Tessellations made from Real Materials

This section shows some tessellations using actual materials (not digital art nor just flat paper) such as wood, clay, resin, textiles, cookies, etc. If you have made a tessellation like this we would love to hear from you! Please send us a photo and description of your tessellation. We'll post it on this website, in this gallery. On your page we'll give you proper credit as the art's creator, and links to you if you want. You retain full copyright and ownership. Click below to see the individual projects. The most recent art appears at the top of the list.

DIY papercraft dodecahedron seahorse tessellation

The Make-A-Fish Foundation: This freewheeling foundation encourages the artist in all of us, and celebrates our differences (like encouraging non-artists to "do art" by decorating a blank fish pattern-- while also celebrating a sense of community by using "schools" of fish that are-- you guessed it-- tessellations. The Make-A-Fish foundatioin uses both 3D and 2D media, in both paper and non-paper "real" materials. Join this ...ummm... "school(?)" of art!.


video: professor kevin lee uses a vinyl (sign) cutter  to decorate his office door with tessellation art

Office Door Tessellation Art: Professor Kevin Lee made a video, and ran over some of his tessellation art... AGAIN. The man is Not Well, in intentional capital letters. See how he cleverly uses a vinyl cutter, a machine ordinarily used by sign makers, to make vinyl stickers of tessellations for the glass portion of his university office door. Thrill as he rolls his 6 cylinder sedan over his art. Applaud as he peels the stickers off his radial tires. (No, that last part is a lie, but he does really run his car over his art.)


DIY papercraft dodecahedron seahorse tessellation

D-I-Y Print-and-fold Papercraft: Print, decorate, and fold a dodecahedron. This 3D paper sculpture is 12 pentagons pasted together to make a sphere-like shape. The exterior of the dodecahedron is covered with 60 tessellating sea horses. Designed by Webmaster Sethness, based loosely on a hexagonal 6-seahorse tessellation by Bruce Bilney. This free (but not copyright free) do-it-yourself pattern can be downloaded in a coloring book style for you to print, color in, and glue together.


DIY papercraft octahedron turtle tessellation

D-I-Y Print-and-fold Papercraft: Print and fold an octahedral 3D paper sculpture with a "green peace turtle" theme. Designed by Webmaster Sethness, based loosely on a turtle tessellation by Bruce Bilney. This free (but not copyright free) do-it-yourself pattern can be downloaded in both finished, decorated style and in coloring book fill-in-the-details versions.


DIY papercraft octahedron with goldfish tessellation

More D-I-Y Print-and-fold Papercraft: Print and fold an octahedron with a tessellation of goldfish on it. Designed by Webmaster Sethness. This free (but not copyright free) do-it-yourself pattern can be downloaded in both finished, decorated style and in coloring book fill-in-the-details versions.


goldfish cube tessellation

12-goldfish cube by Webmaster Sethness. This free (but not copyright free) do-it-yourself print-and-fold pattern can be downloaded in both finished, decorated style and in coloring book fill-in-the-details versions.


asian chop project: DIY how to make a Chinese signature seal

How to Carve an Asian Signature Seal ("Chinese Chop"): Want to make a rubber stamp? It's a great way to print a tessellation. In Asia, these are made from stone, plastic, pencil erasers, wood, bone, and antler.With the owner's name, nickname, or initials carved into them, they're used to sign everything: contracts, bills, letters, and even paintings.


mirror image kangaroo tessellation blasted onto a sidewalk

Tessellated Sidewalk: 2 Kangaroos: Ever look at a sidewalk covered with dirt or mold, and wonder how to make it shiny-clean again? Most people use a water blaster, sand blaster, or bleach+water+broom. Bruce Bilney looked at a dirty sidewalk and said, "Hey, that's a canvas waiting for art." He cut a large kangaroo tessellation tile from linoleum flooring, laid it on a sidewalk, and blasted it with water.


More Tessellation Cookies with resources like holiday tessellation cookie cutters and companies that turn your design into a cookie cutter.  

