Origami Tessellations: On the Dance Floor : Origami Tessellations

Origami Tessellations: On the Dance Floor

This is a triad based flagstone tessellation that I recently created.

The starting point is an open back hexagon with alternating trapezoids and rhombuses collapsed around it.

From there that pattern can be repeated by adding an opposite facing trapezoid off of each central one.

That, however, leaves a lot of empty space to reconcile.

I did so using a series of additional rhombuses as well as a few triangle collapses.

It's all just a matter of making the space work for you.

The reverse side, as you would expect of a flagstone tessellation, is a vast array of triangles.

It's somewhat different from any tessellations I've seen before. It's an interesting study in how far you can go in manipulating the paper if you're able to discern what combination of shapes will rectify the gaps in your ideas.

A starting idea is a wonderful thing, but working out how to take it all the way to completion is where the real magic is done.

This ability comes mostly from practice. But is also furthered by an innate geometric sensibility.

And it's the more complex tessellations such as this one that really hone your skills and teach your brain how to find the patterns. My crease pattern diagram is included below for those that might want to fold it. Special paper is not required. I used 28 lb printer paper. If you fold this tessellation, leave a comment and let me know about it.

Comments

Infinite Triangles Origami Tessellation

This is just a flash idea I had. There was no planning involved. No inspiration. I just started folding and followed the lure of the creases in the paper. Upon seeing the finished result, It kind of reminds me of Robin Scholz's Triphilia tessellation, but the construction is definitely different and I was not thinking of that as I was crafting it. The similarity is that you can arrange the layering of the triangles into different patterns of your choice. I went looking and discovered I had folded this a few years ago and called it Triangle Temptations . I didn't realize this until after I'd completed this model. Apparently, according to my original post, I'd seen someone else fold it on flickr and recreated it. This happens sometimes. You hit on an idea and it's something you've done and forgotten. They linger in the back of your brain and come forward unexpectedly. That previous version differed from this one slightly, in that it used double sized cross g

Micro Rhombus Stars Origami Tessellation

This tessellation is micro rhombus star twists. I'm pretty sure I've seen this done with larger size rhombuses, but not with ones this size. They are the smallest natural rhombuses of the triangle grid. The center is achieved by collapsing a small hexagon. On the other side there are small hex twists and open back triangle twists. Since the shapes are rather small, it's a little bit difficult to fold. It's probably more of a cool weather tessellation. Humidity does the paper no favors on such small designs. But the ideas come when they do. Reverse view and crease pattern images follow.

What If Caviar Could Talk Variant

This origami tessellation is a variant of one by Arseniy K. He named his 'What If Caviar Could Talk'. After I had solved his design, I decided that I wasn't up to reproducing it exactly as he had folded his. Perhaps another time, in the future. So I changed things up a little to make it slightly less difficult. Both designs have a foundation of open back hex twists with triangle twists around them, He used micro rhombuses between the repeats. In my case, I used larger natural rhombuses instead. Still a difficult fold to execute, but much less so. It still required thick paper. I used tant folded into a 32 pleat triangle grid. You can see from the photo of the reverse side how densely packed everything is. It's a few layers deep. So be prepared to wrestle with that. My crease pattern for this iteration is included at the end. To fold his, sub out small natural rhombuses in place of my larger ones.

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