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Showing posts from February, 2021

Joel Cooper's Sunflower Tessellation

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  This is a reverse engineer of Joel Cooper's Sunflower Tessellation that I found in his flickr albums. It's old. 2006 old. But it was new to me. Not super complicated to figure, unlike the stuff he does nowadays. It's a slightly unusual approach to rhombus and hex twists.  As far as the actual execution is concerned, it was of intermediate difficulty. Neither easy nor crazy difficult.  It does backlight very nicely, which is always a pleasant surprise.  Joel doesn't tend to upload crease patterns for his folds, but I did save mine. So if you're looking to just fold it without figuring it, you can do that.  I just used slightly better than average printer paper. Nothing fancy. It was quite adequate. 

Ruffled Rings Origami Tessellation

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 I'm pretty sure that I tried to do this one a little while back and didn't quite achieve success. Didn't quite figure the reverse side the first time around. This time I got it quite easily. At least the concept and architecture anyway. The actual execution was another story.  It started out really difficult working from the front side of the paper. However, once I moved to the rear it became a lot easier. Not easy really, but less frustration, more just folding.    Folding the back side really is the key. Alternating triangles and rhombuses. The rhombus points are 'eaten' by the triangles flat sides.  Similar technique to that used in Scholz's Triphilia tessellation.  I did save a crease pattern sketch. It's not terribly detailed, but it should be helpful if you're interested.

Origami Framed Stars Tessellation

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  Lately, I've been coming up with tessellation ideas that don't truly fit the grid and therefore don't result in a flat fold. Three dimensional origami tessellations are nothing new to the world at large, but they are still kind of new to me.  I've done a few. This is my latest. It turned out pretty nice.  It combines flagstone and 3D.  Unfortunately I was using discarded paper with a print out on it. So that distorted my photo of the bottom shape a little.  For a long time I took the approach that  going 3D was a cop out. If I couldn't find new shapes and patterns in the paper that naturally flattened, then I wasn't really succeeding.  But, after having stumbled into a few 3D folds, I kind of came around to the idea that they're something new and exciting. A different sort of challenge.  Rather than grind on the same old same old, why not embrace a new experience and explore its possibilities. . 

Razor Wire Origami Tessellation

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I saw someone's tessellation somewhere on the internet. Don't remember to whom it belonged. Went looking for it, but did not find it again.  Had previously downloaded the photo and decided to try to replicate it. Once I zoomed in on the pic it became mostly obvious how it was constructed.  Their fold was much neater than mine. My paper simply wasn't up to the task. But I was able to complete the tessellation. It's just a little janky, but still legit.  I actually like the backside a little better than the front. Which is why I made that the first photo.  It's a small hex twist on the back, then do some rhombus twists one small natural rhombus off of the center. Triangle twists off of the rhombuses. Some half offset triangle twists form in the gaps. If you've ever folded that triangle twist between small and two pleat, it's that, but only half of it.  A unique and interesting flagstone for sure.