Tessellations
(2026)

These tessellations were folded in 2026.

Shift Sakura

Date: 2/4/2026
Model: Shift Rosette
By: Benjami DiLeonardo-Parker
From: Six Simple Twists:The Pleat Pattern Approach to Origami Tessellation Design (Second Edition)
Paper: Pink floral patterned chiyogami (32-triangle divisions vertically)

A fold of Shift Rosette on this beautiful, thick chiyogami with a floral design. There's a slight disconnect in the cherry blossoms having 5 petals per flower and Shift Rosette having 6.

Pythagorean Tiling (with a twist)

Date: 2/3/2026
Model: Pythagorean Tiling
By: Multiple designers (independent discovery)
Paper: 35cm white kami(48 square grid)

Continuing to doodle with isoarea square twists led me to an independent discovery of the Pythagorean Tiling model (which appears to be a common occurrence). The 1x1 and 2x2 square spacing is similar to that of Sunken Diamonds (if the 1x1 square was replaced with a diamond) so I began expanding and twisting various squares of the model on both the front and back, leading to a final, different isoarea pattern.

The base Pythagorean Tiling pattern, back side, showing 1x2 rectangles.

The 2x2 squares on the front of the model were raised.

The back side after the 2x2 squares were raised shows a neat square well pattern.

The raised squares were twisted, which flattened them.

On the back side, the 1x1 squares were expanded into 2x2 squares.

The back side 2x2 squares were raised.

On the front side, new wells now show up between the square twists.

After the back side squares were twisted to flatten them, the final pattern emerged.

The backlit version of the final pattern.

Curlicues

Date: 1/20/2026
Original Design
Paper: 35cm green kami, 12" blue/purple/grey marbled mulberry paper (48 square grid)

I was messing around with Sunken Diamonds from last year to see if I could turn it into a charm or pendant (for jewelry) when I discovered the larger pleated squares could also be twisted. After some testing with rotation directions, I found this version that would lie flat, but other rotation variants would allow the pleats between the larger square twists to stand up if dimensionality was desired.

The back side shows a mixture of squares and crosses (which resemble D-Pads on a game controller.)

When backlit, the squares and pleat connections show out strongly.

The back side, when backlit, shows off almost a maze-like structure of layered pleats.

The directionality of the marbled pattern shows off how much the twisted diamonds and squares are rotated (90 degrees).

When backlit, the marbled pattern creates additional lightness/darkness patterns along with the layered pleats and twists.

Shift Rosette

Date: 1/13/2026
Model: Shift Rosette
By: Benjami DiLeonardo-Parker
From: Six Simple Twists:The Pleat Pattern Approach to Origami Tessellation Design (Second Edition)
Paper: 36cm diameter hexagon light pink kami (48 triangle grid)

This model has two very different but equally interesting sides. There is the floral rosette side, where each blossom is slightly offset from each other allowing for them to be sharply defined. Then there is the back side with a mixture of hexagons and rhombuses that define sunken stars.

The back side shows off hexagon twists set in sunken stars, outlined by nub twists (rhombuses).

When backlit, the rosettes on the front side are even more sharply defined by the thin offset borders.

The back side, when backlit, shows off the rhombuses and hexagons more clearly.

Maws

Date: 1/7/2026
Model: Maws
Pattern: Isoarea closed hex twists
By: Dirk Eisner? (Independent discovery)
Paper: 12" orange aurora paper (48 triangle grid), 36cm diameter hexagon dark blue kami (48 triangle grid)

After playing around with square isoarea twists, I decided to delve into hexagon isoarea twists again, deciding to figure out what kind of pattern could be made with just these twists (as alluded to on Twist Database.) It was a fairly simple setup, which led to the same pattern on each side.