It's time for something a little less intense. Sometimes those turn out to be some of my favorite finished designs.  For me, I love the puzzle of aspect of complex origami tessellations . How, you come up with an idea, but then you still have to solve exactly how to make it work geometrically.  Even so, it's a nice detour to occasionally do something simpler. It also saves money on fancy paper. LOL. Since you can do the easier ones with ordinary paper.  This is 20 lb. yellow printer paper. It always backlights so well.  This tessellation is simpler, but it's not simple. I'd say it's probably an intermediate level fold .  I designed it as the second picture. But as often happens with tessellations similar to this, I wound up liking the other side more.  My crease pattern is somewhat worse for wear, but it still illustrates all the components of the structure. 

  This origami tessellation uses a similar style to my ' Higgs Boson' design . It swaps out some of the shapes for different ones, but follows the same kind of thought process for how it's conceived. Lots of overlapping layers, collapses and tucks. Lots of fun.  Now, to look at my rendition, you might think it's not an actual tessellation. The center doesn't appear to repeat. It's true. On a 32 pleat triangle grid which only has enough space for two series of modules, there is not enough room to repeat. However, with a larger grid, the third set could in fact repeat the center.  On the reverse side, you can see how the triangles and trapezoids interact to help facilitate the design on the front.  The sneakiest part of designs like this one is keeping track of which way you want your fold to go. Assuming you want a consistent pattern that is. When folds land at close angles to each other, they must go in opposite directions. So, part of the fun is deciding how t...

 Continuing my theme of things tucked into triangles, I have this intermediate tessellation . It came together very quickly. No puzzling or agonizing required.  It begins with rhombus stars. Then the aforementioned triangle. Three rhombuses are tucked into the triangle. Each of those rhombuses is a part of a separate star.  Filling in the gaps was no trouble at all. A couple more rhombuses did the trick.  Thinking about the structure prior to folding it, I wasn't sure whether it would be hard or easy. I thought probably somewhere in the middle. Turns out that it was not much trouble at all.  The actual hard part is sometimes the folding the tessellation . But more often tit's coming up with the idea. And the task of bringing the idea to completion.  Even when you have a good starting concept, it's not always simple to figure out how to make it work. In this case, it actually was pretty easy. But a lot of the time, it's a puzzle that takes some solving....

 Here's a simple idea I had that creates a rather intricate original tessellation . It's so much fun when they turn out that way.  The idea is just rhombuses tucked into triangles repeating seamlessly.  When I drew it out on the grid paper, it looked like it would be very hard to fold. Lots of shapes all arranged quite close together. It turned out to be not that difficult.  It's still a somewhat difficult tessellation and it was a little troublesome because as I went along tucking and collapsing the paper began to tense and curl up on itself. But it definitely wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.  The back side is pretty cool. Because of all the triangle tucks on the front, you get a somewhat unique design on the other side.  Another notable aspect, is that I was able to arrange all the triangles on the back to all face the same direction. That's seldom possible.  Crease pattern follows.

 This is a neat one with some interesting features.Some of the structure is simple. Open hexagons with double rhombuses around them. Pretty standard flagstone type stuff. But what that pattern creates are a series of triangular 'windows'. Inside those 'windows' you can fit a small triangle at the center with three rhombuses tucked into it. That's the cool feature that makes this particular tessellation unique.  The back side has an interesting pattern also. You get several sets of three triangles collapsed into a central triangle. The backs of tessellations like this don't usually have such a distinct pattern.  This is a difficult tessellation . There are a lot of tiny folds that have to been done and they have to be done in some rather small spaces.  If you're feeling up to it, the crease pattern follows. Filed under: August 2026 Origami Tessellations  

  This origami tessellation follows a path that I've taken recently with several others. It mixes elements of flagstone tessellations with tuck fold techniques in order to discover new patterns and combinations.  Specifically in this tessellation, the inspiration was doubling the number of rhombuses rotating around a central open hexagon. Typically, with a flagstone style center such as this one, you'd have six rhombuses. One attached to each edge of the hexagon.  In this design, I was able to do 12 rhombuses by tucking the extra six into the spaces between the standard six.  To repeat the center module, I added more rhombuses tucked vertically into the edges of the standard six. Then I was able to repeat the center set by tucking into the top of the extra vertical rhombus.  I filled the remaining gaps with more hexagons and some trapezoids. The whole structure is much clearer when viewing the crease pattern that I've included at the end.  I really fo...

It took a little while to figure out how to get this tessellation to work properly. But I was confident that it could work and I would up hitting upon the solution.  My starting idea was for the center point. The open hexagon with 12 overlapping trapezoids around it. Repeating that was no problem. But the spaces that were left puzzled me for a bit before I realized how to solve it.  On the back side there are three rhombuses. They flank the open triangles seen in the gaps between all the trapezoids on the front.  This is a difficult tessellation . There's a lot of work to be done on both sides of the paper. It combines aspects of flagstone tessellations, tuck and twist styles.  Crease pattern included. Filed under: August 2026 Origami Tessellations

 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 ...

 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 an intermediate level tessellation that I recently folded. The idea is two kinds of triangles twisting around an open hexagon. Not too unusual. It's a little different though because the top corners of the triangles meet and they twist into one another. This is illustrated very clearly in the crease pattern at the end of this post.  In order to repeat the pattern, I used small hex twists and some triangle twists (which are not requited, but I liked them). They could just be left as regular corners.  I used ordinary printer paper because there are a lot of folds which overlap each other. Normally, when you do a hex twist you, just spin each axis in the same direction and they don't interfere with one another. In some cases, like in this tessellation , it's necessary to twist the axes in opposite directions. When that happens, they overlap. When trying to fold overlapping twists, I find it much easier to use thinner paper.  All in all, this paper type worked...

 I've  had the pattern for this tessellation for quite some time. It just kind of got lost in the chaos for a while. Finally folded it the other day.  When you look at the crease pattern (located below), it looks pretty complicated, but actually it's pretty straightforward. There are a lot of shapes, but creating the connections between them is fairly simple.  Another interesting thing about this particular origami tessellation is that it kind of looks like there isn't a tessellation pattern, even though there is. It takes a few steps outward, but right near the edges the central molecule does show up again.  The front side is mostly trapezoids with some triangles. The back side is exclusively open hexagons. This is an intermediate level tessellation . It'll take up a little bit of time, but it won't drive you crazy in the process.  Diagram to fold this one follows. 

 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. 

 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 ...