Tessellation Creation

M. C. Escher
Escher is known as the father of tessellations. He was born in the Netherlands in 1898. He is known as for being an artist as well as a mathematician. Escher created thousands of tessellating shapes in the form of fish, birds, insects, and other beasts.

What is a tessellation?
A tessellation is a design of repeated geometric shapes that cover a plane without gaps or overlaps. Some examples of tessellations in the real world are wallpaper patterns, tile patterns, and honeycombs.

Tessellations are all around us.

Here you see an example of a tessellation from everyday life. It is actually a magnified view of denim jean fabric. Can you think of other examples when you look around?

Rotation means to turn an object around. This E has been rotated 90 degrees four times.

E
E

Reflection is producing a mirror image of the object. The reflection of the letter E is a backwards E.

Translation is moving an object without rotating or reflecting it.

E E

E E
Notice the three ways these letters have been translated.

Here is an example of an M. C. Escher tessellation called Reptiles. Escher used translation and rotation to create this picture.

This is my tessellation called Funky Fish. I used translation to make the tessellation.