What to Do When You Are Missing A Puzzle Piece?

Did you happen to lose a puzzle piece? Are you desperate to get a hold of the missing piece so that you can finally finish that complex puzzle and feel relieved? Trust me when I say you are not the first one who missed a puzzle piece. It does occur now and then and has proper solutions to it. You might have to wait a bit more to finish your puzzle and may have to sharpen your craftsman skills, but it’s worth it when you can finally complete your day’s or week’s work.

Before moving on to how to replace a missing puzzle piece, let us put across several important things that have to be taken care of. First of all, make sure that you have not misplaced the piece anywhere. Give one final look around to make sure that it is not laying around or happened to be misplaced anywhere. Chances are high for the puzzle pieces to be misplaced after a session of puzzling thus, check with every member of your household and check every possible place before proceeding to announce it as missing.

Now that you have ensured that the piece or pieces are officially missing, it is time to think of whether it is a manufacturing defect or not. It is possible when bulk production of puzzles happens at factories to misplace or miss out on any pieces of puzzles at the time of packing. It could also be possible for the printer to miss any spots during printing due to any technical error too. So, try to contact the manufacturer of your puzzle to make sure they have not received any similar complaints or it is not one of the corrupted puzzles. If it is an issue with the manufacturer, they could replace the set for you.

If the manufacturer has nothing to do with the missing piece, try to ask them about the possibility of replacing the missing piece. You can go through their selling policies and find out whether they provide such a service or not. Although most jigsaw puzzle makers do not offer a replacement for any missing pieces, it might be possible for you to have them make a replacement for the missed one. But it could cost a bit more than usual, as it is quite laborious to ready the printer and molds for a single piece and to pack and ship a single piece. If you are desperate or interested enough to have an authentic replacement for the missing piece, you can always ask them to make it for you.

If you are keen to finish the puzzle and not that much into spending a fortune to buy an authentic replacement piece, you can always make the missing piece or pieces on your own.

How to Make A Missing Puzzle Piece?

The sad thing about a missing puzzle piece is that you will only come to know about it by the very end of finishing the puzzle. The desperation and disappointment are understandable. But you can always make the missing piece using the reference picture given along the jigsaw puzzle set. Even though it may sound so simple and easy to do, it does demand attention and care while doing so, as a wrongly made and arranged puzzle piece could easily stand out for all the wrong reasons. So, you have to make sure you are following several basic, yet crucial steps in making a puzzle piece.

Things needed: The basic things that are necessary to make a puzzle piece replacement are a craft knife or scissor, pencil, replacement piece material, printer, photo paper, tracing paper, tweezers, and glue.

Find a similar material: It is extremely important to find a similar material as that of the original puzzle to make the missing piece. If you use a different material, chances are high for it to get revealed as the age goes by. The rest of the puzzle may stay intact while the replacement piece degenerates or fade before them. So, try to find the same or the closest material to cut a piece out of. Also, make sure to find similar thicknesses too. Otherwise, the replacement piece will either protrude out of the finished puzzle or sink into the puzzle; both of which are not ideal.

Tracing the shape: Next step is to accurately find the measurement of the missing piece. For that, arrange the surrounding pieces of the missing one and identify the right shape of the missing piece. Trace the shape appropriately using tracing paper or regular paper and pencil. Try to be accurate about the measurements as the puzzle piece needs to be of the right shape for it to fit tightly into the provided slot. Otherwise, it could be either larger or smaller than the actual missing piece.

Carving out the piece: Once the shape is identified and traced on a paper, use the same paper to trace it to the concerned material. Trace it without any error and cut out the respective shape using scissors or a knife. Make sure the edges are clean and neat to avoid any misfit.

Printing the photo: Take the necessary measurements of your carved piece and print out the photo accordingly. You can either browse the internet to find a similar picture to print, or you can simply scan the provided picture in the puzzle set to your computer and then print it. Either way, make sure you are using good-quality photo paper to print so that it won’t fade over a period. You could print out a couple more copies of the same photo as a backup in case something went wrong.

Pasting the photo: You can use any adhering or crafting glue to stick the photo onto the piece made. Try not to overuse the glue in hope of sticking it better. Use a moderate amount of glue on all parts of the photo and paste it nicely without any wrinkles using a fine tweezer. Clean up the edges and dry them accordingly before placing them into the puzzle.

Although it is much easier to order a missing puzzle piece from the manufacturer, making a replacement cost less and is time-saving also. It is a simple process and anyone who follows the instruction can work their way around it easily.