This is the staggered stacks group. At its minimum, I equate it to the lozenges in a Bavarian flag. Always looks like a cinema audience or a crowd in a telephoto lens. Two parallel mirrors, with a glide line in between.

If a line is drawn, from one mirror to the other, its glide reflection, and further repetition will create the tessellation. Depending on the number of lines you add, you will get more or less separate individual figures. The drawing below has two lines, the red original one and an added green line, two lines for two figures. Mirrors are full lines, glides are dashed lines in between.

Symmetry Group Cm consists of two parallel mirrors with a glide line between them (dotted line)

The “Bobblehead Grannies Everywhere” are drawn with a single line connecting the two parallel mirrors. Mirrors are the full lines, and the dashed lines are the glides.

Cm Bobblehead Grannies with single line outline — © 2013 Champagne Design

“Have you seen the size of his crabs?”, possible pun intended, is built with two lines connecting the mirrors. The two lines together outline the Fisherman and the Crab. Two lines, two figures.

Cm, built with two lines, for a two figure tessellation — © 2013 Champagne Design

And the latest one I’ve done with this symmetry group, “The Fortune Seekers”, built with 3 lines connecting various areas of the mirrors and other lines. Three lines for 3 figures. More or less an accurate description of possibilities for the symmetry group. And it still looks like a crowd scene to me.

Symmetry Group Cm Fortune Seekers showing the 3 line outline — © 2013 Champagne Design

An iPad app is available, which is what I have used here to create these images: KaleidoPaint by Jeff Weeks. Check it out.

There is also a java-based program “Escher Web Sketch”  at the Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne. Make sure Java is enabled and not blocked by your security software.

Or this screen-based software by Anselm Levskaya Escher Sketch v2.

Or a pair of scissors and a piece of cardboard works quite well. That’s how I learned.

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