Puzzling

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THIS is what has occupied all of my time since coming home from the beach. Brian thought this was a cool puzzle. Brian thought this would be a neat puzzle to complete, glue together and frame. Brian thought it would be a good idea to break out said puzzle after we got back from the beach. Guess what Brian's been doing since the puzzle has been opened?

Yeah....The most help I've gotten from him was at the very beginning. He picked up a piece, stared at it for awhile, and promptly told me it was broken.

The reviews of this puzzle on Amazon were likewise useful. The first one is an example of a review that I at first thought was stating the obvious and I couldn't understand how it would be helpful. However, I then read the second review and realized if the second lady had actually read the first review, it could've saved her some considerable brain cells, and judging by HER review-she doesn't have a lot to spare on puzzles. The third review is probably the most helpful.

This is most certainly an expert level puzzle, and requires the most patience of any puzzle I have seen to this point. Shades of gray and hundreds of solid black pieces add to the difficulty in addition to the obvious large number of pieces. --OK, I thought this stated the obvious, but thanks for the warning.

I must say it was VERY challenging because there are only 3 colors: white, black & gray. (Um, yes, there are only three colors, thank you for listing them since I couldn't figure that out by looking at the PICTURE) You'd think that'd make it easy, but no, maybe if it were a 1000 piece puzzle yeah. (???? NO I would NOT think fewer colors would make a puzzle easier. Seriously lady? Why don't you try one of those "all white" puzzles, I bet they'd be SUPER easy because there is only ONE color. And it's white, in case you couldn't figure it out by looking at the box.)

This one is a tuffy. ...Really? A 3000 piece monochromatic puzzle of a painting by Picasso? I thought it'd be a breeze...

So yes, I've been puzzling. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm addicted to it. Saturday night I stayed up puzzling till 5 am and thought Brian was lying to me when he told me what time it was. I stood up and literally could not walk because my knees had SWOLLEN from staying bent for that long. The puzzle is on the floor, it is too big for the coffee table we own (which is currently in the garage anyway), it doesn't even fit the puzzle mat we have, I had to use an additional one to get all the pieces to fit.

...And this is all I've managed to accomplish. I can't even get the border completed yet because, just to make it even MORE fun, multiple pieces fit with multiple other pieces. So sorting out the minute differences in shades of black edge pieces just hasn't been a priority for me.

Honestly, I really do like puzzles and this one is actually kind of a fun challange, not to mention a neat way to examine Picasso's work. I've liked Picasso since I first started art classes and the closer you study this picture the more it seems utterly bizzare and yet some how makes sense. I'm also a decent puzzler-I've been addicted to them for years-so I can actually look at a piece, examine the picture on the box, and then place it in the area it should go (at least for the pieces that aren't just a solid color). I used to think looking at the box while puzzling was cheating, but there is no way I could complete this puzzle otherwise. So hopefully in six months or so I'll be posting a picture of the complete project on here. Also, hopefully, my knees will still work.