Ok, so it's thanksgiving today. Well, on this side of the world anyway. The dinner has been eaten, the pie is done and I'm into my cups. So what am I thankful for this year? Besides another fantastic year with a great family and wonderful friends? Well my toys of course. Or maybe I should amend that to say my 'boys and toys'. I've had a great year with puzzle friends. Three meets in China, IPP, a few meet ups here in HK. It doesn't get any better than that. Or does it???
At this years IPP I had the pleasure of visiting with a fellow puzzler at his home. I was really honored that he invited us (and think I still owe him some money for the van much to my embarrassment) Well, while there I saw a number of puzzles I had only ever dreamed of seeing, or that I thought I would never see in real life. At the same time, I was 'introduced' to a few that I had never seen or heard of before.
When I got back to HK,I hunted and hunted until I could put a name to those puzzles, and then I hunted and hunted until I could find some. Well, I got my first in today. And there WILL be more. I have my heart set on 3 of them...
So here is my mystery puzzle. Today I got Portrait de Michele in. What a thing to be thankful for. I'm very thankful the DHL man delivers on Thanksgiving. :-) Where are those smiley faces when you need them?
So what does it look like? How does it work? Nothing to it really. It's a 17 piece burr. 18 if you count the plastic stand it all sits on. When the box came in, I was excited. I knew it was on the way and was tracking the package all day when I was stuck at a retreat for work. (I'd have much rather been at home waiting for the DHL man) I had to do an unboxing video of course. (Since when did those become a requirement?)
Well, thankfully there was an undamaged puzzle inside that box. Dirty, but undamaged.
The front doesn't look too bad, but the back! What a mess. I could see right away that it was going to be a bit of work to clean up. Who would do this to a puzzle I ask you! They should be taken out back and beaten with my bootlaces.
Well, not to worry. Rox has her handy dandy soft hotel toothbrushes. A bit of warm water and we managed to sort it out. This one was filthy. There was so much crud in there, it had to soak for over an hour to help loosen the stuff up.
Mr. Man says he thinks it was plaster of paris. Somebody must have been attempting to make a duplicate of her. Oh well, I managed to take her apart and got out those brushes and gently scrubbed away. She did take a bit of a bath while we ate dinner though.
Yep, that's me scrubbing away with the toothbrushes. All 17 pieces needed a good clean up. And clean up very nicely they did. I now have one amazing puzzle in my hands. She's a beauty. Now I just need to hunt down David and Goliath to go with her. :-) While I'm looking, many more horses would look nice to...
So here she is all laid out getting ready to be put back together.
And here she is good as new. Nice puzzle for a nice price. Money well spent.
How anyone could let a Berrocal end up in that bad a state is beyond me! I'm glad to see it's ended up in a much better home. I recently visited a puzzler with the full Berrocal collection, and ever since then I've decided that I'll have to own at least one at some point.
ReplyDeleteI really think this person should be taken out back and have something really nasty happen to them. I've contacted the seller to see if he has any other editions. It really is a shame to see it like this. Oh, and I read your blog Oli. I'm soooo envious it isn't funny. And for the record, I haven't stopped smiling since she came I the door.
ReplyDeleteNice! I have always wanted of these, but very expensive!
ReplyDeleteYou would be surprised what you can find if you look hard enough Jerry. It didn't break the bank...close, but not quite.
ReplyDeleteI want the necklace next...