbon cut puzzles that still have interesting shaped pieces, this may also be the right brand for you.
Obviously, we have to start with the fact that we LOVE Pomegranate Puzzles' thoughtfully curated collection of works of art. They work to ensure that the details and colors in their puzzles are accurate. It would be impossible to view all of these works of art in every gallery and museum in the world (although we'd love to try), but doing a Pomegranate Puzzle is the second best experience!
We also LOVE the finish of Pomegranate puzzles. The high quality art reproduction paper used for the puzzles, reduces glare. This makes it much easier on the eyes when puzzling, especially if you have direct overhead lighting in your puzzling space.
Like many of the other puzzle companies we work with, we also LOVE that Pomegranate respects the earth in their product making. Their puzzles are printed using environmentally safe paper, inks, and other materials.
Let us know if these brands breakdowns are helping you build a better wishlist. Which of these brands are your favorite?