Escher Tessellation Cookies Another way to make tessellation cookies. This link is not on Tessellations.org; rather, it's on the website "GeorgeHart.com/rollers/". In this method, you download free files to create miniature bakery rolling pins that have tessellation patterns stamped in them. You make the mini rolling pins, then roll them across cookie batter, clay, your annoying little brother's forehead, the top of your wall where you want a decorative frieze, or whatever. Also see the YouTube video of these tessellation rolling pins.


Escher Tessellation Cookies More ways to make tessellation cookies. This link is not on Tessellations.org; rather, it's on the website "Mary, Mary, Culinary", part of her Daring Bakers challenge series. Here's half a dozen ways to make your own cookie cutter.


alligator tessellation: plasticine clay sculpture

Tessellations On My Mind, a plasticine clay sculpture by Tessellations.org webmaster Seth Bareiss.


antique floor tessellation

Tiled Floor in Bonaparte Museum, a © 2012 photograph from Rome, Italy by Arnold Carbone.


Australian Continent Tessellation on a Wooden Jewelry Box - from famed Australian tessellation artist Bruce Bilney, King of the Kangaroos.


Kangaroos and Continents Tessellation on a Wooden Chess Board - a tessellation of kangaroos and continents from Australian Bruce Bilney, King of Kangaroos and All Things Ozzie. This time, he's created a wooden chessboard. You get exactly ZERO points for guessing which continent he's tessellated.


Escher Lizard Tessellation and Turtle Tessellation on Wooden Chess Boards - from American Kevin Lee, who has created many software packages for making tessellations.


Escher-inspired Fish Bowl - Matthew Van Atta, a guest artist from Alaska, shows us a dish he's made. It has inside it a hexagon-based Escher-inspired fish pattern.


Wooden Tessellation Box - from award-winning American college professor Kevin Lee. In late 2012/early 2013, Kevin won the prestigious international Bridges Math-Inspired Art contest with a wooden box made from tessellations by Australian Bruce Bilney, Japan's Makoto Nakamura, American Robert Fathauer and France's Alain Nicolas.


Angelfish Interwoven - long grasses woven together make fish-like toys in Thailand. They also make a pretty good tessellation.


Curly Elephants - a one-of-a-kind laser-cut wooden puzzle created by tessellation software programmer (and teacher) Kevin Lee of the USA, working from the original "Curlies" Elephant-theme tessellation pattern by Bruce Bilney.


Sidewalk Tessellation Art - done in chalk by guest artist Negina Kolesar for a chalk art festival


Wooden Sphere' - a carved & stained wooden ball by guest artist Tamas Szegeti


Five Cats, a Dodecahedron' - An easy-to-make 12-sided 3D paper project.


Kitchen floor ceramic tile tessellation - handmade tiles, handmade molds. Amazing job based on the "Penrose Tiling" pattern By Billings, Montana's Susan, Dick, and Jim.


Clown Ball - drawn on cardboard 12-sided sphere made of pentagons


Turtles - 9 3/4" CLAY PLATE by Laurel Bender


Innovative town planning by Mazlin Ghazali


28 Birds', a basswood bas-relief piece by Phil Allin based on Escher's "Sun and Moon"


Sea and Sky by Seth - Flat pierced bas-relief woodcarving


Bas-relief woodcarving by Phil Allin, based on Escher's 'Symmetry Drawing C'


Wall-hanging in redwood by Phil Allin, based on a portion of Escher's 'Metamorphose II'


Bas Relief Woodcarving by Phil Allin, based on Escher's tessellation "Sky and Water I"


Lego™ toy plastic brick tessellations by Brendan Powell Smith


Devil Ducks - plaster ducks by R.S. Newell


6 Gold Fish Sphere - modelled in polymer clay - by Seth


Snuffles - Yorkshire Terrier painted on hard rubber ball - Doctor David


Woodpeckers - carved on resin ball - by Doctor David


Raiding the Wine Cellar - wall hanging by Lesley Hendricks


Cat theme Tessellation carved in a sphere - Carved ball by Doctor David