Mixed Fruit by Diane Ulmer Pedersen

We took one of Diane's prints and created a puzzle that complemented the theme of the still life. We created an overall shape of a scalloped fruit bowl, but added contoured cutouts for the melon slice, the lemon and an oval for her signature. We used portions of the unused picture to cut out two accent pieces of butterflies to complement the butterfly in the picture. We decided on a random style that has lots of curves and curls that show up nicely with the dark background.

In addition to the two butterflies, we popped some fruit - in the fruit. Our figurals either were placed where the fruit was, as in the strawberry, or where the color of the figural would match, as in the raspberry. Sometimes we did both as with the pineapple. One of the special things you'll find with our puzzles is the placement of the figurals to either present you with a delightful color or with a connection to the image.

As with all our puzzles, the back as nice to look at as the front. We finish our puzzles the old-fashioned way with multiple coats of hand-rubbed oil and shellac to give them a rich look and feel. This puzzle was made from custom-ordered, special high-grade quarter-inch plywood with a poplar core and mahogany back. The lighter poplar core contrasts nicely with the dark red mahogany.