When I concocted this tessellation I was sure I'd never done it before. I assumed others had done it, but that I'd not yet encountered this particular configuration.  Turns out that I had done it before.  It's deceptive. The crease pattern seems so simple. Like it will be a nice, relaxing fold.  It was infuriatingly difficult. I was on the verge of giving up several times. On top of that, a heat wave and humidity making what's normally very sturdy paper limp and lifeless.  So although I've done this one and posted it before as " Hungry Rhombuse s", it's worth taking a second look at it.  Pro tip: put your paper in the freezer to dry it out. It really works. 

 Dodecagons offer a different shape that tessellates in a flagstone style with triangles and rhombuses. It's not really all that different from an architectural perspective from hexagons. But it does create different silhouettes..  This is dodecagons connected by rhombuses.  Nothing mysterious here. Just two classic shapes playing nicely together.  Fits pretty well on a 32 pleat triangle grid. 

  So I found this tessellation on some site where they were trying to sell it. It had a pretty steep price tag, so I just figured it was a complicated design.  I messed around with various possible ways it might be constructed and didn't crack it.  Decided I was overthinking it and abandoned it.    A couple weeks later, I wasn't thinking about it at all, but suddenly realized how to do it. It was much simpler than I had originally thought.  It felt good to hit upon the solution, even if it was a pretty basic one.  I had wasted a lot of time thinking it was some mysterious trickery of folds, when all along it was actually incredibly basic.  Go figure.  To its credit, it doesn't photograph as basic. It really provides a fetching image.  When I finally came up with the crease pattern, I just did a big face palm at how I'd completely overlooked the obvious answer.  It was fairly easy to fold. I used kraft paper.  It gets a little t...

There's a funny story behind this tessellation.  Years ago I took some photos of the crease patterns in Eric Gjerde's Awe-Inspiring Tessellations book.  I saved them to a private (not publically accessible) google photos album and there they sat for years gathering virtual dust.  But when I found myself with origami  writer's block I decided to revisit them.  Except, I didn't include any pictures of what the finished model should look like or any titles which might hint at it.  So when I went to fold the crease pattern that resulted in this, I had no idea it was actually supposed to become his "Five and Four".  I quickly sketched the main lines onto my paper and paid no attention to valley and mountain folds. When I set about collapsing, I just chose different shapes to be dominant and wound up with what you see here.  So same exact lines and creases just folded in a slightly different way and you wind up with something  else entirely. K...

This tessellation is straight from Eric Gjerde's book 'Origami Tessellations: Awe-Inspiring Geometric Designs'. I don't recall the title of the design. I just have a memory of how much I loved how it backlit. . I folded it years ago, but had never posted it here.  So feeling both nostalgic and lacking for any new ideas, I decided to fold it again.  I actually first learned the fundamental principles of origami tessellations from that book. It set me off on a path where I just kept digging deeper and deeper into more and more complex folds. I'm still obsessed with the craft and always learning. So thanks Eric.  All these years later, what once seemed such a difficult concept to wrap my head around, now feels elementary. I banged it out in only minutes once I'd completed the grid.  Nevertheless, It still backlights beautifully. Another great example of how the simpler designs produce some of the most wonderful results.

Just riffing on " Joel Cooper's Sunflower Tessellation " that I folded not too long ago. Playing around with other possible combinations of shapes.  When I mapped this one out it was clear it would not fold flat. But I liked the idea enough that I was ready to try to do another 3D fold for a change. Was hoping it would generate a cool design when backlit. This is subjective, of course. But here are the results.  So it's a classic circle of triangles with a small hex twist on the reverse side.  Then where the sunflower tessellation employed rhombuses off of that, I wanted to do open back hex twists.  Because the design doesn't flatten the backlit images show odd shapes that don't match up with the what you would expect to see.   My crease pattern drawing is included below. 

  This is an odd variation on triangle twists around a small hexagon. I folded the triangles in on themselves. Folded them in half. Once two such were done this created the point connecting them. Tucked a hexagon backward off that point to be able to flatten it. I hate reverse rabbit ear folds. I avoid them whenever possible.  The whole affair is a bit of tight fit. They're not normal hexagon twists. Several of the axes have to bang into each other with one tucked below the other. Still, it does work without much fuss.  The paper got a bit curled up on itself during the thick of it, but nothing a careful eye can't handle.  I would've repeated the central design, but my grid was much to small for that. Only a single star point repeated. So I just adjusted it to what I thought made a nice looking finished edge..  Rather less complicated than my usual fare. A nice change of pace.  I do have a crude crease pattern. It's included below.