If you’ve popped in the North Bend or Snoqualmie Bartells lately, you may have noticed a special Snoqualmie Valley offering on the shelf…. a custom made puzzle created from an iconic picture of Snqualmie Falls AND taken by local photographer Don Detrick.
What you may not know is this puzzle was specifically commissioned by Bartells, in particular by the company’s General Merchandise Category Manager, Howie Cohen, who also happens to be a Valley resident.
The idea for these photo-inspired puzzles started a few years ago when a friend of Howie’s took an incredible photo of lightning over downtown Seattle – a photo that went viral on social media.
Together Howie and lightning photographer Anthony May had a custom puzzle made of his image by Ravensburger, a high quality puzzle maker based in Germany, but owned by local Seattle company Wonder Forge Toys.
The puzzle was sold only at Bartells and according to Howie, sold out fairly quickly.
Based on that success, Howie’s been working on creating a series puzzles with other local photographers to be sold exclusively at Bartells. Don’s Snoqualmie Falls photo is the first in that series of puzzles.
The Falls puzzle hit the shelves in North Bend a couple of weeks ago, and was on the shelf last week for opening day of the newest Bartells on Snoqualmie Ridge. It’s on sale at the Snoqualmie store for its grand opening – running about $15. At other locations it costs $23.99.
Be warned: it’s a 1000 piece puzzle – so bring you spacial A-game if attempting to put it together. And if you want to pick one up… maybe do it sooner vs. later because Howie said it’s selling fast and he’s scrambling to transfer more in to keep the store in stock.
Congratulations to Don Detrick. It was great to see one of his lovely photos become a puzzle masterpiece.
Comments
Thanks for the story – it was fun working on this project with Bartell Drugs and Howie!
Congrats Don! I always love seeing your photos. And way to go to Howie for your contribution as well!