Tessellation Homework Assignment

** If you get confused… keep in mind your objective is to take a triangle that has three flat sides and turn them into an accurately measured design.

** You will probably have to re-read the directions more than once to make sure you are doing it correctly, don’t worry I have faith in you!!!

  1. Draw a 60 degree triangle on your 5x5 piece of paper. Using a 30/60/90 degree triangle.
  2. On the left side of the triangle take your pencil and redraw a funky line on top of the original 60 degree drawn line.
  3. Cut out triangle.
  4. Take the cutout triangle and trace onto another piece of paper (make sure the triangle point is on top when tracing).
  5. After you are done tracing the triangle, keep the cut out triangle on top of the traced triangle and rotate the triangle cutout to the right. Line up corners and use the lines drawn previously as a guideline. Now just trace the funky side of the triangle cutout shape onto the other side of the traced triangle (on top of the original 60degree drawn line).
  6. Take the cut out triangle and put it to the side (you will no longer be using this one).
  7. Rotate the piece of paper that now has a traced triangle with two funky sides, so that the one straight side remaining is facing you. Find the midpoint of this side and mark it with a dot or line. (The midpoint should be at 2.5 inches since you drew your original triangle on a 5x5 piece of paper).
  8. From the corner of the triangle to the midpoint, draw another funky line and reshape only ½ of the remaining straight side of the triangle.
  9. Now cut out the triangle shape (after the triangle shape is cut out there should be only one straight side of the shape (this is the remaining side of the midpoint, if you do not have this, start over, you messed up!)
  10. Trace the new triangle shape onto another piece of paper(make sure the side of the design that still has the other side of the remaining midpoint is facing you).
  11. After you are done tracing keep the cutout shape on top of the traced shape and rotate the cutout shape 180 degrees downward so the lines match up and the corners meet.
  12. Reshape the straight side that was the remaining midpoint by tracing only that side of the cutout shape.
  13. Take the cutout shape and put to the side, you will no longer be using this shape
  14. Cut out shape, this will be your shape that you will create your tessellation with. (At this point your shape should have no straight edges or does not resemble a triangle at all.)
  15. TIP: re-trace your final shape onto thick paper like cardboard a cereal box or a manila folder, it will be easier to re-trace over and over again).
  16. Take your shape and place it onto the middle of your 15x20 illustration board. Trace your shape. After you have traced the shape in the middle of the board, you now have to turn the shape and re-trace on top, on the bottom, on the left side and on the right side of the first traced shape over and over again until you fill up the whole illustration board.
  17. The challenge is to fit each traced shape into one another like a puzzle! (there should be no gaps or spaces in between shapes.
  18. REMEMBER: You will cut off or crop some of the traced shape as you get close to the edges of the illustration board.
  19. TIP: practice on a separate piece of paper first before you start the tessellation on the illustration board, this way you can see if you need to re-design your shape!!!!