Create your own tessellation
This list is to help you get started in creating your own nested shape tessellations. I’m not showing you how to create wallpaper patterns with lots of free space in between, but the true, à la M.C. Escher designs. A tessellation of a flat surface is the tiling of a plane using one or more fluid shapes, called tiles, with no overlaps and no gaps. All of these rules I will explain, can each be put to use using simple paper and pencil. Step by step instructions for each of the seventeen symmetry groups.
Much easier to accomplish tessellations today, using a tablet with KaleidoPaint installed. Android or iOS.
Use the links below to get tricks for each symmetry group
As well as using the “Symmetry Group” links in the table below, do use the search box, over on the right side of this page, to look for examples of the symmetry group that intrigues you. I’ve done quite a few tessellations since I first posted these technical design tricks, there are better examples throughout the site.
