STARTING THE PUZZLE
Most people like to build the border first, then work on building up the inside of the puzzle.
So to do this you need to sort out the straight edges from the bulk of the pieces. If you are mixing all the bags then this is quite a lengthy task. It’s wise to do some other pre-sorting at this stage too. So while you are taking out the edges also sort the ‘inside’ pieces into main color groups. Putting then into empty ice cream containers (good because they have tight fitting lids and can be stacked – but other variations that have been used: buckets that are stacked inside each other at ‘tidy up’ time with the puzzle pieces still inside the bottom of each, cardboard Chinese takeaway boxes, rectangular clear take out food containers with lids, large plastic ziplock bags)
When sorting the edges – set aside separately the 4 corners when you come across them.
Build from the corners whenever possible, joining strings of pieces together. And matching the puzzle to the image on the poster/box lid.


I prepared my question for the forum, related to “warping” that has been experienced during our processing the completed puzzle for mounting. I thought I had clicked a prompt to include my problem in the forum for discussion and possible solution. My inpurt disappeared, but I can’t determine whether it has been added to the discussion, or just “disappeared”. Larry
I’m having difficulty navigating through the blog. Not your fault, just my unfamiliarity with the medium. I’ve duplicated my problem statement (or topic) and have tried unsuccessfully to delete one of them. I have also tried to access the “views” (24 of them) which I interpret as responses to my topic. Janet M. asked me to join the blog, but so far, I’ve been an unquailified failure. Sorry, Larry
Hi Larry, I managed to delete your duplicated comment by clicking on the spanner icon. The 24 views are just that – the number of times your post has been clicked on and read. It doesn’t refer to responses. I’m afraid the forum is not all that user-friendly – not as intuitive as it could be. Thanks for trying it out for us. John.
PS. Congratulations to your group for finishing the big puzzle!
Thanks for your comment re my comment. Most especially, thanks for your HOF input asssistance.
Hi John,
The forum is OK, I suspect it’s a case of “driver difficulty”. If there was a portion of the forum devoted to icon identificaton/definition, similar to that found on roadmaps and atlases, it might make it more user-friendly to old fogies like me. For instance, you just gave me two valuable bits of blog processing information in your comment: a function of the spanner icon and what constitutes a “view”. Before I forget it, thanks for deleting my duplicate comment.
If it’s OK with you, I’ll keep pressing on until I tame this beast.
Best regards, Larry
Question: Are the 4 bags of puzzle pieces the 4 quadrants of the puzzle?
Thank you,
Karen
yes it is
The bag in the top of the box is the leftmost quadrant and so on
When you purchase a Ravensburger 18,000 puzzle and open the box, you will find an instruction/informational booklet about the puzzle. Each of the four bags has serial number printed on it (“kontrolle nummer”) and each begins with a letter: A, B, C and D. ‘A’ is the upper left, ‘B’ is the upper right, while ‘C’ and ‘D’ represent the lower left and lower right (respectively). As per the instructions and warning, do not open all the bags at once. My daughter mixed two bags up of the Tropical Impressions… You can just imagine the time it took to figure out the green border
Happy puzzling!!