- Almost impossible in a lifetime to solve all the jigsaw puzzles in the world.
- When Pigs Fly is colorful, artistic, and festive.
- Very challenging puzzle to solve, because of numerous repeating patterns.
Title: When Pigs Fly
Pieces: 1000
Artist: Jennifer Garant
Size: 27in x 20in or 70cm x 50cm
Company: Ravensburger
Year Printed: 2019
When we analyzed the data for the Best Puzzles of 2020, we discovered there were almost five thousand unique jigsaw puzzles. Let’s assume that there is four times that amount, twenty thousand, in existence. If we assume that it takes one day to solve one puzzle on average, then it would take almost fifty five years to solve that many. In addition, if one hundred puzzles are made each year, then it would take another 20 years to solve those. Therefore, it is almost impossible to solve all the puzzles in the world in your lifetime.
As for the puzzle, When Pigs Fly, the illustration reminds me of three things: my local downtown, San Francisco, and Tuesday. Firstly, my local downtown has various stores on the ground floor, but with office and apartments on the upper floors similar to what is in the illustration. Secondly, the Victorian style building reminds me of the painted ladies in San Francisco, because for a class project in social studies we water colored painted ladies as imaginative as we could. Lastly, the flying pigs reminds me of the ending for the book, Tuesday by David Wiesner. Here is an animate version of that book, make sure you make it to the end.
Build
Initially, we noticed that green and blue were not abundant colors and focus on those to sort. Next were the awnings and words, because of distinctive and recognizable patterns. The were lots of distinctive patterns, that were in multiple places but covered small areas, such as the flying pigs. Unfortunately, most pieces did not get sorted. We hunt and sought for individual pieces, similar to a Where is Waldo strategy.
Difficulty
The cobblestones is one of the more difficult parts to solve, because of similar patterns spread over a large area. In addition, red and orange colors were used in multiple areas, which made it difficult to determine exactly where. For example, the “LA CHARCUTERIE” building is red, which is similar to other buildings. Overall, it took three of us five and half hours (5:30:00) to solve the puzzle. I would consider this a very challenging puzzle.