I haven't solved someone else's tessellation  in quite a while. This time around I did. This is Orbits designed by gatheringfolds.  I surprised myself with how quickly I was able to reverse engineer it. It was no trouble at all.  True to her classic form this is a symetrical design that is a mirror image on either side. Knowing her tendency toward such ideas made it easier to figure.  The main components are small offeset hexes with triangle twists alternating front and back and open back hexagons.  It was a pleasant fold that I did with regular printer paper. I even did it on a rainy day and still didn't have any trouble. Loosely spaced twist folds such as this are perfect for when the paper might be a little soggy because of the weather.  There's no need for a pic of the reverse side since it's the same just mirrored.  Depending on your skill level this might be an easy tessellation or it might be an intermediate one. Objectively, I've say i...

 If you're a fan of flagstone tessellations , as I am, here's another one. Thsi one is trapezoids and rhombuses in a linear pattern.  Trapezoids have all kinds of fun linear possibilities to ferret out. This is just one of so many, many possibilities. I could probably spend years just creating trapezoid based tessellations and not ever run out of options.  This original tessellation is two trapezoids. One up and one down, then a rhombus. And repeat.  Triangle twists densely populate the back side.  This is a difficult tessellation . All flagstones are at least somewhat difficult. They are also a lot of fun and very satisfying to complete. Yielding fascinating finished results.  Crease pattern included.  Filed under: February 2025 Origami

  This is a twist based tessellation that uses some basic triangle twists to create a pretty intriguing pattern on the opposite side of the paper.  A large hexagon is converted into the six triangle twists at the center. Then I add duos of triangles twists off of the axes. At that stage the pattern is repeated.  The twist side is fiddly to work. I used basic printer paper, which is usually great for simple twist designs such as this one. However, in this case, the proximity of some of the folds would've benefited from a slightly sturdier stock.  The good news is that the other side (first photo) turned out very nice. Some tessellations can be a little bipolar like that. Where one side is not that great, while the other is perfectly fine.  I actually conceived of this design as the second photo. Wanting to create a series of triangle twists with wings that created inner negative space triangles. That was how I envisioned the finished result. I still think it...

 This is a relatively simple tessellation that I recently created. The idea is six sided pyramids with rhombuses twisting off of all of the corners.  Three are close together and connected by small natural triangles. Three are further apart and are connected by larger natural triangles.  Finding a coherent  pattern in a tessellation such as this one can be daunting. All the folds can go in any direction.  So, while it's pretty easy to just fold everything haphazardly, it's a little more of a challenge to come up with and execute a consisent pattern.  But, there are no rules. It can be folded in any way you want. 

  This is an intermediate level tessellation that I recently created and folded. It uses small hexagons with rhombuses offset from them. Then it also adds open back hexagons as well. The pattern of the rhombuses around the open back hexagons is set by how they rotate around the small hexes.  I conceived of this original tessellation from the other side (second photo), but I think that I like the first photo a little more.  When I was first starting out and looking at my diagram, I thought it would be pretty hard. Turned out, not so much. I didn't have much trouble at all.  It was somewhat time-consuming, but otherwisee, a pretty pleasant tessellation to fold.  My crease pattern is included below.  Filed under: February 2025 Origami Tessellations

  I found this tessellation in my google photos languishing unpublished. It's from the beginning of January. Guess it got lost in the shuffle. I didn't really remember too much about it.  So, I pulled the actual piece from my box of been and done to have a better look.  It's an intermediate level twist fold . It consists of open back hexagons with rhombus twists only two pleats off from the edges. Because of this they partially tuck behind the hexagon. It's kind of an interesting effect.  I must have drawn a diagram before I folded it, but I'm not sure if I can still find it nearly a month later. If I remember, I'll look for it or draw a new one and upload it soon.  Personally, I love creating tessellations like this that nestle the shapes so closely together. They tend to have interesting results. At least, I think so anyway.  Filed under: January 2025 Origami Tessellations . 

