Tessellation Design Made Simple
Learn to fold and design tessellations in a dozen different tiling patterns
Tessellations by Tiles
Jump Into Design
If you are struggling to fold and understand tessellations, I can help you step into the designer mindset so that you can both fold existing tessellations from photos or crease patterns and also create your own patterns to discover your unique style and add beauty to the world!
Fully Supported
I'm coaching a small group of students towards tessellation mastery over the next four months with weekly workshops, office hours, and full access to all documents used. My students will also have a private Facebook group to bounce ideas off each other and get their questions answered. All live sessions will be recorded and the recordings will be yours forever.
New and Exclusive
This is my first time offering the Tessellations by Tiles course, so this will be the smallest group and lowest price I ever offer. While all other tessellation workshops and books focus on teaching individual patterns or abstract math, I'll be teaching the design principles behind all patterns in a simple, easy to understand framework.
12 weeks of folding workshops
Learn the puzzle pieces that go into a tiling, then design a tessellation and fold it with me. We'll cover a different tiling every week and each session will last at least 2 hours. Each workshop Zoom call will be fully interactive and recorded for later viewing.
12 weeks of office hours
Two days after each workshop, I'll have office hours where you can drop in and ask questions to make sure that you can fold everything on your own - not just when I'm teaching. These office hours will be at different times on different weeks to accommodate many time zones.
Photography workshop
What good is a tessellation if you can't make all your followers on Instagram jealous? (I'm kidding, of course!)
I will show you all of the tips, tricks, and equipment that I use to make my photos in a separate workshop in December and recommend some low-budget options too.
Framing workshop
Tessellations are best showcased with the option for backlighting. I've spent the last year figuring out how to hang tessellations in windows and I'll teach you everything I know about the topic and how you can get the materials you need.
Supportive community
Share your designs and ideas with the group and get feedback from people who actually understand what you're talking about - without sharing publicly!
Forever access
You'll have access to all course materials forever - and that includes future live workshops when I open the course again!
Editable diagrams
You'll get all files shown in the workshops and I'll show you how to edit them with free, open-source software. You'll also get the templates I use myself to draw top-quality crease patterns.
Welcome party
Before we start the folding workshops, I'll answer all your questions about paper types, cutting hexagons, gridding, logistics, scheduling, translations, and more!
My Guarantee To You
If you work through all 12 design exercises in the folding workshops and still have no idea how to design your own tessellations, I will give you your money back and you will keep access to all course content.
Alternative Learning Methods
So far, I've just been talking about Tessellations by Tiles. Let's look at some alternatives.
- Just go to a lot of conventions. There's maybe 4 classes on tessellations at a large convention, each taught by someone different with a different technique, focused on getting one pattern folded and spending half the time gridding. So, that comes out to 4 hours of tessellation learning but none focused on designing. Just to match the hours in my folding workshops, you'd need to go to at least 6 conventions, spending ~$6000 on all expenses and taking 2-3 years. Of course, this is ignoring the fact that with different teachers it'll be a much more confusing process.
- Hire me for 1-on-1 tutoring. That'll take at least 45 hours at $100/hr, coming out to $4,500 and you won't even get to see what everyone else is working on!
- Learn like I did - take Erik Demaine's Geometric Folding Algorithms class at MIT, then reverse engineer ~200 tessellations from photos. You can find the lectures online but they're not specific to tessellations and have lots of high-level jargon. Reverse engineering that many tessellations left me with no social life for a year and still not as much knowledge as I'll be teaching - a high price to pay!
But Wait, There's More!
BONUS #1
BUILDING BLOCKS TOOLBOX AND INKSCAPE GUIDE
No vector drawing skills? No problem! I'll give you the templates and instructions you need to draw professional-level crease patterns with free, open-source software.
BONUS #2
LIBRARY OF CREASE PATTERNS WITH TILINGS MARKED
If you learn better by example, this library of patterns will be perfect to get you the repetitions needed for deep understanding.
BONUS #3
LASER CUTTING TEMPLATES
You'll get all my templates for laser cut acrylic for cutting and framing! You'll also get step-by-step instructions on how to order cut acrylic from my favorite supplier.
ACT QUICKLY - This invitation has limited spots and is only open until Monday night at midnight Pacific time!
I want to get started helping you quickly, give you time to get all the paper you need, and end by the winter holidays. The first folding workshop will be Tuesday, September 21st.
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So, why offer this course? Why now?
I'm seeing tons of interest in folding tessellations, but very few people are designing their own patterns. The deeper structure is neglected, leaving people to struggle with intricate crease patterns and difficult collapses. Since my designing method is all about the global structure of the pattern, I saw an opportunity to teach folders an easier way to make tessellations.
However, I knew that this teaching would require a huge commitment of time and effort from me. That's why I'm requiring a commitment, a financial investment, from you in order to participate. This will allow me to work only on the Tessellations by Tiles training and give you my undivided attention during the time we have together.
I've been folding origami for 15 years, and tessellations for the last 4 years. In the last year and a half, I've been running my own origami business, Gathering Folds, full-time. My main focus in Gathering Folds is tessellations - whether in paper or fabric - and how best to fold, photograph, and display them. Several of my pieces have been displayed in museums and galleries, including the National Museum of Mathematics in New York City, Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh, and Las Laguna gallery in Laguna Beach, California. The expertise that I've build through these experiences has given me a unique perspective on folding tessellations - a perspective I hope to share with you!
So, Are You In?
You now have a choice - will you keep trying to learn the way you have been already and keep getting the same results, or will you step up and join me on the short path to tessellation mastery?
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