Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Eurographics "Gemstones" Chart


I picked up this Eurographics puzzle when I discovered Zulily.com.  Charts are a favorite of mine, and Eurographics makes several cool ones.  I love gems and minerals, and actually spotted the companion puzzle on minerals first but it sold out before I had spending money.  I've since gotten both puzzles, so that one will be soon to come.  I have a white wardrobe cabinet as my coat closet, and it has a side shelf cabinet where I store games and some crafts.  I'll mount both these puzzles in some light framing - maybe just gluing to foamcore - so that I can hang them on the inside door of the cabinet.  

There are thirty six gems in the puzzle, each with composition, hardness, luster, and colors listed.  At the bottom of the puzzle is a strip that defines terms, shapes, cuts, and shows main locations of harvesting gems.  The puzzle itself was difficult with all the wording, white background, and gradient gray shading to each rectangle.  At a finished size of 19 1/4" x 26 5/8", it would be an expensive framing job if I chose to do it, as it would require a custom size.  

The puzzle pieces were not cut incredibly tight, but reasonably so.  There was a fair amount of puzzle dust in the box, and several pieces were interlocked with resulting splitting of the cardboard when the pieces were twisted apart.  Where quality is concerned, Eurographics does not rate among my favorites.  I'd say the quality is average, but I liked the design.  It took me about eighteen hours over two and a half days to complete.