Gathering Folds

I teach aspiring tessellation folders to understand the patterns so that they can fold any design!

05/14/2026

The border on this piece is a natural result of choosing the correct grid for the pattern - a diagonal grid aligned with pseudo-tiling breaks - and cutting off some twists at that last tiling break.

Can you spot the trapezoid on each side where a hexagon would complete the pattern?

Also, I'm currently at the 6th Convention for Creators (of origami) in Ann Arbor and I'll be presenting this morning about all the things it takes to run Advent of Tess - wish me luck! 🎉

05/13/2026

Lens Case is a pattern that seems pretty impossible at first.
How can you have these hexagonal and triangular blocks of twists floating in a sea of pleats?
What makes it all work is the rhombus twists on the back.

Those three components - hexagonal block, triangular block, and rhombus on the back - are also the locations of the three kinds of rotational symmetry points in the pattern.
Check out the second image to see those symmetries drawn on the photo!

05/12/2026

Lens Case, Lens Stars, and Lens Garden all use open hexagon, closed triangle, and closed rhombus twists (all basic twists) for the whole pattern.

While the individual twists are relatively simple, the arrangement can get quite complicated!

If you want to start folding patterns like this one, I recommend my Tessellation Foundations tutorials to build the background skills and my Tessellation Starter Sequence course to get all the skills you need to fold this pattern - links in bio!

05/11/2026

I'm excited to fold this new pattern, and since I'm streaming it you get to tune in and observe my process!

Line Dance uses the same tiling as the Dancing Streamers pattern I taught last week, so it's a good opportunity to test your understanding of that pattern with different choices of twists.

I'll go live at 10am NY time, Tuesday May 12, on YouTube (link in bio) and you can also watch the replay if you miss the livestream.
Both options are here: https://youtube.com/live/GQStlEJJyhU

See you there!

05/08/2026

When you're building up to folding Dancing Streamers, the main thing to practice is a variety of structures that use hexagon, triangle, and rhombus twists.

You'll need a solid understanding of closed hexagon, triangle, and rhombus twists, triangle and compound wraps, and symmetry points, which you can get from HT6 Closed Alternating, Escalation, and Dancing Ribbons with tutorials in Tessellation Starter Sequence (which includes many more tutorials to thoroughly learn these skills and learn how to fold from crease patterns).

From there, you can increase the complexity of the tiling with Fruitcake (AOT25 alternate ending), Religio (Tess Garden), and finally Dancing Streamers (new YT tutorial).

Comment which pattern you want to fold next and I'll send you a link to where to find it!
Happy - which pattern will you try next?

05/07/2026

Origami tessellations are infinite by nature, so any border around a tessellation is a choice - lots of choices, actually.
The amount and orientation of the pattern relative to the edge are both intentional choices for me, as is the choice to cut off certain twists in a partial state to achieve parallel pleats in the border.

Can you spot the one hexagon and two rhombi per edge that were truncated in this piece?

05/06/2026

Dancing Streamers is made up of symmetric squiggles and the spaces around them.

There are points with six squiggles around them and points with three squiggles around them, and the squiggle itself is the same if you turn it half-way around.

These are the distinct symmetry points of the tessellation - check out the second image to see them drawn on the photo!

05/05/2026

Light or no light - which is your favorite?

The Advent of Tess tutorials that I mentioned from 2022 and 2024 are still available, and you can get them all (for free 🎁🎁) at training.gatheringfolds.com/advent

You can also get a tutorial of Dancing Streamers itself, which I'm teaching during my livestream today on YouTube!

05/04/2026

Dancing Streamers is one of my favorite recent patterns, and I'm teaching it during my livestream tomorrow on a 40-division *diagonal* triangle grid on a hexagon.

You can join the livestream and ask questions in real time at 10am NY time, Tuesday May 5, or watch the replay any time afterwards.

Here's the direct link: https://youtube.com/live/0V0uLroZf8w

05/02/2026

This month in Tessellation Academy we have some really cool patterns that start with Hex-Rhomb-Tri-Rhomb motifs and then flow into weird and wonderful areas of either hexagons and triangles or triangles and rhombi.

Members get a close-up view of how these patterns were designed and what it takes to fold them for yourself.
Sign up today at https://training.gatheringfolds.com/academy 🎉

05/01/2026

Hunger Games has a very clear sequence of patterns to master since I have three patterns that use the same flower motif.

Most of the complexity in this pattern is coming from the dense spacing and the pseudo-tiling breaks used to fold the Hex-Rhomb-Tri-Rhomb (HRTR) tiling in rings around the center, and the rest is coming from the extended symmetry that puts three twists in asymmetric positions.

Here's a breakdown of the patterns on the path:
1. Hexagon Double Bar Wells (Starter Sequence, AOT25): learn hexagon and triangle twists, folding on both sides of the paper, rings around the center, triangle and compound wraps
2. Rhombus Weave (Starter Sequence): learn closed rhombus twists
3. Sawtooth (Starter Sequence, AOT23): use hexagon, rhombus, and triangle twists in the same pattern, learn pseudo-tiling breaks for the HRTR tiling
4. Tight Flowers (AOT22, Tess Garden): learn open rhombus twists, practice dense folding, learn the HRTR Expansion 1 tiling
5. Maze Runner (Tess Garden): practice dense folding in the HRTR tiling with extended symmetries
6. Hunger Games (Tess Garden): apply the same motif in the next symmetry extension

By the time you're folding your third pattern with the same high-density motif, the density stops bothering you as much and you can focus on the symmetries instead.

Happy - which pattern will you try next?
Drop a comment below and I'll send you a link to the tutorial or crease pattern!

Address

Monroeville, PA

Website

https://training.gatheringfolds.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Gathering Folds posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Gathering Folds:

Shortcuts

Want your business to be the top-listed Interior Service in Monroeville?