Fan Flair: A Review

Fan Flair, a teaser, ranks amongst my all-time Stave faves. It lived on my dinning room table for several weeks as friends and family oo'd, ah'd, hissed and groaned. They pieced most of the puzzle together with me entering the picture to finish it alone.

Talk of it spread to other family members and I found myself working the puzzle anew, from start to finish with someone else. It took about 20 hours spread out over a few days - that's longer than my original estimate of one eight hour day to complete the entire puzzle. I based that on two hours it took me to finish the last 25% that I experienced alone the first time.

It will not help much to have the picture from the catalog with you for this puzzle. The photos shown in this blog also won't help either. (Some are blurry on purpose!)

What you absolutely must have is excellent light. If there's a glare, it will take you much longer. If you work by daylight, forget it. It's not enough. You must be able to see the nuances in color change, pattern change etc., which in this puzzle are particularly difficult because of the Chinese-paper-cut-out-like quality of the design and the Italian faux marble pattern.

Even the solid, bottom area of the fan where the tassle hangs, refuses to give a "gimmee". In short, while hard, Fan Flair delivers immense satisfaction as its sections pull together. Anyone interested in Asian art will be fascinated by the interplay of negative and positive space in the cut of the puzzle.

The puzzle costs around $1,200K. For the amount of pleasure it's provided to so many at my house, and for me -- twice with only a few weeks in between the first time and the second time -- says that this puzzle will keep on giving for a long time and be a great conversation starter and activity. For that reason, I'm not following the suggestion of a friend who thought the finished puzzle was so beautiful that it should be mounted and framed.

A Stave customer recently sent Paula, the company's VP of Marketing, this comment on Fan Flair:

"I
think you misnamed this puzzle -- it should be 'What Part of Impossible Don't You Understand'. So far I've got a few bits and pieces -- I think I have 3 chunks of about 10 pieces each as my greatest achievement. I don't know if Dianna cut me an especially difficult one or if they are all like this, but it's absolutely great. Diabolical, wicked, downright malevolent! And for this I keep on working?"
C.C., North Carolina

On Stave.com see Fan Flair.