Hi crosstitcher. All 12 puzzles have to be completed in order to finish Chapter 1. Are you trying to make the center pieces for the water wheel or are you trying to do something else with the water wheel?

One of the suggestions in the previously linked topic was to fill in the empty spots of your crafting hut so that you have at least one of everything. Have you done that? If not, If I were you
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I’d make sure I had the items listed on the 6th sheet in the crafting hut (the sheet with the "dough" on it, although you're not going to use the dough for this puzzle).

If you need help with crafting recipes, Xay posted a link to a VVO2 crafting spreadsheet that a group of beta testers created. It’s a wonderful resource! You can find her post in this topic.

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If you’re not able to make one of every crafting combination on the 6th sheet, you may to upgrade your crafting technology. Crafting technology is very important in VVO2!

After you’ve crafted all of the items on the 6th sheet, drop a villager on the crafting hut and see what is available for them to work with (I'd use a Perfect Villager/Chief just to cover all of my bases). You'll need to do this more than once if the villager takes an item somewhere.

Follow this advice and you should be able to create what you need for the center pieces of the water wheel.
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Kathy
Lead Tester
Last Day of Work