'Tis a puzzlement

[Arcy]

Originally Posted by Carter Johnson

Rob, if you feel a color piece (such as the pelicans) is too small to be independent, then how bout making that image a lock with the adjoining piece.

The problem in this case was that I cut too close to the pelican, so the shape of the cut overrides the shape of the image. It is a lot more obvious in the physical puzzle than in the pictures. The beaks are the most delicate parts, so I could have left them in the middle of the pieces and used the tail as a lock. If I do another version of this picture I think I'd just leave the pelicans in the middle of larger pieces.

Originally Posted by Carter Johnson

Please don't worry about pieces not being similar in size.

My concern wasn't so much that the pieces weren't similar sizes, but that in several cases I didn't leave myself enough room to connect a piece without breaking another's lock. I also wound up with some pieces whose shapes I didn't like because I cut out all around them and didn't think about how the centre would end up. These were worse while I was cutting though: I just went back to find some examples, and could only see one (the big X shaped piece which connects to the front pelican's forehead). I know there were several in the river picture that I felt this way about, but don't mind them so much now.

--Rob