It's been a really long time since last I solved someone else's origami tessellation . I've just been working all the ideas of my own that I've been having.  Still...just for fun, I decided to reverse engineer one by Madonna Yoder (gatheringfolds) just to see if I still had the skills.  I just picked the first one I found on her instagram feed. It looked pretty cool. She called it 'Swirling Dancers'.  Mapping it out on some grid paper revealed most of the structure. A little testing filled in the blanks.  I will upload my diagram in the next day or two. Although, I encourage anyone interested to give a go at sussing it out themselves. It's both fun and satisfying.  I really like her center configuration of trapezoids connecting to each other. So much so, that I actually used that center point to create a different tessellation that I folded the following day. I'll post that sometimes soon.  Update: added diagram.  Filed under: January 2026 Or...

 This is a tessellation that I had been considering for a while and thought that it would be too much work to actually do it.  I looked at my diagram and just thought it would be too hard.  Eventually, I worked up the nerve to try it and as it turns out, it wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be.  As with any flagstone tessellation it was 90% preparation and only 10% actual folding. There are lots and lots of creases to create before you go about getting the paper to fall into place.  Some very advanced folders don't pre-crease, but I just find it makes the whole process frustration-free. All the papers that I've used, which admittedly aren't that many different kinds, out and out refuse to do anything meaningful without pre-creasing.  It's a pretty straightforward pattern to figure out. Rhombuses with triangles touching all four sides.  My crease pattern to fold this tessellation is included below. I didn't draw the back side triangles...

  It's been a while since I've done this kind of collapse style origami tessellation . So, here is a new one at alas. The idea for this involved tucking triangles and rhombuses into a central rhombus. It creates a kind of jagged pattern that can be repeated.  In my case, I repeated it using open back hexagons and long parallelograms.  What shapes land up and which ones land down is purely a personal choice. You can spend quite a bit of time just fiddling around with which way everything should go. I know that I did.  Me, I like it when the triangles are up and the other shapes tuck into them. Your mileage may differ.  The back side of the tessellation is basically just the inverse of the front. Such is the case with straight up collapses such as this.  It's a somewhat tricky tessellation to fold. A lot of unwilling tucks with which to contend. Whenever I do one like this, I just let the paper go in whatever direction feels easiest. Then, when I get every...

 This tessellation I really like a lot. My idea started out as doing something with long parallelograms connected to each of the four edges of a rhombus. As seen above. Originally, I thought that I would just repeat the pattern, but upon drawing it out, I realized it couldn't be repeated straight up.  A few extra shapes thrown in the mix and I was able to completed the central idea.  I added some open back hexagons on the front. On the back there are large and small triangles.  This is a slightly difficult tessellation . Having some larger shapes on both sides helps make it not too difficult.  My diagram is included below.  This is my first post for January 2026 Origami Tessellations . Although technically, I created it on December 26, 2025