This is the first tessellation I ever made!

Let me start by saying it was not a good choice 🙂 While the final result came out all right, the first attempt was disastrous and almost brought me to tears.

I got this folding pattern from Madonna Yoder’s Advent of Tessellations 2024 ebook. Here’s a link to her excellent website: Gathering Folds . I was originally going to try the 2025 advent, but the author mentioned it was kind of advanced and recommended starting with 2024 instead. I’m obedient.

I should have seen the signs when I struggled to make a single molecule of this, but I pushed on. Here’s a really nice video from Madonna Yoder on how to fold the first molecule: Daisy Chain Variant. Then, after making a successful molecule I decided to just go ahead and fold a 64 hexagon grid and fold 19 of them together. This did not go well at all 🙁

I just didn’t know how to do it, so I tried to make all the molecules at the same time, which just doesn’t work at all. So then I folded and unfolded and the paper weakened and got soft… and in the end it was just uncreasable and gross. A much better strategy would have been to just collapse the whole center molecule and then the whole first ring around it, and then the second one, which is what I did for the picture on top.

Anyway, I brought receipts, here’s the sad, sad first failed attempt:

Looked kinda cute after making the first fold on each molecule! but yeah, this was not the way.

Lessons learnt:

• Don’t jump into a huge project before trying smaller ones! To figure out HOW to fold adjecent molecules first.
• Maybe don’t start with the tiny tiny grid either… smaller = harder.