Origami Tessellations

Circus Circus

Originally uploaded by lilzabubba.

I’m fascinated by the complex geometric patterns involved in this traditional Japanese embroidery craft. It’s all types of tessellations of the sphere, which is utterly different than the flat plane tessellations I work on- so things like pentagons are able to tile without difficulty. I must admit I’m a little envious of how nicely things tile on the surface of a sphere. I think perhaps we are missing some of the intriguing geometric connections that the world is offering us!

I’m a big fan of flickr Temari crafter lilzabubba, who seems to make a new one of these every other day. A good mental break from the tyranny of the two dimensional plane of existence.

Propellerheads

Originally uploaded by EricGjerde.

We’ve been talking a lot in the Origami Tessellations group on Flickr about “flagstone” tessellations, so named by Joel Cooper for their distinctive look. They are a favorite of his, and since his work is where we were introduced to the concept, the name seems quite appropriate.

There’s a lot of weird folding voodoo that goes on with these folds, which we’ve all been trying to figure out and explain; some of us much better than others- Peter, Lorenzo, and Jorge having more luck here due to their mathematical orientation.

I’ve noticed a strange correlation between iso-area folds and the “flagstone” process, and in trying to understand it I started folding a simple, offset iso-area square twist (seen in the picture above). However, since I’m folding with elephant hide, it has a very nice sculptural quality to it, and makes some very nice curved shapes. So I “froze” the squashing process half way, making these rather interesting 3d puffs. I like the way it introduces a curving element to the angled pleats, and really does resemble a tiling of airplane propellers. This probably deserves to be given a larger treatment at another point in time.

The reverse side looks like this:

So, Origami Tessellations (in the guise of Eric Gjerde) will be travelling to “Il Convegno del CDO in Verbania, Italy, on December 8-10. I should be rolling into Milan on the 7th, and heading back out sometime later on the next week (13th? 15th? something like that.)

Right now I’ve got an open schedule, other than that Friday through Sunday, so if any other origami/math/design/art freaks in that region of Europe want to meet up I’ll be in the area. I’m contemplating staying in Milan for a day or two and then maybe checking out Firenze, although that’s all utterly unknown right now.

Anybody have suggestions as to what I should go see? It’s going to be wintertime, but I think I can handle whatever Italy can throw at me- I do live in the coldest state in the continental US. There’s so much to see that I’m having a bit of cultural overload. I might have a travelling partner (my much cooler younger brother) to boot, if I’m lucky.

If you’ve got some hints, throw me a bone here. I should be rolling with some seriously sweet geometrical monstrosities, as well, so if for some reason you’d like to see my creations up-close-and-personal just ask, and I’ll make a vagabond journey to your burg and do some show-and-tell.

Thanks!

-Eric

Lightbox

Originally uploaded by Owesen.

Astounding. Fredrik Owesen has a fantastic tessellation mixing illustration and non-regular polygons. This is the sort of irregular pleating that I have dreamed of making, and here it is!

Again, Fredrik produces some first-rate work, showing us all something new and wonderful. Make sure to look at it large size and check it out!

Arabesque Flourish, close-up

Originally uploaded by EricGjerde.

Another organic shape exploration, becoming increasingly architectural with each new thing I fold. Not exactly sure where I’m heading with all of this but it’s an interesting process nonetheless.

For what it’s worth, this is my 2000th photo uploaded to flickr. It’s been an interesting year or so, hasn’t it?