Valentine's Tessellations

fun stuff > valentine's tessellations

 

Page updated : 12 March 2018

 

Here's a project to design a Valentine-themed tessellation with instructions on how to use the tracing method to create a tessellation.

PROJECT

A tessellation is a tiling pattern that completely covers a surface with a pattern of flat shapes so that there are no gaps or overlaps.

Examples...

 

Tessellations do not need to be regular shapes or all the same shape. You just have to made sure the pattern repeats, and there are no gaps or overlaps.

 

The example on the left is a tessellated street pavement in Zakopane, Poland (from Wikipedia).

 

Escher (a dutch graphic artist) designed many artistically inclined tessellations and you can use him as inspiration for this project.

 

 

 

 

CREATING A TESSELLATION USING THE TRACING METHOD

• Start with a square or rectangle
• Add a curvy line to one side
• Copy this line (using tracing paper) to the opposite side
• Repeat for the other 2 sides
• Use your imagination to decide what your shape looks like (a bird, a teddy bear, a rose?)
• Tessellate your pattern and decorate it

 

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO

 

Design a Valentine’s inspired tessellation. You can use either regular polygons as inspiration or follow the process above to create a tessellation of an irregular shape.

Remember – the theme is Valentine’s – so let some romance show in your drawing and colors.

 

Printable worksheet for this project (PDF)