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Showing posts from August, 2017

Hex Grid Tessellation

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Here's a new origami tessellation. It's probably been done before, but it was new to me. A field of small hexagons on a standard 32 division triangle grid. Each hexagon is the smallest available in the grid. Start at the center and work four pleats outward. The veins between the hexes are then creased in half, undfolded and squashed. If you have a larger size paper you could go further and fold in the edges of the hexagons. Either in a triangle pattern or using the classic tato technique. You'll need very neat and precise squash folds if you want to do that.  Pictured here both backlit and regular. Folded using a single sheet of standard, white 8.5x11 copy paper cropped into a square.

High Density Origami Pineapple Tessellaton

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I discovered the pineapple tessellation during a routine google search for origami tessellations. I believe the original designer is Ilan Garibi. The design and accompaning instructions are featured at the Origami USA website It's actually really easy to fold. It's basically two steps after the intial precreases. This version is a 4x4 high density model. But it can be folded as a single module, denser, less dense and with or without borders between the modules. For a fairly simple design, it has a complex and impressive appearance It requires a single sheet of paper. The requirements for the size of the paper vary depending on how many modules you wish to incorporate. It's an inspirational design that shows the stunning results that can be achieved without a lot of fuss.

Small 3D Origami Star Puff

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Here's a cute little origami star based off of the the classic triangle grid. The grid is made from the method demonstrated in Eric Gjerde's awe inspiring tessellations book. I then cut out a hexagon from that grid. This results in a hexagon with 7 rows per half. I find it much easier to cut an accurate hexagon from this technique than from the other methods. But you do loose a row per side this way. So it's a 14 row hexagon to start. Classic hex twist at the center. Smallest center twist is a mountain fold, then a valley on the next row, then another mountain. We're creating a 3D star at the center. Then we just finish it off with creating the arms/petals. A very rudimentary crease pattern is shown below. Squiggly lines are valleys. Solid lines are mountains. All the folds are a part of the original triangle grid except those little diagonals between the pointed petals. Those are valley folds. Add them before you begin folding the star. It'll make it muc

Origami Star Tess

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This tessellation is pretty simple really. It begins with a hex twist at the center. Rabbit ear sinks are used to creat the points of the star surrounding the center hexagon. I kept adding 'points' off the the original points with more rabbit ear sinks. As the points extended outward the space between them would increase. Simple partial hex folds manipulated the gaps to allow the paper to lie flat. As always, a single sheet of paper was used. A classic triangle gird was the starting point.  The first pic is the model backlit and the second is the same model laying flat on a solid surface. To create the crease pattern, draw a hexagon at the center of a triangle grid on a hexagonal piece of paper. Grid should be at least 32 interations. Off of the central hexagon draw your tirangular points and use rabbit ear sink folds perpendicular to each side of the points to fold them flat. You'll need to unfold the initial hexagon to do the rabbit ears. As you're flatttening

Origami Hex Flower Tessellation

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Origami tessellations fascinate me. Ever since I first saw the spread hex tessellation on youtube I've been obsessed. Eric Gjerde's book on tessellations really taught me a lot as did Sara Adams youtube channel. This is a first draft. A hexagon twist with a traditional petal weave pattern following. Then I added repeating petals and filled in the gaps with the natural folds that fit. Both images are of the same piece. One sheet of paper. Classic triangle grid. It's much more interesting in the second photo where it's backlit. It's a pretty basic design if you're familiar with tessellating paper. Still, it gives a nice appearance. I just used regular copy paper which I turned into a square before adding the triangle grid. I actually find classic printer paper to be a little easier to work with when tessellating. It's sturdy. While the usual origami paper tends to weaken too quickly after a series of many folds. The plain white paper also has a nice effec