The Essential Dog

Been mighty busy lately. I've got this jigsaw puzzle (see button on right sidebar) 

that kinda blew the doors off my little home studio fulfillment center. 

I didn't know what to expect from a jigsaw puzzle, but there are a lot of puzzlers out there who need a fresh challenge, methinks! It's been a blast.

Three times now the studio has filled up with puzzles and just as quickly with white boxes, all addressed and ready to go. Some folks order two (bigger boxes) so they can give one as a gift.

This is one day's work. I figured out that I have to arrange things so I don't bend over a lot. So I stack the puzzles on the big oaken flatfile and box everything while standing up. Then I can get all the shipping done without hurting my back again. I was laid up for a week after the first flush of orders.  You can't do a heck of a lot when you can't bend over, I found out. I never knew how much bending over I do in a day.

One woman band here. I'm Creative Director, Staff Artist and Designer, Head of Advertising, Comptroller and also sole Mail Room employee at Indigo Hill Arts. And there is no Workman's Comp.

Here, I've just loaded 60 puzzles into the car to take them to the post office, and the UPS truck has dropped off 40 more (in the wagon). Add Longshoreman to my job description.

Of course that little Chet Baker is with me every minute. 

He gets very excited when we load up the car with boxes, because he knows we are going to the Post Office. He loves the Post Office because he gets to run inside and greet everyone!

We drove all the way there last Wednesday only to figure out that it was Veterans' Day, and it was closed. D'oh! 

Now what are we to do with all these boxes, Mether?

We're not loading them again, I can tell you that, Chet. We'll drive around with them and come back tomorrow.

So we got up early Thursday morning, took Liam to the bus at 7, and waited until the Post Office opened at 8 AM.  Chet had to ride on Liam's lap, because the car was stuffed with boxed puzzles.

I dropped Liam off, then drove up to the top of a hill to watch the sun rise. 

It was very beautiful, and I was engrossed watching big lines of clouds scud across the sky. 

And then someone turned the lights on. 

Man, I hit it just right. What an incredible daybreak.

This stuff goes on all the time, and we go down our rutted paths far below, sometimes barely noticing the pageant in the sky overhead. 

I try not to let it be lost on me, ever.

I have hundreds of photos of clouds. I love clouds. I've looked at them from all sides now. And I never tire of clouds. Well, the gray flannel solid ones, yes, I get tired of those. Give me a broken sky, any day, over an overcast one, or even a clear one. Give me clouds!

There were several dozen Angus bellerin' away at the farm in the photo. Their lowing was a perfect soundfile for the dark, ponderous clouds floating overhead.  I remembered loving to sing "Ghost Riders in the Sky." 

Their brands was still on fire and their hooves was made of steel

Their horns was black and shiny and their hot breath he could feel

 A bolt of fear went through him as they thundered through the sky 

For he heard the riders comin' hard, and he heard their mournful cry...

We got to the post office but Cynni the Postmistress wasn't ready for us just yet. A truck pulled up and a lady got out and Chet Baker trotted over and by gum she guv him a bikkit!

Now what are the chances of that, that a stranger in a truck would have a bikkit for Chet?

Mether! That was the most excellent thing ever! She guv me a bikkit out of the clear blue air!

Chet stationed himself by the door so he could intercept anyone else coming to the Post Office. 

While we waited we counted turkey vultures on the big roost just up the hill. This is a fall gathering spot for them. They won't stay the whole winter. 

Between the main roost and another big emergent tree just down the road, there were at least 100 birds. It was wonderful to watch them doing a little vulture yoga in the warm morning sun.

Finally it was time to go inside!

Miss Cynni greeted Chet warmly. Though she had no bikkits, she said she will fix that very soon.

Chet Baker! Stop rooing at Miss Cynni! 

But she should have bikkits! The lady in the truck had bikkits! Why doesn't Miss Cynni? That is the problem! And that is why I am rooing at her! So she gets me a bikkit!

Chet Baker is very bad, but people seem to love him anyway. 

They love him at the office, too. Even though he scratches in the vinca. 

When I have errands to do in town I leave him at the office. He is just a little too cute to leave alone in the car, even when the weather is cool.

I worry someone will try to take him.

 

Neither of us would survive that. 

I need my co-pilot, always. 

Zickefoose Jigsaw Puzzle--Family Feud!

Thank you! to everyone who has ordered "Fantasy Flock." I finally got all the orders catalogued and recorded last night. And 50 puzzles came in the rumbly UPS truck yesterday! Little Chet Baker greeted the UPS man, sniffchecked them and they're all OK.

I wasn't sure what to expect from a jigsaw puzzle, but I figured you'd respond enthusiastically. So, apparently, did Galison's customers. The first printing is already sold out, so after only a day and a half of lovely online sales, I'm backordered until the first week of December. 

Another one of those "good problems to have." I seem to have a lot of those!

I'm going to trust that I can get them delivered to you by Christmas, so order away. I hope to get the paid orders out today, and then I'll have to cool my jets and wait until December 7 or so to send out the rest.  Please hurry, puzzle printer. Thank you for your patience, and for your support of my work. 

At the outset, everybody wanted to help. Even little Chet Baker. 

Daddy came in and started helpfully putting together a few of the birds.

This offended a sense of order and even, I daresay, morality in our fiery daughter. She did not see this as helping. She perceived it as poaching. For his part, Chet Baker perceived the puzzle pieces as  small, tasteless bikkits, perhaps, and he persisted in begging for them long after he knew they were just pasteboard. Please. Let me sniff that tiny bikkit. I may want to chew it up.

