This is a curious origami tessellation that I found. When you look at it as pictured above it looks like a simple pattern of four quadrants each containing the same molecule. Which is true.  Each molecule contains a diamond shapes comprised of four rhombuses which are flanked by four trapezoids. Simple. Right? However, when you alter your perspective by turning the tessellation 90 degrees you see something totally different. It becomes a linear pattern. Same exact design, just viewed from a different angle. Geometry is fun that way.  It's mostly a flagstone tessellation , except where the four trapezoids converge. At their center are some overlapping rhombuses.  When you look at the view of the back side you can see all the triangles that I used to connect the shapes on the front. You can also clearly see the duos of rhombuses which create the non flagstone center points.  It's a neat exercise in rotation and perception.  Crease pattern included.  Fi...

 I've come up with a few different tessellations based off of the starting point of three trapezoids tucked into the points of a triangle collapse. ' Stock Market ' is one. ' Eyes of the Pyramid ' is another. ' Pickled Carrot Salad ' is a third.  This origami tessellation, which I've named 'Existential Crisis' is the latest configuration that I've discovered.  It uses both flagstone style folds and collapsed triangles. Combining different folding styles in one tessellation is a great way to unlock new and interesting patterns. In this original tessellation the central molecule consists of a small triangle collapse dead center with three trapezoids tucked into its points. There are also three triangles in the gaps between the edges of the trapezoids. They connect in the standard flagstone fashion.  In order to repeat the center design, I add two additional triangles onto the long edges of the trapezoids using flagstone connections again. The ...

 This hybrid flagstone/collapse tessellation is from just the other day. The concept is to combine classic flagstone style folds with traditional tucks/collapses. I've done a few tessellations using this technique. This is the latest one.  Open back hexagons are connected to rhombuses using flagstone folds. Then I add a triangle collapses between each rhombus and use the top point to repeat the pattern.  On the back of the tessellation you can see that reconciling the remaining spaces in the design required a few more triangles and some more rhombuses as well.  I would say this is a difficult , possibly advanced tessellation . I had a lot of trouble with it, but I'm not sure if it was strictly because of the complexity or if the weather didn't factor into it to some extent.  If you want to fold it, be prepared to spend some time on it.  Crease pattern included. Filed under: July 2026 Origami Tessellations

 This is a new advanced tessellation that I created last week and folded this week. It's kind of a diabolical pattern in that it contains six series of seven interconnected triangle collapses. If you've ever attempted to do any larger number of triangle collapses you'll know how difficult it can be.  The other portion of the tessellation is pretty standard. A flagstone style set of an open hexagon surrounded by six trapezoids.  The magic happens when I add a rhombus before repeating the center. That's what creates the gaps where all the triangles can reside.  I chose a pattern of the center triangle facing forward with the rest facing backward. This is personal preference. They can be arranged any way you like.  I also altered the pattern near the edges just to create cleaner lines. Replacing some partial trapezoids with rhombuses.  If you wish to fold this origami tessellation , definitely use a strong paper and plan your ups and downs ahead of time. It ...

Found another interesting trapezoid based origami flagstone configuration. It's design is kind of a natural progression from the pattern in my ' Walk in the Park' tessellation .Same starting point, different follow through. It shows how incredibly versatile trapezoids are in tessellations.  'Walk in the Park' used rhombuses to create its alternating flow of trapezoids around hexagons. In Rolling Stones here, It's all trapezoids flipping, churning and spinning around the hexagons. I think I like this pattern a little more.  Back side is typical for a flagstone tessellation . Many, many triangles. Crease pattern below.

 This flagstone tessellation is a variant of my Skyscrapers tess, It uses the same center, but then repeats it using a different method. The pattern is open hexagons with two upright rhombuses per side and then trapezoids at top and bottom. The module naturally repeats horizontally without any additional shapes. This time around, I used long rows of rhombuses in order to repeat it vertically. Since this tessellation is from back in the beginning of May I was sure that the crease pattern was lost, but it turns out I still have it. Included below.

