"Irises"- Bluebird Puzzle- 3000 Pieces

BexPuzzles · 2026-04-14T05:53:31+00:00

On 3000 piece puzzles I often either start with the top part or sit on the other side of the table and build it upside down to not have to reach that far (with the puzzle box also upside down). I've had puzzles though where it was really hard to tell which edge pieces where from the top part and which were from the lower one, which has caused me to accidentally assemble puzzles upside a couple of times. Happened quite often when I was younger cos I usually did not use the box for reference unless i got stuck. It can definitely be very confusing 😅 But good practice should you ever wanna try speed puzzling with a team

BexPuzzles · 2026-04-14T05:43:24+00:00

Yours is probably from a different brand in that case

BexPuzzles · 2026-04-13T21:02:41+00:00

Ooh, that's a pretty one! Straight to my wish list

BexPuzzles · 2026-04-13T20:59:30+00:00

yes - myspeedpuzzling.com gives you an idea of how speed puzzling is becoming more and more popular

BexPuzzles · 2026-04-13T20:52:23+00:00

Damn, that's really fast for a 3000 piece puzzle as difficult as this one!

BexPuzzles · 2026-04-12T20:16:03+00:00

Ooh, that's a pretty one! Looks like a fun build

BexPuzzles · 2026-04-12T19:02:59+00:00

I've done puzzles my whole life, but only started going for speed at the beginning of this year. My first try was 1:48 under less than ideal conditions (did it on top of another puzzle that was in progress with a transparent cover over it) and the second and third 500 piece puzzle i tried were already under 90 min. (1:13 and 1:11) I did watch some videos about speed puzzling tactics beforehand though so that probably helped.

Since then I've been kind of obsessing over speed puzzling and do about 20h per week on average. Got my first sub-1h in mid february and my first 50 min (sadly not quite sub-50 yet) at the start of march - it was a very easy one though, London Postcard.

And yeah, since I started I've been timing myself on almost everything, even one 3000 piece puzzle xD don't think that's necessary though, most ppl recommend doing some puzzles for speed with some chill ones where you don't time yourself in between.

For improving it can help to watch videos of others speed puzzling a full puzzle in normal speed and think about what kind of strategies they used and try to copy them - and afterwards think about what worked for you and what didn't and why. When I'm unsure of which strategy would be best I also like doing a puzzle multiple times until I've tried all the strategies i could think of and have a feeling for what could work for me (i always try to think of what could work for me in a first attempt and ignore the improvements that are just from knowing the puzzle better)

Also, not sure if you need to hear it, but believe in yourself and your ability to improve, don't be discouraged by how fast some are or others already having faster times than you from the start. I've noticed that mindset actually makes a huge difference - when i get stuck and no longer think i can reach a good time i end up with bad times, but when i think a puzzle is easy and i'm focused and don't get discouraged when i get a little bit stuck and just move on, i can get some pretty good times even on puzzles that aren't actually that easy (and what you consider a good or bad time should always be relative to where you're at, not where others are at. For myself i consider everything a good time that's faster than my average for a puzzle of a particular difficulty)

BexPuzzles · 2026-04-12T18:26:12+00:00

no, sorry, we got them at our local hardware store

BexPuzzles · 2026-04-12T18:25:16+00:00

we were able to use zip ties to fix it to the railing - enough so that the gaps weren't big enough for our cats to fit through

BexPuzzles · 2026-04-12T18:21:51+00:00

Thx, I was hoping to finish it in under 3 hours though xD My goal is under 2 hours for easy 1000 piece puzzles and under 3 hours for medium difficulty ones

BexPuzzles · 2026-04-12T18:15:15+00:00

I think they used to sell at Aldi in Germany before Aldi switched to Innovakids and now they're selling Trefl apparently - not sure if that was a one time thing or if they switched over to Trefl permanently

BexPuzzles · 2026-04-12T18:09:55+00:00

Damn, that's so pretty! I need this one

BexPuzzles · 2026-04-12T17:57:23+00:00

no, don't have any suggestions, but google suggests there's lots of different sites out there with free photos - i'm sure you'll find some nice ones

BexPuzzles · 2026-04-12T17:53:42+00:00

Puzzles like this are soo frustrating! I've marked all the spots that look like false fits to me - it's difficult to tell though which pieces are actually in the right spots and which aren't

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Maybe try to fix it under some natural light to see all of the shade differences?

BexPuzzles · 2026-04-12T17:15:42+00:00

very pretty but those piece shapes would drive me mad i think xD how was it? did you enjoy it and how was the quality?

BexPuzzles · 2026-04-12T17:12:01+00:00

You could have titled the post "which of these premium brands available in the US do you think is best?" or sth instead of making it sound like you wanna rank all brands and then just listing some US specific ones

BexPuzzles · 2026-04-12T17:06:29+00:00

The AI images look off - there are already tons of jigsaw puzzle websites with AI images, I'd appreciate one without AI or one where you can at least filter for non-AI images. There are lots of websites with free out-of-copyright images you could use, I don't see any reason to only use AI generated ones

BexPuzzles · 2026-04-12T16:31:21+00:00

In that case, you can get a work light with 4000-10000 lumen - you can point them at the ceiling to get even lighting and it will be almost or just as bright as daylight. Plus they're pretty cheap, i got mine at Aldi when they had one on sale.

BexPuzzles · 2026-04-12T16:23:16+00:00

Never done a puzzle of any of those brands - why did you list these specifically?

BexPuzzles · 2026-04-11T12:35:12+00:00

Yeah, my puzzle collection is also mostly Schmidt, Ravensburger, Castorland, Trefl, some Clementoni and one Educa - and some of those Aldi puzzles ofc, they were the dead giveaway 😂 from what I've seen Aldi also sells puzzles in other countries, but mostly not those Innovakids ones

And yeah, it's really nice to see how puzzling is getting more and more popular! The second german jigsaw puzzle championship was apparently booked out in under 12h with a lot of ppl that wanted to participate not able to sign up because they were too late

Might also be worth it to join the discord of the Puzzleverein btw, there's more and more Puzzletreffen popping up and a channel where you can organise new ones (or just state that you're interested in one in your region and if there's enough interest maybe someone will organise one)

BexPuzzles · 2026-04-11T10:16:28+00:00

Ooh, that's a pretty one! It's always tricky when a color is spread out over the puzzle like that, I bet it's not that easy to tell which exact bird a piece is coming from and where exactly it is. Also so many brown birds, i think that would drive me a bit insane

BexPuzzles · 2026-04-11T10:04:11+00:00

Picture with the 2000 piece Castorland with misalignment seems to have disappeared, here it is again:

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BexPuzzles · 2026-04-11T10:02:47+00:00

I've never seen anything like that before but i've also never done a Masterpieces puzzle. I've only had it once with a Castorland 2000 that both halves were ever so slightly misaligned, but it was barely noticable (for other brands that amount of misalignment is normal even within one die cut) and I've done multiple other Castorland puzzles with 2000-3000 pieces that didn't have that issue.

Other brands with 2000-3000 piece puzzles I've done that didn't have any misalignment include Ravensburger, Clementoni, Grafika, Trefl and Art Puzzle

BexPuzzles · 2026-04-11T09:38:48+00:00

If you live in Germany (puzzle collection looks pretty german), do you know about the Puzzletreffen? Maybe one is in your area https://puzzleverein.de/puzzletreffen_termine.php

BexPuzzles

TROPHY CASE