I saw an image of this tessellation on flickr. The image I saw was of a much higher density. Double the repetitions of my fold. I would love to find out how that folder did it. They must have employed a different technique than I used. I used my knowledge of the fujimoto hydrangea to figure out the crease pattern. I mapped that out, modifying for the desired result. Then I just went ahead and treated it as a crease pattern and collapsed everything in unison. Now, I know, when you normally fold hydrangeas or clovers, you do it in stages. It's not a collapse. It's a series of folds that add up to something. If it's possible to fold this in stages, I didn't find it. I just worked the paper gingerly until it eventually yielded to my persistence. But there's no way I could've done a much higher density that way without some kind of incredibly resilient paper. Any insights would be appreciated.

So, I found the crease pattern for this on google. Whose it is, I'm not certain. I was drawn to it because it seemed pretty straight-forward, but it was actually really difficult to fold. I'm sure my paper didn't make it any easier. It was probably too small and probably not the best density. The first time I folded this, it was good on the front, but terrible on the back. At that point, I felt that I understood it well enough to do a much better version. The second attempt did come out much better, but really wasn't much easier. I really like this pattern. Pointed rectangles on the front. Octagons on the back. It's simple in theory, but complex to execute. Very elegant. All those fiddly little diagonals seem to wreak havoc on my paper. Honestly, I think it just needs bigger paper. That would probably make all the difference. Or a much sturdier paper. But I pressed onward and was able to complete a second attempt with a pretty good result.

I had found a tessellation and crease pattern on flickr that I was curious to fold. I did fold it. Twice. This isn't it. More on that next time. This is the pattern it inspired me to create. It's probably nothing new. It's pretty obvious to the grid. Nevertheless, it was new to me. It's full on winter weather here in the northeast, so my photos are not lit the way I would like, but next  springtime is distant dream. So we persevere. For a change of pace, I've been working with a square grid rather than my favored triangle grid. I find square grid tessellations of any real complexity more difficult to fold. Everything seems to happen in a much smaller space and is nestled so close together. And they always seem to need way more preceases. Even with a clear and perfectly feasible plan, there's quite a lot of struggle to get the paper to do what I want it to do. Maybe that's just my inexperience with square grid tessellations. This one, however, is...