solved by solvingorigamitessellations.com  This is a tessellation by Ben Parker titled Snowflakes that I reverse engineered and folded about 4 years ago. I wanted to give it another try to see if I could work it a little better. And also to be able to create a crease pattern as I hadn't done so the first time around.  When I first solved this tessellation I was still learning how to extrapolate the architecture behind already completed tessellations of other artists. I don't remember how easy or hard of a time I had back then, but  I do remember that figuring out how to fold it taught me a lot.  Funny thing about this tessellation, I had actually originally intended to refold a similar, but slightly different design by him called Hidden Treasure .  solved by solvingorigamitessellations.com For whatever reason, I must've gotten distracted and wound up doing snowflakes instead. Go figure.  Once you understand either, the other is already solved.  Iro...

created by solvingorigamitessellations.com  This one just came to me as I was fiddling with open back hexagons. I wondered what I could do with small natural parallelograms around it. So I just added triangle twists in order to repeat and it came out pretty cool.  The original inspiration for this tessellation wound up being the back of the design to me. I really liked what happened on the other side as a result.  This is an intermediate level tessellation . It's not too hard if you're used to working with smaller shapes. It is important though, to not try to complete all the twists as you go. It will work best if you partially fold everything and then little by little ease them into place in unison.  created by solvingorigamitessellations.com I would say that it definitely has to be folded from the back side mostly and you just wind up with the front by default.  I used ordinary printer paper folded into a 32 pleat triangle grid.  This time of year is g...

solvingorigamitessellations.com  This is a twist based origami tessellation . I kinda just came up with this one because I wanted to do something with alternating rhombus and triangle twists that was a little different than ones I and others had already done.  It may have been done before, but it was new to me as I was creating it. So, I'll call it an original tessellation because that is how it came to me.  solvingorigamitessellations.com It features open back hexagons with triangle twists off of them. Then there is a layer of larger natural hexagons with alternating rhombus and triangle twists. It's at that point that the two layers of the pattern can be repeated.  This is an intermediate level tessellation .  Not too terribly difficult to fold if you have the crease pattern. No doubt, slightly trickier if you take it upon yourself to reverse engineer it. Though, even then, it's not that hard.  I folded it using ordinary printer paper trimmed to a hex...

created by solvingorigamitessellations.com  This new tessellation is kind of the inverse of another tessellation I created not that long ago called 'Interstellar Transmissions' . That one was small hex and triangle stars surrounded by trapezoids. This new one is small hex and trapezoid stars connected by triangles. The geometry tends to work like that. Equal and opposite and so forth.  created by solvingorigamitessellations.com The trapezoids connect to the hexagons not along the grid lines, but rather by bisecting them. I call this an offset hex. I don't think that's an official term, but it does describe how the connections between the shapes work.  When I got to the edges, instead of simply following the pattern, I used the shapes that fit best to result in nicely finished ends.  This is a difficult tessellation . Lots of small shapes all tucked into one another.  I used 10 inch by 10 inch tant paper trimmed to a hexagon. A 32 pleat triangle grid. All folds....

created by solvingorigamitessellations.com This tessellation reminds me of ones I've solved by Arseniy K because of the way the shapes interact and layer upon each other. This particular tessellation, however, it is an original origami tessellation that was created by me.  Despite being the creator, I found this hard to execute. Everything is on top of each other. It's a difficult task to get it to actually work as envisioned.  It turned out pretty good considering I was kind of learning to fold it as I went. A second attempt would, no doubt, turn out better.  created by solvingorigamitessellations.com These kinds of intense tessellations rarely photograph as beautifully as the simpler ones. The light simply doesn't shine through because of the thick paper required and the multitude of layers. It's a great shame because these are some of the most extraordinary tessellations of all.  They require patience, perseverance and a deep understanding of all the nuances of...

created by solvingorigamitessellations.com This is another twist based tessellation that I came up with while actively trying to work on my twist tessellation creation skills.  It's not too complicated, but it's a fairly nifty pattern.  Basically, it's rhombuses and natural triangles around open back hexagons. That then creates 1.5 triangles on the other side. This is the side where the magic of the pattern happens and you get that money shot that makes for a great picture.   created by solvingorigamitessellations.com This is an original tessellation that I recently designed and folded. It's a pretty easy tessellation to fold.  But I think the end result is very cool.  I'm not sure how easy or hard it is to reverse engineer . But you don't have to, if you don't want to. My diagram is available at the end of this post.  created by solvingorigamitessellations.com Filed under: October 2024 Origami Tessellations