 This is a flagstone tessellation that utilizes alternating trapezoids and triangles spinning around a small hexagon on the other side. What this particular starting point creates is the opportunity to a rotation of six pyramid like shapes. Those shapes are made up of four triangles and three trapezoids. I used these same shapes to create another flagstone called Crowded Temples . I like the fluidity of this new tessellation a little more.  You can see the reverse side is mostly triangles with a few small hexagons. Even though it looks like it should be very hard, I find that tant paper very readily submits to flagstone folding. It's still difficult, but not as difficult as it appears. Crease pattern included.

 This original tessellation continues my exploration of patterns that can be created using a specific starting point. In this case, the starting point is a set of three trapezoids tucked into the points of a small triangle. My Eyes of the Pyramids origami tessellation uses the same starting point, but has a much different overall design. This is also a mixed technique design. It uses mostly flagstone collapses, but the central triangles between the trapezoids are tucks.  Often, when I hit upon a beginning point idea that works, I'll explore it for additional possibilities. A lot of people probably do the same. When working with geometric patterns there are generally multiple configurations to be found.  These standard shapes fit together in seemingly infinite ways.  In this particular origami tessellation when I repeated the central concept, I found that the trapezoids fits around an open hexagon in the remaining spaces.  Depending on your experience you mig...

 This somewhat difficult tessellation is one I really like. It's just one of those patterns that flows beautifully and makes perfect sense. There are a lot of great tessellations out there. There are a lot of ones that I've created of which I'm quite fond. But this particular tessellation is one of a rare few that I absolutely adore. I think that a lot of people will agree.  As soon as I had finished mapping out the design, I knew it would be a really good one. What's even better, is that I was able to fold it really neatly. It  happened to be one of those rare days when the paper was exceptionally crisp. It was a perfect confluence of ideal circumstances.  The pyramid shapes consist of three trapezoids and three rhombuses each. This original origami tessellation is mostly a flagstone, but features a small triangle at the center of each pyramid style molecule that is a tuck collapse. There are actually four triangle collapses per pyramid molecule, but only the cent...

Here's a new flagstone tessellation using trapezoids in yet another way. They truly are the most versatile of all the standard shapes in origami tessellations.  I used to think it was triangles that were most versatile, but having explored so extensively with trapezoids, I am convinced that are even more so.  Just when I think that I can't find possibly something else new to do with them, they surprise me again. The central pattern was my inspiration. A hexagon flanked by two rhombuses on each side and trapezoids at top and bottom. From there, it was just a matter of working out how to repeat it.  I'm sure it can be done using many methods, but I landed on a couple that I liked. This is one of them.  My grid isn't really large enough to show the repetitions, but the pattern is fully repeatable. For the back side, lots and lots of triangles are required.  In order to fold this tessellation , you'll need a little bit of patience and a good quality paper. C...

 Here's kind of a cool flagstone tessellation that I created recently.  It looks somewhat random, but it really isn't.  The center point is six rhombuses around a small hexagon on the opposite side. Pretty typical tessellation starting point.  Then I add some long parallelograms off of their edges. The other gaps are a series of interconnected trapezoids.  I didn't have enough paper/grid to actually do the repeats, but I do believe it is possible with more surface area.   My crease pattern actually shows dual ideas.  It shows both the pattern folded in the above model as well as another idea for where to go with the same starting point.  In the case of this particular model I just repeated the sets of trapezoids. The crease pattern however, has another idea. One which I haven't yet folded. Where you can alternate the sets of trapezoids with parallelograms and large triangles.  In theory, you could fold my original origami tessellation ...

 This is an interesting hybrid  flagstone tessellation that I recently designed and folded.  It uses a few different techniques and patterns. It was pretty hard to actually fold. Some of that difficulty can be attributed to weather conditions and the paper being softer in warmer/more humid seasons. But it's also a tricky configuration to execute even under favorable circumstances.  There was a good chunk of time while I was collapsing it that I was doubtful that I would be able to successfully complete it. Fortunately, it did work out. I was able to bring it to completion. Even if not quite as neatly as I would have liked.  It starts out innocently. Just a common set of six triangles attached to an open back hexagon.  Then I add a right triangles  and mirror image right triangles to the edges of the original center triangles.  At that point the secondary pattern emerges where the regular triangles and right triangles can be twisted around an offs...

