Ravensburger - Blue Underwater World 1000 Piece Adult's Jigsaw Puzzle

Two green turtles crossing over a reef painted at full saturation, and about forty fish that have not bothered to move out of the way. Two thirds open water, one third reef, and that ratio is the whole story of the build.

What you are looking at

The near turtle is broadside on and large, its shell mapped out in hard-edged scutes of olive and gold. The second is further off and coming towards you, and a third is a silhouette in the blue at top left. Below them the reef fills the bottom third: staghorn coral in orange and yellow, crimson and pink soft corals, purple sea fans, and a bed of pale blue tube anemones with green tips.

The fish are worth naming because they are painted accurately enough to identify. A powder blue tang with a yellow dorsal. A clown triggerfish, dark blue with big white spots, on the lower left. Yellow tangs, several butterflyfish with the black eye stripe, an angelfish, a unicornfish nosing in from the left, wrasse. Up in the light a loose shoal of small yellow fish runs across the top of the frame. A sea snail sits on the sand at the bottom.

What it is like to build

Build the reef first. It is the only part of the picture with information in it. Every few centimetres down there is a different colour and a different texture, and it will go together quickly enough to be encouraging.

Then the turtles, which are easier than they look, because the scutes on the shell are outlined and each one is a slightly different shade. Fit them the way you would a stained glass window.

Then the water, and here is the method that actually works: sort it by how green the blue is, not by how dark it is. Near the surface the water goes pale and slightly warm, at depth it turns cold and grey-blue, and in the mid distance it is a clean cyan. Lay the water pieces out in a gradient from warm to cold before you attempt a single placement. The shoal of yellow fish along the top is the only landmark up there, so place every one of them early and use them as pins.

Why the Ravensburger cut matters on a large flat area

Made in Germany since 1891. No two pieces share the same shape, which across several hundred pieces of graded blue is not a marketing line but the thing that makes the region finishable at all. When the picture gives you nothing, the fit is the only feedback left, and a piece that is nearly right simply will not seat. Thick board, linen finish, low glare.

Specifications

A little context

Reef and marine subjects sell better to an Australian list than to almost any other, for reasons nobody needs explained, and the useful distinction inside the theme is how much open water the artist left in. A reef-filling image is a colour puzzle. This one is half a colour puzzle and half a gradient puzzle, which is a harder and more satisfying combination. If you want the same subject at three times the size, Colorful Underwater World is 3000 pieces.

Stock is real and it is in Sydney. Free shipping Australia wide over $150, and free same-day delivery inside 6 km of North Bondi with no minimum.

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.