Villager Puzzles : Plants, plants, plants!

Today marks the day that the new season of Villager puzzles are out there into the world and I wanted to share a little behind the scenes look at how my design “Plant Mom” came to be.

Firstly - Villager is a woman-owned small business founded in 2023 by self-professed puzzle snob Kelly Striemer, who lives and works on Vancouver Island. Her first collection features eight Canadian women artists, with a diverse range of styles and voices, and after the amazing success of her first launch, reached out to another batch of artists to join the amazing group of “Villagers”. And I was so luckily to be invited to join!

This season’s theme is “hobbies” - anything that brings us joy and calm - a perfect match for puzzlers. After chatting with Kelly, we moved forward with a design themed around “plant moms” - that sort of person whose home is more like an indoor jungle. The brief was a modern yet cozy space with “almost too many plants”. Firstly, I started with a sketch as always -

My first sketch was actually in a portrait format - but Kelly asked if we could try it in a landscape instead, which ended up being the winner. After we nailed down the sketch, it was time to start on the final illustration. I always keep the future puzzler in mind when I’m working on illustrations like this - I read feedback and critiques to makes sure I’m keeping things a little challenging but still fun. I’ve been known to overlay a grid of puzzle pieces over the art to make sure no parts are too boring - honestly, it’s come in handy. Once the illustration was ready, it was time to send it off to get printed and turned into a real life puzzle, which is always going to feel like magic. I even got to have my face on the box!

I’m very inspired by Kelly’s village spirit when it comes to how she works - she does much of the work herself, or with her friends and family. The beautiful product images on her website are styled by her and the photos are taken by her husband. I think you can really feel the love and sincerity that’s poured into her brand and I’m so glad I get to be a part of the Village.

 The new season of puzzles are available for order now on her site here https://villagerpuzzles.com/ - please take a chance to look at all the beautiful art that my fellow creatives have contributed (it’s impossible to pick a favourite!).