  This is a new flagstone tessellation that I did last week. It uses trapezoids and triangles in a linear pattern.  The pattern is particularly interesting because of how the smaller subsections of the shapes each continuously mirror on diagonal paths. A pair of two triangles one way, then mirrored, then again and so on.  Same with the trapezoids. up, down, up, down on a diagonal plane.  Back side is all triangles.  Another interesting feature of this tessellation is that some of the triangles on the back side only worked right in certain gaps. While there were a few choices of the spaces to put then into, if you chose the wrong one, you were left with gaps that didn't quite work.  I can usually tell if a gap will work if it has certain features. Either it nestles right up against the shapes on the other sides. Or there's only a micro rhombus gap on one side. Or there's a small hex gap, but one edge is cut off.  I've tried to illustrate these conc...

 This origami tessellation uses the fact that trapezoids can create overhang in order connect to the next set of shapes. That's one of the things that I find so interesting about them. You can arrange them in ways that a lot of other shapes simply can't do.  In this particular tessellation, I did alternating trapezoids and rhombuses around open back hexagons. The gaps between them left space open for me to add opposite facing trapezoids. Which allowed me to repeat that molecule.  The repeating process created the more standard six trapezoids around a hexagon in the other spaces.  It's a nice, fluid design that highlights the versatility of the trapezoid shape in tessellating.  If you're a fan of flagstone tessellations , this is a pretty cool one.  Crease pattern below. Created the pattern last week. Just fold it the other day.  Filed under: April 2026 Origami Tessellations

 This is the tessellation that I reference in the previous post. I had the central idea. That came to me quite easily. It wasn't hard to figure out how to repeat that. However, when I did, I was left with a rather large gap that I didn't know how to fill.  I played around with various sets of shapes and still wasn't sure what would actually work.  When you're stuck, sometimes it's best to just take a step back and work on something else for a while. So, I did.  A week later, I was thinking about it again and came up with a new plan to reconcile those empty spaces. I still knew that it wasn't quite right, but that I was almost there.  At that point, I decided I would go with what I had so far and see if I could figure out the final answer as I folded it.  This isn't an approach that I usually take. It risks wasting fancy paper and a lot of grid folding time. But, occasionally, this is the only way for me to figure trickier things out completely. It doesn...

 I was stuck for a while on how to repeat a somewhat unorthodox pattern. That roadblock gave me the idea for this tessellation . It's a similar, but more fluid design compared to the other.  The basic inspiration was a large pyramidal style array of rhombuses around hexagons.  Depending on how you look at it, you might see that. Or you might see the rhombus stars more prominently.  Tilt your head 20 degrees or so as you look at it and the central concept might stand out more.  I have the sneaking suspicion that this tessellation may have been done previously by Joel Cooper or someone else of that caliber. It just seems like something he might do. I'm not sure though. At the time of creating it, it was new/unknown to me.  Incidentally, I did later figure out the original idea that I had been stuck on. Which I just completed earlier today. It turned out to have some surprising and new techniques for me. I will post that one soon. It's very interesting. ...

 This flagstone tessellation was all about three triangles and an open back hexagon. From that starting point, I added shapes that seemed to make sense in order to create a coherent and repeatable pattern.  I'll be the first to admit that I have a small obsession with flagstone style origami tessellations . There seem to be an endless array of possible patterns and I enjoy finding as many of them as I can.  It's interesting because every once in a while, I'll feel like I'm all out of ideas. Then, I'll take a breather and  out of nowhere I'll find a new configuration.  It's a reminder that inspiration comes on its own schedule. Trying to force it doesn't work. Let it come to you.  The additional details of this design feature small hex twists with six triangles as well as alternating trapezoids.  Crease pattern included.