How to Start Folding Origami Tessellations

Origami tessellations are (infinitely) repeating patterns, folded from a single sheet of paper.

This folding is often on a background grid of folds that are made in advance and consists of setting up and flattening twisted shapes that are connected to each other by pleats.

This fairly recent branch of origami breaks from the traditional step-by-step instructions, with designs mostly communicated in crease patterns that the folder then figures out how to fold on their own.

Crease pattern and folded form (backlit) of one repeat of Pinwheel Forest, taught in Advent of Tess 2024

There’s always a new challenge and a new technique to learn so you can unlock even more patterns, no matter how long you’ve been folding tessellations.

Materials and Tools Needed

While you can start folding origami tessellations with whatever paper is laying around nearby, I’d recommend using a durable paper that’s hard to tear for the best learning experience.

Skytone is my favorite paper (and my students’ favorite too) since it strikes a good balance between ease of folding, durability, price, and translucency.

You can see all my paper recommendations in this video, which discusses all the different papers I’ve used and their pros and cons for different types of projects.

I’d also recommend a bone folder or other folding tool to help keep your creases sharp so you can clearly identify and easily manipulate each fold line.

Since many origami tessellations fit best on hexagons instead of on squares, I consider a set of hexagon cutting templates essential if you’re going to be folding a lot of these patterns (such as my Advent of Tess series, which are entirely on hexagons) as well as a rotary cutter and cutting mat to use them on.

I’ve bundled my favorite paper and tools into the Full Paper Pack, which includes 75 sheets of Skytone paper, a bone folder, two sizes of hexagon templates, a red/blue two-sided colored pencil, and some clips.

Getting Started

The very foundations of origami tessellations are grids, pleats, pleat intersections, and simple twists.

These are unfamiliar moves for most origami folders, so it’s worthwhile to take some extra time to learn them thoroughly before using them in more advanced patterns.

My free Tessellation Foundations course has eight gridding lessons and eight project lessons, including the three shown above, that cover these foundations very thoroughly from a beginner level.

This is the easiest entry point to folding origami tessellations, whether you have previous origami experience or not, and serves as a resource to refer back to whenever you have gridding questions in the future.

Once you’re familiar with the basic moves, you’ll want to practice them over and over again on small projects while developing further skills.

Advent of Tessellations is an event I run every year where I release a new tutorial for a small pattern every day from December 1-25, and each year features a completely new set of patterns.

This is by far the biggest origami tessellation event of the year, with over 1400 folders signed up in 2024.

The tutorials start at a beginner level and escalate over the course of the month to some fairly advanced designs, with new moves introduced gradually.

Advent of Tess is a great way to accelerate your tessellation folding skills and since all the videos from previous years are still available it’s a treasure trove of small projects to work through before attempting to fold more repeats of the patterns you like best.

If you’re looking for a challenge, you could go straight to a survey of the different twists used in origami tessellations.

Summer of Twists is a series of tutorials covering 30 different twists and patterns that use them.

Since these tutorials include general, isoarea, cursed, hybrid, and mixed-depth twists in addition to the eight basic twists, most of the videos are best for folders who are already comfortable with the basic twists.

I also have numerous tutorials available on YouTube with playlists for starting tessellations, gridding, basic twists, and foundational structures that are well-suited for beginners.

Learning to Read Crease Patterns

Learning to fold origami tessellations from crease patterns is an essential skill if you’d like to explore the full breadth of this art form.

Most patterns do not have video tutorials or step-by-step diagrams and these patterns are often shared as crease patterns - a drawing of where the folds will end up once the origami tessellation is folded.

These individual fold lines are not very helpful in figuring out how to fold the piece at first glance, and it takes quite a bit of training and practice to see what twists are used in the pattern and how those twists are connected.

Those two pieces of information, along with how much space is between twists, define the origami tessellation and provide an experienced folder with enough information to fold the pattern.

My Basic Twists Bootcamp course introduces the eight basic twists and the generalizable folding sequences for the simplest ways to use these twists in origami tessellation patterns over the course of 10 pre-recorded video lessons, including those pictured above.

This course also comes with monthly Zoom office hours and over two years of office hour recordings, which includes quite a few impromptu lessons on patterns slightly harder than the ones taught in the main course lessons.

This course is best for new tessellation folders who want to start folding patterns with more repeats in the simplest way possible.

My Tessellation Starter Sequence course uses the same eight basic twists as Basic Twists Bootcamp, but goes into much more depth over the course of 50 pre-recorded video lessons.

This course covers more structures, more ways to use each structure, and more examples of variations in each structure that affect how to fold the pattern, including the patterns pictured above.

Tessellation Starter Sequence was designed to teach origami tessellation folders how to read crease patterns, so each lesson centers around the crease pattern and each crease pattern comes with annotated layers that show the symmetries of the pattern and the key elements that define the pattern.

This course is perfect for someone who is committed to learning to fold origami tessellations and wants to become an independent folder who can fold as many repeats as they want of whatever pattern they want.

Infinite Patterns to Fold

One of the coolest things about origami tessellations is that you can spend your whole life folding these patterns and never run out of new patterns to fold.

Not only is each individual pattern able to repeat infinitely, but there are infinitely many different patterns that you could fold!

These three tessellations represent three different approaches to creating new designs, each of which results in an abundance of patterns.

The first approach is to change the layout of the shapes used in a pattern (also called the tiling).

The second approach is to change how the positions of symmetry interact with these shapes.

The third approach is to use advanced twists like the ones in my Summer of Twists series.

I use all three of these approaches in my design process, which has produced over 600 patterns in the last seven years.

I’ve also mathematically proven that this abundance of new designs can continue forever, so there’s plenty of room for you to join me in exploring the wide variety of infinitely repeating patterns that can be folded from a single sheet of paper!