Fujimoto's Hydrangea Tessellation (folded by me)

(back view)



When I was a quilter I was fascinated with tessellations, and made a few quilts with tessellated leaves, etc. Origami adds a third dimension to the possibilities, and that piques my interest. I don't yet have the skills to make most tessellated origami forms, but I did give this one a try because I found some excellent photos and videos online to help me. A disclaimer: mine is not a very good example of what's possible because I'm still a novice.

Fujimoto's Hydrangea is a recursive tessellation; it is folded in levels which can be repeated until it becomes too small to manipulate. This one started out as a 10x10 inch paper, and the outside edges ended up as 5x5. The smallest of my petals are 3/4 inch long, and I've only folded 5 levels. You can see a 10-level one here and held up to the light here. He uses beautiful mulberry paper, which is strong, yet thin. Mine was done on origami paper (kami) which breaks down when folded a lot.

This was a big challenge for me; for example it requires smooshing big pyramids through tiny holes out to the other side, and then making it look pretty. You can see some of the structure in my second photo. See the smallest square in the center? I could turn that into another set of even smaller petals which would be pushed through the center.

I'll be folding this one a lot, at least until I understand exactly how it works.

Note: the gorgeous red silk scarf in the photos was a gift from my cousin, Valerie.