Origami Tessellations are a very interesting and unique use of paper. Especially if you appreciate the mathematics and design behind them.

In a previous post we talked about the different kinds of tessellations and a bit of the history behind them.

For this post we’re going to get right into the tessellations starting with this very neat looking brick wall.

Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

Instructions not available

This next image is something quite unique. Andrey Ermakov used a hexagon shaped sheet of paper to fold a Yin Yang symbol with two different tessellation patterns.

Yin Yang, Designed and Folded by Andrey Ermakov

Instructions not available

Alessandro Beber has a lot of really cool designs with 3D looking shapes folded into the design. He’s currently working on a book with instructions to fold some of his designs and hopefully it’ll be out soon.

Space 0, Designed and Folded by Alessandro Beber

Instructions not available

Here’s an absolutely beautiful looking tessellation. It’s folded from elephant hide paper, painted with alcohol based ink and covered with ivory coloured acrylic spray which gives it the rose colours.

Wired, Designed and Folded by Peter Keller

Instructions not available

Here’s another excellent brick wall-like tessellation pattern from Ilan Garibi.

Twister, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

Instructions not available

I’ve always liked these 3D sort of optical illusion shapes and Alessandro Beber is a master of working them into origami tessellation designs.

Perceptions, Designed and Folded by Alessandro Beber

Instructions not available

This is more of a fractal-like pattern.

Septagon, Designed and Folded by Jun Mitani

Crease pattern available from Jun Mitani’s website

I really like how this next design looks like a bunch of interlocked chain links or a weaved basket. The title of “Stitched” is very appropriate.

Stitches, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

Instructions not available

Tessellations don’t have to just be 2 dimensional. Melina Hermsen designed this cool looking 3D tower pattern.

Towerstars, Designed and Folded by Melina Hermsen

Instructions not available

Because tessellations use the same repeating pattern the back of the model is often just as great looking if not better than the front. Here’s one of Ilan Garibi’s brick tessellations viewed up close and from the back.

Rotated Brick – Back View, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

Instructions not available

Here’s another one of those great 3D cube tessellations from Alessandro Beber.

ॐ, Designed and Folded by Alessandro Beber

Instructions not available

This is another excellent close up view of a semi-3D looking tessellation.

Prospective Model, Designed by Lydia Diard and Folded by Luca De Giorgi

Instructions not available

This tessellation looks really great but it’s actually the back side of the model.

Gradient – Back View, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

Instructions not available

For this next tessellation Alessandro Beber took a hexagon sheet of paper, made all the creases, unfolded it and then treated the paper with water and black ink to give it the colour. Then he refolded everything and the result is what you see here.

Point of View II, Designed and Folded by Alessandro Beber

Instructions not available

Here’s another beautiful close-up tessellation photo. As one of the commenters on the original photo says it almost looks like bridges and tunnels.

IGO 266 Bridges Side, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

Instructions not available

Here’s another awesome looking fractal design.

Voronoi Based Tessellation, Designed and Folded by Jun Mitani

Crease pattern available from Jun Mitani’s website

This next one is absolutely fantastic. It would be really neat to see something like a whole wall of this pattern. The paper here is really beautiful too.

Double Cubes, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

Instructions not available

Here’s another one of Jun Mitani’s excellent designs.

Designed and Folded by Jun Mitani

Instructions not available

Apparently this next tessellation is so strong that you can stand on it! The physics behind some of these origami tessellations must be very interesting.

Bricks, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

Instructions not available

Here’s another excellent design from Alessandro Beber. It’s folded from a very large hexagon shaped piece of paper.

Space 1, Designed and Folded by Alessandro Beber

Instructions not available

The colours in this next model are painted with acrylic paints and the paper looks really beautiful. The tessellation design is made to resemble an old flag-stone road.

Older Flag Stone-ish Tessellation, Designed by Joel Cooper and Folded by Peter Keller

Instructions not available

In this next tessellation you can really see how the patterns could continue to be folded forever if you had infinite paper.

More Stars, Designed and Folded by Robin Scholz

Crease pattern available from Robin Scholz’s Flick

Here’s another back view of one of Ilan Garibi’s designs.

Bricks – The Other Side, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

Instructions not available

The paper used in this next tessellation is absolutely beautiful.

Art Nouveau, Designed and Folded by Joel Cooper

Instructions not available

Our final image for this post is this “6 Petals Flower Tessellation’ from Ilan Garibi. It took him 256 minutes to fold the whole thing.

6 Petals Flower Tessellation, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

Instructions not available

What are your experiences with paper tessellations? Let us know in the comments and feel free to share a photo of anything you’ve folded yourself!