Ignite Your Creativity with These 49 Origami Tessellation Ideas

Origami tessellations are essentially patterns folded with origami that repeat themselves as long as you want to continue folding.

There are two major types of tessellations: the classic type and corrugations.

Classic tessellations are usually based on either a square or hexagonal grid. The paper in these tessellations is folded into an odd number of layers to make the shapes and patterns.

There’s always an odd number of layers since the paper needs to always be folded back on itself to continue the pattern.

Because different sections of the tessellations have different numbers of layers, you can turn on a light behind the tessellation for some neat effects.

Corrugations are made with one layer, and the tessellation pattern is formed by wrinkles and waves on the paper. You can see the entire surface of the paper, and it doesn’t look that neat to put a light behind it.

There are a couple of other types of tessellations and even combinations of them in the same model. This post features a collection of mostly classic tessellations and corrugations.

Basket Weave Tessellation, Designed by Joel Cooper and Folded by Tom Crain (Photo by Evan Zodl)

Our first image for this post is a basketweave classic tessellation. It was photographed at an origami convention.

Adulthood, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

This next model is an example of a corrugation. You can see how the paper is folded into waves and is all in one layer, especially when compared to the previous example.

Double Triangle Sawtooth, Designed by Miguel Blanco Munoz and Folded by Beth Johnson

Here’s a flowery-looking classic tessellation.

Escher Stairs, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

Here’s another excellent corrugation. Its design is based on M. C. Escher’s Ascending and Descending Stairs artwork.

Instructions aren’t available.

A Star, Designed and Folded by Jun Mitani

This next image is a third type of tessellation called a Recursive Tessellation. These tessellations are kind of fractal in design, with the pattern getting smaller towards the middle and larger towards the outside.

Heptamerous ver 3, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

Here’s an example of a tessellation with a backlight.

Penrose+, Designed and Folded by Alessandro Beber

This is an absolutely incredible tessellation. Alessandro Beber is an expert at weaving in different shapes and designs into the pattern.

Inspiration-L, Designed and Folded by Ekaterina Lukasheva

Here’s another fantastic example of an origami corrugation.

Mystery, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

Here’s a fantastic classic-style tessellation pattern.

Promises, Designed and Folded by Alessandro Beber

I’ve the 3D look of Alessandro Beber’s tessellations.

Spread Rhombi, Designed and Folded by Peter Keller

In this next image, you can see how you can continue the pattern indefinitely if you have large enough paper.

 Instructions aren’t available.

NSNS, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

Here’s another awesome corrugation.

Bagan, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

This tessellation is designed to look like a series of pagodas.

Circle Tessellation Variation, Designed and Folded by Beth Johnson

Here we have a beautiful tessellation that’s sort of a mixture between classic tessellations and corrugations. It’s a variation based on Benjamin Parker’s model.

Instructions aren’t available.

Go THIS Way – side D, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

A lot of these tessellations almost look like the magic eye images. You can almost get lost in them when you stare for a while.

Instructions not available

Space 0, Designed and Folded by Alessandro Beber

Here’s another one of Alessandro Beber’s awesome 3D-looking designs.

The Rules of the Jungle, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

This next model is a unique idea, creating an origami tessellation with a set of paper trees. The end result is a pretty cool-looking forest.

Instructions not available

Designed and Folded by Ekaterina Lukasheva

This tessellation is an excellent example of how tessellations don’t have to be based on simple geometric shapes. You can also create great curved or organic-looking patterns.

Hidden Garden, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

Here’s another excellent corrugation design.

Instructions not available

Icings Variation Ib, Designed and Folded by Melina Hermsen

Here’s a kind of delicious-looking tessellation.

Instructions not available

Which way is up? Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

This tessellation is also inspired by M.C. Escher.

Instructions not available

Cubes Tessellation #1, Designed and Folded by Alessandro Beber

Here’s another awesome 3D optical illusion-like tessellation.

Samsara Wheel, Designed by Alessandro Beber and folded by Dzmitry Lysiuk

This next tessellation has quite a different design and shows that you can combine different patterns and shapes to make something unique.

Instructions not available

Penrose Triangle Tessellation, Designed and Folded by Alessandro Beber

I quite like how you can see both sides of this tessellation. It’s cool seeing how the back of it looks, in many cases the back of the pattern also has a really cool look.

Gradient, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

The next image shows a very neat-looking brick wall, remembering a pillow.

Instructions not available

Yin Yang, Designed and Folded by Andrey Ermakov

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

Instructions not available

Space 0, Designed and Folded by Alessandro Beber

Alessandro Beber has a lot of really cool designs with 3D-looking shapes folded into the design.

Wired, Designed and Folded by Peter Keller

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

Instructions not available

Twister, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

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

Instructions not available

Perceptions, Designed and Folded by Alessandro Beber

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

Septagon, Designed and Folded by Jun Mitani

This is more of a fractal-like pattern.

Stitches, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

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

Instructions not available

Towerstars, Designed and Folded by Melina Hermsen

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

Instructions not available

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

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.

Instructions not available

ॐ, Designed and Folded by Alessandro Beber

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

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

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

Instructions not available

Gradient – Back View, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

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

Instructions not available

Point of View II, Designed and Folded by Alessandro Beber

 

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 color. Then he refolded everything, and the result is what you see here.

IGO 266 Bridges Side, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

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.

Instructions not available

Voronoi Based Tessellation, Designed and Folded by Jun Mitani

Here’s another awesome-looking fractal design.

Double Cubes, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

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.

Designed and Folded by Jun Mitani

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

Instructions not available

Bricks, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

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.

Instructions not available

Space 1, Designed and Folded by Alessandro Beber

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

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

The colors in this next model are painted with acrylic paints, and the paper looks really beautiful. The tessellation design is made to resemble an old flagstone road.

Instructions not available

More Stars, Designed and Folded by Robin Scholz

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

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

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

Instructions not available

Art Nouveau, Designed and Folded by Joel Cooper

The paper used in this next tessellation is absolutely beautiful.

Instructions not available

6 Petals Flower Tessellation, Designed and Folded by Ilan Garibi

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.

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!

If you want to get into origami tessellations, we recommend you check out the book Origami Tessellations: Awe-Inspiring Geometric Designs by Eric Gjerde. It has some great beginner-level tessellations if you’re just starting out, as well as some much harder ones if you’re looking for a challenge.