More than 18 months ago, we completed ‘Summertime‘, a Rosina Wachtmeister puzzle. ‘Never again!’, we vowed, after taking what seemed like hours (and probably actually was hours) employing a sophisticated trial-and-error system to complete the extensive areas of black that made up the puzzle’s main character, a big gold-faced cat.
Famous last words. After languishing for more than a year, framed but unglued, on top of the wardrobe in our bedroom, I eventually dismantled the puzzle, intending to reuse the frame for a poster after we finished redecorating the house. Last week we finished painting — or at least a good chunk of it — but had still not agreed on a picture we wanted to hang. And that was when we had one of our great ideas. “Let’s put that ‘Summertime’ puzzle on the wall. We’ve already got a frame, haven’t we?”
And so for the second time we set about tackling that big gold-faced cat. And no, those areas of black hadn’t gotten any easier. Here it is at last, anyway, with the blinds and the angle of the wall left in the crop, so you can see it more easily in context.
We used Puzzle Conserver to prepare the picture for framing. We flipped the picture upside down onto a large piece of card, applied adhesive to the back, covered the puzzle with a plastic/polythene decorating dust-sheet, and placed several heavy books on top. The puzzle needed two applications of conserver before it was ready (although I suppose if we’d weighted it down with books after the first application, it is possible it might have worked perfectly first time).