Meanwhile, Phoebe got madder and madder. Then madder. Daddy didn't get why she should be mad.  I would dip in and listen to the conversation, then sneak out of the crossfire to go do something else. As a mom, I'm often pressed into service as an unwilling adjudicator, and I had no desire to issue a ruling in this case.

I empathized with both parties. Putting together the birds is fun. And it's helpful, to a point, until you try putting together the sky, which is not nearly as much fun. 

So here's Phoebe dutifully working on sorting all the blues in the sky wash, which turns out to be a teeth-grittingly large percentage of the puzzle's area. And here comes Daddy of a fine Saturday afternoon, whipping out the ruddy turnstone in a matter of minutes. Here you go, Phoebs! 

 I could see smoke coming out of Phoebe's ears. Like when they pick a new Pope. 

For Phoebe, it was like having him sit down at the table, eat her dessert, and say, "I helped you finish your dinner!"

After repeated deployment of her Death Glare, Phoebe and the more pliant and obedient Liam were soon left alone to their meditative work.

Phoebe has found a key piece, some bird's beak. I can't remember which one, and I can't see well enough to tell. 

Progress photos, some taken very late at night (incandescent light).

The birds are the least of it.

To say this puzzle is challenging is, um, an understatement. Self-proclaimed "puzzle freaks" will love it, because they'll know they can beat it. I'm more of a throw-up-the-white-flag puzzle person, in awe of real puzzlers, and happy to let them tackle it.

Morning light. They're still working on it. We're talking days. But hey. A good 1,000 piece jigsaw should take days. That's what a jigsaw puzzle is for. You set it up on a card table where everyone (except apparently Bill) can have a nice occasional whack at it.

It's really coming under control now. I think this was the last day.

They all run together. Ahh, I love this scene. Kids, with the time, the concentration, and the leisure to work on a puzzle. Phoebs wants one for the dorm she lovingly oversees as a student proctor. She will get one! Better hide those bird pieces until everyone's done the sky, girl. Or better yet, let them work it out themselves.

In the end, Phoebe settled on a systematic way of locating the correct blue pieces. She made separate piles of each shape, discerned which shape and color she needed next, went to the correct pile, and tried every one in the pile  until she got the right one. Holy Pope Smokes!

I can only marvel at the system she evolved. I suppose that's standard behavior for puzzlers. I designed and painted it, but I definitely don't have the patience to do that.

Basically, you go from easiest (birds and clouds) 

 to hardest (those durn blues of mine!) Watch out. The blues gonna getcha.

 But eventually you finish it! They let me put in the final piece!

When finished, the puzzle proved amazingly durable, unflappable!

That's a mighty proud pair o' kids there. I am incredibly proud of them for completing it! These photos were taken before they busted it up so they could do it again. Someday. Not really soon.

 It can be done! Don't drop it, Liam!

Sweet memories of last summer, when our girl came home. She walked right into a sky like the one her mama painted.

You can order "Fantasy Flock" 

by clicking here.

Please allow -eep- 7 weeks for delivery of pure awesome.

A Zickefoose Jigsaw Puzzle?!

One by one, my dreams come true. 

When I was a kid, we had a beautiful round Springbok jigsaw puzzle covered with songbird vignettes by Don Eckelberry, ca. 1965.

I worked that puzzle again and again with my sister Micky. We'd separate out the yellow pieces, distinguishing the sunny strong eastern meadowlark yellow from the lemony goldfinch yellow from the evening grosbeak's rich mustard. We knew tanager red from cardinal red, oriole orange from redstart orange.

I loved to draw even then, and dreamt as I worked on that puzzle of someday decorating a jigsaw puzzle full of birds. 

And now I have! 

Galison/Mudpuppy has produced a truly beautiful 1,000 piece puzzle of my painting, "Fantasy Flock."

It was first commissioned by my hero, the late and dearly missed Russ Greenberg, founder and director of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center.

I'll never forget what he said. "I need a painting of face-melting beauty that will draw people from across a crowded convention hall."

He wanted it for a decorative banner. He told me I could pick the species I most wanted to paint.

This being the thing every freelance illustrator yearns to hear but almost never does, I nearly fainted from joy. I immediately got to work on a full-sheet watercolor of Neotropical migrants against towering thunderheads. It made a fabbo banner for SMBC's trade show booth.

Years later, I looked at my paintings and wondered which ones would make a good jigsaw puzzle. 

I had a hunch that Galison would select it from the array of art that I offered. Knowing what I do about jigsaw puzzles, it was a no-brainer. 

Well, I should reword that.

Because doing this puzzle takes some serious brains.

The only person in our household disciplined and methodical enough to complete it is Phoebe. She is the reigning Queen of Jigsaws. The rest of us help--Liam more than anyone--but Phoebs is the undisputed Queen.

You can order it using the button in the right sidebar of this blog homepage. It's called "Fantasy Flock." Or click here. 

Small caveat: The puzzle has proven extremely popular right out of the gate. Barnes and Noble made a massive order from Galison and virtually cleaned them out. I have only 50 to sell now--that's all I could get-- but more are being shipped the first week of December. 

Shades of The Bluebird Effect. The first printing was gone--Poof!--just like that. And everybody had to wait a couple of months for the second printing. 

Thanks Oprah! Good problem to have, everybody said.

In my next post, I'll show you what it's like to put "Fantasy Flock" together!

A few sparks flew...to be continued.