Twist and Tess, Tessellations and More –Excellent Origami Book

Have you ever been intrigued by the beauty of origami tessellations?

Miguel Gañán, a recent guest in Origamigos (the Origami Spirit membership), shared with us his recently published book Twist and Tess, Tesselations and More. In addition, he demonstrated how anyone can easily approach the folding of tessellations.

Miguel Gañan defines tesselations in origami as geometric designs, folded from a single piece of paper, forming repeating patterns (called molecules) by twists and pleats.

The word tessellation goes back to ancient Roman times. Teselas were the small square rocks that were used to create mosaics on a wall or floor.

Later, in Spain, the art of Alhambra presents a wonderful example of the art of tessellations.

“The Alhambra tiles is a unique accomplishment in world architecture. M. C. Escher‘s visit in 1922 and study of the Moorish use of symmetries in the Alhambra tiles inspired his subsequent work on tessellation, which he called “regular divisions of the plane”.

In the prologue of Twist and Tess, Tomoko Fuse, the worldwide renowned Japanese origami master, states:

“With simple and detail explanations, the book shows the author’s personality and the interesting aspects of the art of Tesselation […] For those who wish to start dabbling in this art, this material will be of great use.”

I love and recommend Twist and Tess* book because …

• It is a very didactical approach to making tessellations.
• Miguel shares a detailed explanation of papers and tools.
• It includes a brief description of the connection between tessellations and math.
• You can learn great tips on how to prepare the paper.
• It shares step-by-step basic techniques to make tessellations.
• The vocabulary of origami tessellations is clearly and sequentially explained (triangular twists, rhombic twists, hexagonal twists, combinations, and stacked twists.)
• It includes illustrative diagrams (many drawn by Alejandra Zapico) and helpful photographs.
• It features a chapter on tessellations applied to boxes and tato folds.

Download the first chapter of the book for FREE at the Origami Shop.

In our interview, I asked Miguel what sets his book apart from other books on tessellations.

Watch this short 2-minute video to hear his answer:

In addition, our interview with Miguel at Origamigos included topics such as:

• Mixing Fuse’s type units with Snapology as a path to personal design
• Beginning to design origami tessellations
• Concept of stacked twists (one on top of another)
• Tessellation-based designs (application to boxes and tatos)
• Relationship between Miguel’s aeronautical engineer training and origami (geometric and tessellations).
• How we can approach folding origami tessellations and techniques to start folding tessellations (the concept of “molecule”)
• The process of designing an origami tessellation.
• Designing molecules and different origami tessellation examples.
• The connection between literature, astronomy, and Miguel’s origami tessellation work.

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