 I haven't done a tricky collapse tessellation in a little while. So, this is a new one I created. It begins with rhombuses around an open back hexagon. From there, I add two more rhombuses progressing outward from the center ones. Then it's time to repeat.  In order to fill in the remaining spaces, I used triangle collapses.  I do love a good set of 3 or more triangles tucked into each other. It can be very hard to execute, but it's worth it.  You don't need to stop at three rhombuses. You can keep going. I haven't mapped it, but I would guess that it would require more and more triangles in the gaps. Of course, the more triangles that you try to tuck into each other the more difficult the tessellation becomes. Isn't that the fun of it, though? This is a difficult tessellation , bordering on advanced . I do have a crease pattern. I haven't yet taken a photo of it, but I will try to add it soon.  Filed under: January 2025 Origami Tessellations

Conjoined Stars Flagstone Tessellation  This is a tessellation that I came up with while mucking around with triangle twists around a small hexagon. It's a common starting point for a myriad of tessellations.  In this case, I added some rhombuses and triangles on the edge of the central point. Then I inverted those shapes in order to repeat the pattern. What I wound up creating was a series of of interconnected stars that are all joined together by shared shapes.  It's a pretty cool pattern in my opinion.  I folded it using green tant paper.  It's a difficult tessellation , but once you get used to doing flagstones they become much easier to execute. After a while, they almost become easy. Though they contain a lot of interconnected shapes, they seem to work quite naturally with the triangle grid.  Conjoined Stars by solvingorigamitessellations.com I also find flagstone tessellations much easier to conceive of than other tessellations. They follow a prett...

This is an odd one. It's another bullet shape based tessellation that I created . At the time of conception, I was thoroughly obsessed with creating this particular pattern. So much so, that I completely disregarded the fact that the grid and paper really don't want to make this design.  Nevertheless, I pressed onward.  It has some weird tucks, folds and overlaps. Which make it a difficult tessellation , possibly advanced. It's not the most elegant tessellation I've ever folded. That's for sure. However, in the end, I mostly, made it work.  I was right in the middle of finishing this when it dawned on me that triangles in the same pattern would be just as beautiful and also work much more fluidly with the grid. So, that's a fun tessellation for another day! It works like a typical flagstone in most ways. The small gaps on the back are triangles and the larger ones are rhombuses. But because of the atypical shape of the bullets, the points of the triangles need ...

  This is a refold of a tessellation I created back in April 2021 called ' One Way Streets' .  At that time, I was unfamiliar with the various types of paper available to facilitate better finished tessellations. So I folded it using ordinary 20 lb. printer paper. It worked okay, but not as nicely as I would've liked.  I was also, much more lax in keeping up with saving my diagrams for tessellations that I created . So the original post does not have any sort of crease pattern documentation.  It's not a particularly difficult tessellation to reverse engineer , but it's still nice to have that option.  Anyway, this time around, I used tant paper. Which I love for more intricate tessellations. I also used this design to inaugurate my first use of a wonderful turquoise color of it that I found. It's quite striking.  The design is bullet shapes around large hexagons. In order to repeat the pattern, some small rectangles are needed here and there.  It's a l...

 This is a simpler tessellation than my usual designs. I wouldn't call it easy, but it's not hard either.  Open back hexagons are surrounded by triangle twists. Then I add some long parallelograms More open back hexes and then repeat everything.  It's a nice exercise in how the various shapes work together.   The back view features a really interesting weave pattern.  It's an intermediate level tessellation that fits very nicely on a 32 pleat triangle grid.  It's much less labor-intensive than my usual original origami designs . A relaxing little tessellation that can be completed without too much fuss.  I used 28 lb. white printer paper to execute it. It worked quite well.  Crease pattern is included.  Filed under: January 2025 Origami Tessellations

 This is a tessellation I came up with after having seen and solved one by gatheringfolds. I don't know what she named it because I actually saw it on the instagram of someone else who had folded her design and they didn't specifically reference the title.  When I saw it, I really liked it, but even moreso it made me think of what else I could do with one of the components. In this case, the six rhombus pyramid.  So, after I mapped out her original tessellation , I used that foundation to create this one.  For my design, I repeated the rhombus pyramids by spacing them out from each other. Then I worked out what shape would fill in the rest. It's  just some very large hexagons.  I'll probably fold her original idea since I already have the crease pattern diagrammed. But I chose to fold my idea first.  My diagram follows.  I drew the crease pattern using one of the hexagons as the center. This would work just fine. But ultimately, I decided to u...