This is an unusual idea that I had recently. Most origami tessellations either have a linear pattern or a circular one. This one kind of has both and neither at the same time.  When you first look at it, you might think, that's not a tessellation, because it doesn't repeat. But, actually it does. Just in a different way.  The pattern is diagonal, heading off in four different directions from a rhomboid starting point.The sequence spreads outward from each edge of the central rhombus. An infinite array. Rhombus, trapezoid, trapezoid, rhombus and so on and so on. It's hard to see in the finished fold, but is much clearer when you look at the crease pattern, which is at the end of this.  That progression creates gaps which can easily be filled with large hexagons and more rhombuses and trapezoids. Circular arrays butting up against the linear ones. As you move further outward the gaps change and you have to fill them with different sets of shapes. I took it as far as ...

 A new style that I've been tinkering with occasionally is one that combines elements of both linear and rotational patterns. This easy tessellation is my most recent design using that technique.  As you can see there's a diagonal pattern of overlapping trapezoid twists. But there's also a hexagonal pattern that's a little harder to detect.  Twisting around the larger hexagons are both the trapezoids you can see on the front and also rhombuses which appear on the back.  On the back side of the tessellation the rhombuses also appear in a vertical/diagonal spread.  The twist pattern around the hexagons is: trapezoid:trapezoid:rhombus:trapezoid:trapezoid:rhombus. It is much more obvious in the crease pattern included below. 

I wanted to do a tessellation with a very specific pattern I had in my head. That pattern is rhombus > trapezoid > trapezoid > rhombus.  Which is a very easy pattern to repeat horizontally. Repeating the pattern vertically however, proved somewhat trickier.  It took a  little while, but eventually, I figured a pattern that worked. The unusual thing is that it's both a circular and a linear pattern simultaneously. See the crease pattern below for further clarification.  The circular pattern is asymmetrical. With triangles, rhombuses and trapezoids all rotating around large hexagons.  The linear pattern is symmetrical. Repeating the set of rhombuses and trapezoids evenly and consistently. It's a twist based tessellation that was much easier to fold that it was to conceive.  

 This twist based tessellation is an idea that I had a while back. The first time that I folded it, I spaced things too close together and didn't really like the outcome. So, this time around I went with broader gaps between the shapes.  The shapes are linear rows of rhombuses. Pretty simple stuff. But an interesting thing you can do with this design. Theoretically you could do this with any design that features 90 degree corners.  Anyway, instead of folding flat corners, what you can do, is fold triangle twists at the corners. They twist in opposite directions and that  creates a 3dish sort of curved fold connecting them. My paper was kinda soft for it to really work, but you get the gist.  The back of the tessellation comes out as a series of many parallelograms. Crease pattern included.   

 This origami tessellation is just a fun little idea that I had about a month ago. It's pretty basic, but I think it's a cute pattern. Something to do when you don't have a lot of time or aren't feeling up to doing the more complex stuff. The idea was to have small pyramids made up of micro grid triangles. That's all there is to it! To fold it I did a classic small hex twist on the back. Then I folded a series of 6 three pleat long arms all around it. These created the tiny triangles on the front.  That's it. Super easy to do. I used tant paper, but I think this particular origami design would've looked way cooler with thinner paper that could be backlit. I don't think that I drew a crease pattern before folding this. But I've unfolded it to create one. 

 This is an odd one. It's kind of like multiple patterns mixed into one. I really don't know why I did it this way other than just experimenting. Thinking about it, I would probably like to take the multiple patterns and do a few different tessellations with them in the future.  For now, this is what I have.   I'm sure that if one had a large enough grid and took the time to work it out that it could easily become a truly tessellating design in and of itself. It's both random and intentional. Kind of interesting in that way.  What I really like about simpler twist based tessellations like this is that you can do them successfully regardless of what paper you use. And the weather doesn't matter much either. They are a great way to teach yourself how the shapes rotate on the angles of the grid. As well as how the various shapes can and cannot interact with each other.  Crease pattern included. 

 This is a twist based origami tessellation using trapezoids and hexagons. I think that I created it two weeks ago and just gto to folding it about a week ago.  The most notable thing about it, is that even though it uses hexagonal twists, it's actually a linear configuration.  This was achieved by connecting the hexagons to each other rather than just repeating the trapezoids all around them.  This happens pretty naturally when you connect the trapezoids vertically and look for a way to repeat the design horizontally.  It's also a mirror symmetry design. Each side is a mirror image of the other.  It's a pretty easy tessellation to fold. Any ordinary paper will work fine.  My diagram is below. 

 This is a recent tessellation . Probably from a week ago. Totally twist based.  The center is triangles around an offset hexagon. Three on one side and three on the other. Then I add rhombuses twisting off from them.  To repeat the pattern, I add additional rhombuses a little ways off from the first set. Using that second set of rhombuses as the basis from additional iterations of the central molecule.  It was a fun and frustration free design to fold. An easy origami tessellation for almost anyone. Still, you wind up with a unique and unusual configuration when it is complete.  I took a picture of the paper before I started to fold it. I should do that more often. So, my original diagram is below.   Filed under: March 2026 Origami Tessellations

 This is a very easy tessellation that I came up with just for fun. It uses trapezoid twists as well as small triangle twists. There are other shapes that fill in the gaps, but those two shapes are the main premise.  I just wanted something quick that would look interesting when it was finished. I also wanted something original that hopefully hadn't been done before. So, that was my motivation here.  It's purely twist based and it has a pretty widely spaced out structure.  I used ordinary yellow printer paper and a 32 pleat grid.  I took a picture of the paper before I started folding it, so that I could upload it as the crease pattern.  There's one wrong line in the right middle. I realized that as I was in the midst of folding it, but by then it was too late to fix the line and take a new photo.  It's on the right arm of a the triangle twist situated just above center right. Just fold it was a normal triangle twist.  Filed under: March 2026 Or...

