Gibsons - The Japanese Garden 1000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle

A Japanese garden in full blossom, with a tea house, a red moon bridge and koi under the water. Painted by Janice Daughters, and there is more architecture in it than most garden pictures give you, which is exactly what makes it buildable.

What you are looking at

The tea house sits at the back, red and white with a green tiled roof and a circular moon-gate window. In front of it, a scarlet arched bridge crosses a stream, with koi visible in the shallows below and ducks on the water. A stone pagoda lantern stands on the raked gravel to the left, a smaller orange pagoda to the right, and a stone basin with a bamboo spout beside it.

The planting is spring at its loudest: cherry blossom in white and every pink, magnolia, azaleas, rhododendron, a golden forsythia, clipped pines, dark cypress, camellias in the near foreground, and stacked balancing stones. A figure in a kimono stands by the tea house, and a butterfly crosses the path.

What it is like to build

Take everything man-made first, because it is all hard-edged and none of it repeats. The tea house, the red bridge, the two pagodas, the stone basin, the lanterns and the raked gravel. Together they run right through the middle of the picture and give you a frame to hang the planting on.

Then the water, which is the easiest natural region, because the koi are strong orange marks on green and the stream has a clear direction.

The blossom is the long haul and it is a large fraction of the picture. Several hundred pieces of pink at more or less one brightness. Sort it by which tree it belongs to rather than by shade: the cherry is small five-petal flowers in clusters, the magnolia is large single cups, the azalea is a dense low mound, the camellia in front is much bigger and darker. Once you are sorting by flower the pink stops being a problem.

Why the Gibsons build matters

Gibsons have been British since 1919 and print their 1000 piece range on 100% recycled board with a matt finish that does not flare under a lamp. The pieces have a firm, positive fit, which counts on several hundred pieces of blossom where the picture is telling you almost nothing. The finished print is in the box and you will want it.

Specifications

A little context

Japanese garden scenes are a reliable seam and the reason is structural: the style puts hard geometry, bridges, lanterns, gates, gravel, deliberately against soft planting, so the picture comes with its own scaffolding. That is the opposite of an English cottage garden, which is all planting and no bones. If you want the other kind, see In The Garden. More at Flowers & Gardens.

This one is out at the moment and we would rather say so than take your money. Ask to be told the moment it returns and you will hear from us first. Free shipping Australia wide over $150, and free same-day delivery inside 6 km of North Bondi.

Built it already? Use the Questions section below and tell us how you found it. Which part fought you, how long it took, and whether you would send someone else to it. We answer every one.