Downtown - 6000 pieces

What’s the largest puzzle you have ever put together on your own? 1000 pieces? 2000? 4000? Even more? Previously, the largest puzzle I had ever completed was 4000 pieces, but I decided it was time to up my game. I always chose my high-piece count puzzles very carefully so that I won’t get discouraged while working on them, and when I saw this 6,000 piece puzzle, titled Downtown from Clementoni, I knew it was the one. I really love artwork by Ciro Marchetti (see my artist spotlight), I knew I liked the quality of the brand Clementoni, and, most importantly, it looked like there was enough variety in the image for me to be able to finish it at such a large size.

The first step for me was to do a thorough sort. I knew this would take a very long time, so I set up all my trays on my ottoman, got cozy on the couch with my dogs, and put on a movie two nights in a row. Although some large piece–count puzzles come with the pieces bagged in sections, that wasn’t the case for this one. The pieces were all in one giant bag, so my work was cut out for me. (Note to self: get more sorting trays!)

I had quite a few separate piles (labeled in the above photo), but I knew I would be sorting even more later on so I didn’t get too overly detailed. My biggest piles in the larger boxes were sky (all those blues!) and gold building pieces. I also had piles for red shingles, the rest of the red, water, blue banners, the lightest sky, trees, pieces where the buildings met sky, edge pieces, and several trays of colorful/interesting things. I could have sorted these “interesting pieces” out further, but I knew I was going to start with those trays and was happy to leave some of that work for later.

Those interesting things, assembled in the picture above, ended up being the balloons, boats, colorful houses, and banners. I also worked on the red shingles very early on, since there weren’t too many of those pieces. I didn’t intend to put the border together so early into the process, but I decided I wanted to free up that sorting tray for other things! 

This puzzle is ribbon cut and uses the classic six piece shapes, but there is some variety in how they are cut. For example some pips are larger than others or angle a certain direction, so you have some good information based on the shape that can really help with larger sections. This is personally my favorite type of cut, so I was happy to see it used here. (But no shade to those of you that like random cut puzzles!)

 I continued by finishing up the rest of the red rooftops, the interesting-colored buildings, and the more vivid blues in the water. This puzzle was an absolute joy to work on! I moved incredibly quickly through it, at least until I got to the sky. My speed really highlights how well this puzzle works at such a large piece count. There are enough differences—for example different types of rooftops and windows—that I never got bogged down working in any one area (until the sky, of course!). 

Next, I worked on the checkerboard flooring to finish up the reds. I found this section a little tricky with the varying angles, but by building the lights and working outward, I managed to get through it. Then I finished up all the gold pieces, starting with the large pillars, windows, and arches, adding in the green trees, and then filling in. These sections weren't quite as quick as everything previous, but I still felt like I was flying through this puzzle.

At this point, I really had to deal with the fact that my table was not actually big enough to fit the puzzle! I was a little over an inch short from front to back. Because most of the bottom was complete, I decided to carefully slide several sheets of poster board underneath the bottom of the puzzle. Then, I could slide both the posters and puzzle off the table by about 2-3 rows while the poster board provided support (see photo below). This actually worked out pretty well. I only accidentally pushed the top border off the table twice in the process….but fortunately the fit was so good that the dropped pieces mostly stayed in chunks.

After finishing up the water, I filled in a little of the sky, putting the lightest pieces and every piece that had a hint of another color in place. Then I slowed to a crawl. Things became very difficult. Between my lighting (both in the daylight and under artificial light) and the size of the puzzle, I went through many many long stretches where I barely put in any pieces. I did pull my table away from the wall to have better access and sorted all the remaining pieces by shape, but I was coming up with more and more stalling tactics because I just wasn’t making progress. 

Around this time, I really started to clue into the cut of the puzzle. Because this puzzle was too big for the manufacturer to cut all at once, they cut each quadrant individually using the same die. That technically means  a piece could fit perfectly in four different places in the puzzle (once in each quadrant). This generally wasn’t an issue because the image is so different in each quadrant, but I started having some “perfect false fits” in the sky (note these aren’t really “false fits” in the classic sense of the term, and there were no false fits beyond those caused by this repeat cut!).

Someone on instagram reminded me that Donnalouise had shared a diagram of this repeat cut when she solved this puzzle on one of her videos on her YouTube channel, For the Love of Puzzles. (I hadn’t actually watched Donnalouise’s videos about this puzzle so I could experience it on my own!) In considering the diagram, I realized I could use this repeated cut to my advantage! I could essentially use a completed quadrant of the puzzle as a template to build on, knowing what shaped pieces were coming. I used this strategy to build several large sections of sky (see below). This had the added benefit of being able to work at a spot in the table with better lighting (and a better view of the TV!).

I am so very glad I figured this out (if only I had watched that video sooner!). At that point, working on the sky went from being miserable to merely tedious, and I’ll take the latter any day! I think this strategy—using a completed section as a template for the sky—was critical to my finishing this puzzle with my sanity intact. And, I finally did finish it!

This puzzle turned out amazing, and even though the sky was a pain, I still think it’s a great image for such a large puzzle. The sky was tedious, but doable once I knew to use the already built sections as a template. And the rest of the puzzle was an absolute joy, so I’m generally quite happy with this puzzle and am so glad I completed it.

I don’t usually glue my puzzles, but debated doing so with this one. It’s so beautiful! But it’s so big, I’m not sure if I even have a wall big enough for it. And the wild thing is, I really needed my table back, so I ended up taking the puzzle apart only a few hours after I completed it! I would have liked to appreciate it for a while longer, but at least I can share my experience with you.

All in all, this was a fun step in my journey to do larger and larger puzzles. Puzzle Warehouse has quite a few options at a variety of large piece counts, including 2000, 3000-6000, and over 6000. They even have a puzzle that’s more than 50,000 pieces!! I do have a couple 9Ks and an 18K in my collection, so I’ll continue to work upward (after a break…maybe next year!). Do you think you would take on a 6,000-piece puzzle like this one, or are you a large puzzle superstar and have already surpassed that size? Let me know in the comments! 

Did you know that Puzzle Warehouse has Educa's 24,000 piece "The Greatest Life" puzzle framed on the wall at the retail store in St. Louis?  Let me know if you have visited and seen it!  I hope to make a visit some day.

- Gail, @jiggies_and_gems