 Here's a new twist based original origami tessellation that I just completed the other day. It's pretty simple . I needed something to do on a rainy day. Thin paper and uncomplicated tessellations are perfect for those soggy days when more complex tesses just won't work.  Turns out if you connect six trapezoids to each other you get the central molecule seen above. It was a discovery to me.  From there I just added some small hexagons and repeated the trapezoids.  Where I had some additional corners, I added the triangle twists just for fun. They're not required. You can just leave the corners.  The reverse side is kind of neat. Lots of intersecting and tucked shapes.  I don't currently have the crease pattern for this tessellation . I only worked out the center before hand and kind of figured out the rest on the fly.  But I'll unfold it and add one sometime soon. Update: crease pattern added. Filed under: February 2026 Origami Tessellations

 Something much less intense. Just some fun with classic twists. A bunch of triangle twists and a bunch of rhombus twists in a slightly strange configuration.  Some of the triangle twists are hidden. You could do corners instead, but I like how it looks with the hidden triangles.  Back view is kind of interesting.  This is an easy tessellation . Sometimes it's relaxing to just breeze through something simple.  I meant to fix the edges that aren't quite matched, but apparently, I forgot. Had to upload it anyway. Trying to catch up. So far behind on adding the new stuff.  Crease pattern is included below. I'm pretty sure this is the right one. Do let me know if it's not. 

 I've been sorely lax in uploading new folds, but I'm slowly trying to catch up on that. This tessellation is one that I don't really recall. According to Google, I uploaded the photos on November 15, 2025. So, probably created a day or 2 earlier.  I don't do a lot of fully twist based original origami tessellations , but in this case, I did. It's always nice to mix things up once in a while.  It appears to be an open back hexagon with open back triangles twisting off of it. From there, I'm not exactly sure what I did.  It looks like I might've done some small triangle twists a little ways off from the larger ones on the reverse side.  What I do remember, is that it was conceived from the back side - the picture below. But upon seeing the completed tessellation, I decided what had originally be the back should instead be the front.  It's a pretty simple tessellation compared to my usual ideas, but interesting nonetheless.  If I took a picture of my c...

 In this origami tessellation I was looking to use a different shape than usual. I don't recall if I ever used this particular shape before, but I think I have seen it used by others, but not in this exact configuration.  The structure is very simple. It only consists of two shapes. The one seen on the front and long parallelograms on the back.  The main shape is a rectangle with clipped corners, creating six edges all together. The long edges cross two pleats, while the short edges bisect one.  The parallelograms are two pleats on their long sides. and connected by cross cuts.  It was a fairly easy to fold tessellation . The larger shapes that it utilizes saw to that.  My crease pattern is included below.  I did this one a back in mid November, but it's posted under: December 2025 origami tessellations .. 

 I don't really recall how I came up with this particular tessellation . Essentially, it's negative space triangles connected by long, hexagonally terminated arms.  The triangle shapes are created by twisting parallelograms around a small hex twist on the other side. Or, from the opposite perspective, they are open back triangle twists tucked closely into the hexes.  Just how I decided to add the connectors that I used to repeat the pattern, is anyone's guess.  Taking a good look at it, I kind of wish that I'd used shorter runs and kept things closer together. But, you know, hind sight is like that.  I've had some mishaps recently with trying to space shapes too close together. So, as a reult, I was probably being overly cautious.  The opposite side winds up like looking like a very easy flagstone, except the hexagons are on the wrong side.  It was pretty easy to fold. I did it with ordinary paper. No problem.  I think that I located the correct ...

 When I was first learning how to do origami tessellations , I read Eric Gjerde's book and did probably all of the tessellations in it. One was called 'Negative Space Stars'.  As soon as I came up with this design, I was immediately reminded of that tessellation. It's totally different, but features the same vacant space concept.  It's pretty simple as far as tessellations are concerned. Still, it's a fun little design to spend a little time doing.  The back side is pretty interesting too.  My crease pattern is pretty bad. It has some other ideas in it. To fold this tessellation follow the blue lines only.  Use thin paper. There are a lot of overlaps. It's easier with thinner paper. 

 This is a simpler tessellation . For when you're feeling like something a little less intense. Or for when it's rainy outside and the paper is feeling especially flimsy. This will do very nicely.  It's a pattern of small and large triangle collapses as well as rhombus collapses.  If you examine the reverse side, it's not quite as easy as it appears. There are a miltitude of very small folds required, but even as small as they are, they're not too hard to pull off.  There no need for a crease pattern for this tessellation . The front view reveals all the shapes rquired and exactly how they connec to one another.  I used regular printer paper folded into a 32 pleat triangle grid. It worked fine. While thicker paper may make the execution easier, a tessellation such as this one really benefits from the translucency of thin paper when you go to take the finished photo.  When I looked at the finished tessellation it reminded me of the old paper chess game that ...

 This is a rather simple tessellation that I recently dreamt up. Open back hexagons with triangle twists a few pleats away. Nothing terribly interesting there. But then I add some six sided pyramids and triangles twisting off of their short sides.  It kind of reminds me of the fold where triangles are twisted on an offset small hexagon. Like in this tessellation , just to name one. But it is different for sure.  The back side of this tessellation is pretty humble as well. Basically just repeating trapezoids connected by triangles.  I have a crease pattern. Need to take a photo of it. Will hopefully upload it soon.  * name of the tessellatino is from the Tool song 'Third Eye'.  Added crease pattern.