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Tessellations
These tessellations were folded in 2026.
Daffodils
Daffodils
Date: 3/xx/2026
Basis: Closed hex twists and nub offsets, opposite sites
Paper: 12" diameter hexagon pink sky kozo (32-triangle grid), 12" diameter hexagon dark blue biotope (48-triangle grid), 36cm diameter hexagon light green tant (48-triangle grid)
This is the densest I've been able to pack nub offsets with a closed hex twist connector, leading to a floral pattern on the hex twist side. By crimping the hex twists so they stand up, they look like daffodils.
The density of the nub offsets can be seen on the back side.
With a 48-triangle grid, another ring can be completed at the edge of the model. In this model the extra twist on the hexes are kept flat.
The back side of the 48-triangle grid model.
The model in light green, with raised centers.
The hex twist spiral centers are more clearly seen when the model is backlit.
On the back side of the model, the nub offset pips are more clearly seen when backlit.
Tessellation Time
Tessellation Time
Date: 3/18/2026
Model: Citrus Slices
Paper: 38cm diameter hexagon amber red biotope paper (64-triangle grid)
Because each molecule of Citrus Slices has 12 pips, I doodled several ideas for making it into a clock face. In the end, I colored a pip per hour in a bright color (green metallic marker, with subtle mauve metallic marker to fill in the rest of the pips for balance) and installed it with a basic clock kit.
Stars and Sprinkles (small and large)
Stars and Sprinkles (small and large)
Date: 3/14/2026
Basis: Closed hex twist, nub offset pleats (same sides)
Paper: 12" diameter hexagon purple/teal/orangle marbled mulberry paper (48-triangle grid), 36cm diameter hexagon bright green kami (48-triangle grid)
Another exploration of nub offset pleats combined with closed hex twists. On the opposite side of the model, oblong "sprinkle" shapes appear around sunken stars. Depending on spacing, these can be small or large sprinkles and stars.
The backside of the small module shows the high density of hex twists and nub offsets.
When the non-twist/pleat side is backlit, the sprinkles are more strongly outlined.
When the twist/pleat side is backlit, the edges connecting the twists to the nub offsets are more apparent.
Increasing the spacing between hex twist and nub offsets creates a similar pattern.
Both the sprinkles and the stars are larger in this variant.
When the large variant is backlit, the sprinkle shapes are more sharply defined as parallelograms.
Tortoise Shell
Tortoise Shell
Date: 3/3/2026
Basis: Nub offset pleats
Paper: 36cm diameter hexagon green kami (48-triangle grid)
Another exploration of nub offset pleats with different spacing. The result is similar to Maws, because the nub offsets between modules creates a hexagon just where Maws' isoarea hexagon twists are located.
The backside shows nub offsets creating hexagons that surround a triangle.
When the front side is backlit, there is soft lighting within each scale but hard lighting around each scale.
The back side backlit shows the sharp edges of each scale, with the nub offset hexagons as pips between them.
Pythagorean Tiling (marbled)
Pythagorean Tiling (marbled)
Date: 2/20/2026
Model: Pythagorean Tiling
By: Multiple designers (independent discovery)
Paper: 12" blue/purple/grey marbled mulberry paper (48 square grid)
Just a quick fold of Pythagorean Tiling (1:2 squares) on marbled paper to highlight the texture of the boxes.
Citrus Slices
Citrus Slices
Date: 2/xx/2026
Model: Citrus Slices
By: Original design
Paper: 36cm diameter hexagon blue kami (48-triangle grid), 36cm diameter hexagon yellow kami (64-triangle grid), 32cm x 45cm floral yuzen paper (48-triangle vertically)
Playing around with the nub offset pleat used in Shift Rosette (and a few other of Benjamin Parker-DiLeonardo's models) and ended up with these fun 12-diamond pip hexagons, that made me think of a cross section of citrus when backlit. On a 48-triangle grid there's not enough space for a second ring, so I also tried it on a 64-triangle grid.
The back side has a floral, daisy-like pattern with the hexagon and lozenges seeming to float above.
When the front side is backlit, the diamonds look like pips.
The back side backlit gives sharp edges to the petal and central hexagon of each daisy.
On a 64-triangle grid there is just enough space for a second ring of repeats.
The backlit front side of the 64-triangle grid.
The backlit back side of the 64-triangle grid showing off more daisy repeats.
Using floral paper and focusing on the daisy side creates a double-flower design.
With a floating frame, the piece can be backlit to show soft edges to the petals.
Shift Sakura
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: 32cm x 45cm 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)
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
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
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
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.
The back side of the hexagon, showing the same (if mirrored) pattern.
The blue hexagon backlit, showing a mixture of triangle shapes, with small light triangles pointing up and larger soft triangles pointing down.
The same pattern on square orange aurora paper, the iridescence showing off the layering.
The backside of the square version.
The back side of the orange pattern, backlit, showing the same motifs as the front side.
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