Sea.Sand.Sort.

Not only did I complete beach-themed puzzles for this month’s blog, I’m also fortunate enough to be writing this as I sit overlooking beautiful Shell Key, an island in Pinellas County, FL, as an osprey grooms itself just feet from me. If that isn’t inspiration, I don’t know what is! Although it does make it hard to focus on writing instead of the view… 

The reason I chose this theme, beyond the obvious fact that it’s summertime, is that today is National Beach Day, a day to recognize the natural beauty of our beaches! Celebrate by puzzling one or going out to one. But if you do go on site, in the spirit of the day, do your part to pitch in and clean it up. The items you find may not be as beautiful as those found in this 1000-piece Beachcombers Collection by New York Puzzle Company, but you will make the beach more beautiful! If you are like me, you’ll definitely want to get your feet wet by doing the center of this gradient-style puzzle first, as all the edge pieces are as sandy white as the beach I’m nearby. Pretty on a beach – tough on a puzzle. Speaking of which, do you know that white sand is the result of parrotfish? They are unable to metabolize the coral skeletons from the coral they eat, so they excrete it as white sand! Hmm…not quite as pretty as I initially thought!

Beachcombers Collection by New York Puzzle Company

Something people are more likely to pick up on the beach besides trash are seashells. Fun fact – the majority of seashells open to the right, so if you find one that opens to the left, it is a rarity and it may be a keeper! If you’re not by the ocean, you can make up for it by picking up these seashell pieces on this gorgeous Sea Sound puzzle by Curiosi instead. 

Sea Sound by Curiosi

One thing I love about this brand is you assemble the pieces in the box frame provided, which has a kickstand allowing you to tilt it as you work. At first glance, although there are only 208 pieces, you may feel out of your depth as the colors seem to swirl together, but if you look closely, you can tell which pieces are edges from the slightly dark rim around the piece, and patterns soon emerge for all others.

Another stunner from New York Puzzle Company that I completed was this 1000-piece Bathing Beauties. This one got a bit salty in parts, as some panels have similar patterns, such as the blue stripes shown in multiple sections here. But if you stay observant, you’ll see differences, such as in the width of the stripe and shade of blue and from there things go swimmingly.

Only one bikini is pictured on these beauties, which would make the French designer Louis Réard who created and debuted the bikini on July 5, 1946, sad. He knew the suit would have an explosive arrival, so he named it after the nuclear test site of Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands! He was right - it was so volatile that he had to hire a nude dancer to pose in it, as nobody else would! 

Bathing Beauties by New York Puzzle Company

The next two puzzles that washed up on my board were from Heritage Puzzles. This 550-piece Surf Dog’s Beach Treasure struck me as being quite unique for their brand. Artist Kim Mosher lives in the Outer Banks, so many of her designs, which she sketches with color pencils, revolve around water. Although it doesn’t appear to be a gradient at first blush, it felt like that, especially in the waves and sky sections. I dare you not to smile as you assemble these cute critters as they frolic on the sand and in the sea. A word of warning to all who take their dogs to the beach – always rinse them off well afterwards, as ingestion of too much sand off their paws and coat can cause impaction and sodium from too much sea water can cause brain damage!

Surf Dog’s Beach Treasure by Heritage Puzzles

My other pick from Heritage Puzzles, a 1000-piece called Beach Life, is more in line with the many beach-themed puzzles the brand carries. I gravitated towards it over others because one of my favorite things to do as I walk a beach is to eye up the houses and identify which one I’d buy if I could afford to. For the record, I’d go for the turquoise one with the umbrella out front in this image by artist Keri Baker. Keri’s artwork always makes a splash for me and I think that’s because she says she strives to make every piece of her puzzles, whether assembled or not, fun, pretty and interesting.  

Beach Life by Heritage Puzzles

In addition to falling in love with beach houses as I walk, when I find myself in Miami, which is often, I adore looking at the kitschy lifeguard stands that were designed by architect William Lane. He was first commissioned to build 5 of these to replace those that were demolished after Hurricane Andrew and in the decades since, there are more than 40 that now dot Miami’s beaches. You can see many of them on this 1000-piece Lifeguard Posts by Eurographics. I was quite “shore” of myself as I started this one, but I found the multi-colored sections of each kept me on my toes and demanded close attention!

 Lifeguard Posts by Eurographics

One of those lifeguard towers can also be seen in this 1000-piece Miami puzzle by eeBoo. It captures so much more that makes that city so special - palm trees, boats, Cuba Libres, mojitos, Cuban coffee and cruising along Ocean Drive. I started with the reds as there is a lot of pink in this image. It was not a walk on the beach because of this, but it was a blast once I got rolling!  

Miami by eeBoo

Lastly, if you want to soak in a lot of different images of the beach, this 1000-piece 99 Seaside Moments by Ravensburger is the one for you, especially as you can never go wrong with Ravensburger's quality. I must say this one tested my skills as I flip-flopped between panels trying to remember all 99 images to spot what goes where! 

Fortunately, there’s a lot of color variation, which helps, as can be seen on a few of my favorite panels here. There is a sandcastle in one of the panels too, although the tallest one ever built in Binz, Germany in 2019 at 57’ 11” tall, which took 12 sculptors and 8 technicians working eight hours a day three and a half weeks to build, may never have fit in one of these tiny panels!

99 Seaside Moments by Ravensburger

In closing, here are a few other puzzles I’ve shelled out for that I considered doing for this blog, all of which are 1000 pieces - Bathtub Beach by Hart Puzzles, by Coastal Collection - Anderson Design Group by MasterPieces, Beach Summer Fun by Eurographics, Deckchairs and Donkeys by Gibsons, Shades of Summer by Heritage Puzzles and The Beach Hut by Ravensburger.

Hopefully the puzzles I chose will make you, like me, happy as a clam, if you try them! Which was your favorite?

– Lisa @lisalovespuzzles