Sunday, January 24, 2010

Christensen's Faery Tales Week: Day 1


Long before the holidays, I shared several fairy tale puzzle designs as I searched for a present for my dad. I admitted that I favored James Christensen's Faery Tales and I ended up gifting it to him as planned. He put it together within a few days and then delivered it back to me for photographing and sharing. (Dad loves puzzles but once he's done one, he's done with it and usually gives it away.) He says this one was fun, not boring with lots of colors and challenging with 1,500 pieces. So thumbs way up on this puzzle design based on Christensen's painting.

I've finally photographed the puzzle and poured over it, trying to identify all the fairy tales represented within. After several attempts at internet searching, I still haven't found a master list, only the information that 24 tales are represented. I thought I would finally publish such a list online, but I admit I'm having problems with two of the tales myself although identifying 22 of them was easy for me. One I haven't identified for sure and the second I'm not sure if it is a fairy tale representation or if I am missing a reference somewhere else in the puzzle. So all this week I will share studies from the puzzle and give you the chance to guess and share in the comments or through email. We can figure this one out together...

Today I present the first three tales, in the upper left hand corner:


Fairy Tale 1


Fairy Tale 2


Fairy Tale 3

Sorry about the blurriness of some of the images. Most aren't too bad this week, but the winter light has made photographing without flash hard. These will do well enough for our game though.

For your convenience in copying and pasting into comments:

Fairy Tale 1:
Fairy Tale 2:
Fairy Tale 3:

Finally, the puzzle is quite affordable at Amazon and other retailers. It also comes in a 1,000 piece version from what I've seen online, but I preferred the 1,500. Alas, prints of the painting are much more expensive, but readily available at the James Christensen site among others. (I am an Amazon affiliate, as we all know by now, but am not affiliated with any of the other sites linked in this post.)

4 comments:

  1. I have no idea what that first one is. The second is easy, Cinderella, and the third is Jack and the Beanstock.

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  2. I have this puzzle on my wall! I love JCC's work, but like you, find the prints to be quite expensive, so instead, I bought the puzzles, and my sister and I put them together, then I glued it and made a frame (they are odd sizes put together and finding a frame was impossible).

    In any case:
    1. Fairy Tale 1: I have no idea. It's always been a mystery to me.
    2. Fairy Tale 2: Cinderella dancing with her Prince
    3. Fairy Tale 3: Jack and the Beanstalk.

    This will be fun!

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  3. Fairy Tale 2: Cinderella
    Fairy Tale 3: Jack and the Beanstalk.


    What IS that first one?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes, ålease tell us what the first one is. Can it be something from H.C. Andersen?

    ReplyDelete