Artfully Crafted: Why the Oakland Puzzle Company is a Must for Puzzle Enthusiasts

Let’s Chat About The Oakland Puzzle Company.

Oakland Puzzle Company is run by the brother and sister team of Dave and DeAnna Tibbs. They are manufacturing puzzles in their very own factory located in Oakland, California.

DeAnna kindly sent along extra puzzles with my purchase and I’m including all of the puzzles in this review.

Let’s get into it!

Are Oakland Puzzle Company Puzzles right for you?

In this article I’ll review the features and benefits of the Oakland Puzzle Company Puzzles.

Just The Details for Oakland Puzzle Co. Boxcar Flower Farm Bouquets Puzzle:

Just The Details for Oakland Puzzle Co. Ellen Shershow Photography Puzzle:

Just The Details for Oakland Puzzle Co. Lula Mae in North Beach Puzzle:

Piece Count

Oakland Puzzle Company Puzzles come in piece counts of 500.

Cut Style

Oakland Puzzle Company puzzles have a selection of random cut puzzles as well as grid cut puzzles.

Random cuts mean the pieces have a more irregular and unpredictable manner compared to traditional puzzles. These puzzles feature pieces that are cut in various shapes and sizes, often with whimsical and non-uniform edges.

The irregular cutting of the pieces adds an extra level of challenge to solving the puzzle, as it eliminates the visual cues provided by the regular grid pattern.

The grid cut puzzles are more traditional and offer a different challenge that focuses more on color and contextual clues.

Material

Oakland Puzzle Company puzzles are made from .069 caliper ESKA blue chipboard, a premium jigsaw puzzle board or comparable material. All of their puzzle boards come from 100% recycled materials. 

Check out this awesome video of Oakland Puzzle Company at work.

Images & Themes

Image Quality and Resolution

Image quality is super important when selecting a puzzle. Who wants to do a blurry puzzle picture? Oakland Puzzle Company puzzles have bright, crisp images.

Feel free to click the images for a larger view!

Theme Variety and Originality

The Oakland Puzzle Company works directly with local artists and organizations to produce high quality puzzles. You’ll find landmark puzzles that showcase the charm of Oakland, artistic puzzles, as well as botanical wonders.

Benefits of Doing Jigsaw Puzzles

There are so many benefits to doing jigsaw puzzles. Doing puzzles is similar to meditation; it helps you focus your mind. When concentrating solely on the puzzle, every day stresses and anxieties have no room to run rampant.

Memory improvement is another major benefit of puzzling; one must recognize patterns and shapes and remember where they belong in the wider picture. Studies show they are especially helpful for Alzheimer and dementia patients; the mental stimulation has been shown to delay a worsening of symptoms.

In addition to those skills, they help teach pattern recognition, shape sorting, color recognition, problem solving, and even patience.

Does Jen Recommend & The Nitty Gritty:

I initially purchased the Lula Mae at North Beach puzzle from their “imperfect” section which came in a zip closure bag. Included with the reference poster was a post-it note saying “imperfect white line”.

I wasn’t able to find an imperfect white line while working on the puzzle, and after completing it I could only conclude that their standards are really quite high for their finished product.

As I mentioned previously, DeAnna sent along two other puzzles for me to do so I could get a sense of all they had to offer.

One of these puzzles was the Ellen Shershow Photography puzzle. This puzzle also came from their “imperfect” section which included the note “shiny lines”. In looking at the photos, I can kind of see shiny lines in the bottom left corner(?), but this in no way affected my ability to do the puzzle or the enjoyment I got from it.

I really liked the random cut of this puzzle. There were a few “tricksy” edges that weren’t edges (!) and it came with one duplicate corner piece.

The third puzzle DeAnna sent me is the Boxcar Flower Farm Bouquets puzzle. This one came boxed and was not from the imperfect section. The box is sturdy with a colorful image of the puzzle on the front.

I liked doing all of the Oakland Puzzle Company’s puzzles. Each was enjoyable in it’s own way. They have a lovely catalog of interesting and colorful images.

All the reference posters, which measure 8.5″ x 11, have the image on the front. The obverse side has information about the Oakland Puzzle Company mission, the image, and the artist.

Where applicable, they include information about the organization featured. The Ellen Shershow Photography and Lula Mae in North Beach puzzles support Rocket Dog Rescue.

I definitely recommend giving their puzzles a go. Be sure to watch the above video to see their process. I think it’s totally cool that they have their own dies and package everything themselves. How can I not support a company whose motto is “Have fun. Do good”?

If you like purchasing puzzles made in USA, check out my list of companies manufacturing jigsaw puzzles here in the US.