BUCKET EXHIBITIONS: Laser Cutting "Hat" Tessellation Tiles

We are laser cutting the EinStein "hat" tiles from 12 x 18 inch plates of unmounted linoleum that we buy at Takach Press in Albuquerque. The longest part is exactly 7 inches wide:

The "hat" tiles have to be

7 inches at the widest part

FILES for DOWNLOAD

SINGLE Tiles

Single "hat" vector file -- EinStein.SVG (689 bytes)

LightBurn SINGLE "hat" file --**** 7inch_hat_square.LBRN2**** (10.51 KB)

MULTIPLE Tiles

Vector files for a 12 x 18 inch linoleum plate (though I think these files have to be resized so that the tiles are 7 inches at the widest):

7 "hat" tile vector file -- tessellation_hat_7.SVG (2.27 KB)

6 "hat" tile AI (vector) file -- tessellation_hat_6.AI (307.41 KB)

Of course one has to adjust the power, speed and number of passes for each individual laser cutter.

This is for the EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Print Project:

An EXQUISITE Tessellation print

from El Paso

TROTEC

We laser cut 7 tiles per sheet in three minutes, with two passes, on a Trotec laser cutter in Albuquerque, on November 13, 2024. We could get 7 "hats" after making the tile edges share cuts:

November 13, 2024

tessellation_hat_7.SVG

Squeezing 7 "hat" tiles from

a 12x18 inch sheet of linoleum

The Trotec laser cutter

The SVG file in Adobe Illustrator

We got 57 "hat" tiles

from 8 sheets of linoleum (12x18 inches)

TUCSON

DON CUE laser cut the linoleum we sent to Xerocraft makerspace in Tucson:

Don Cue is the Laser Shop Manager

at Xerocraft in Tucson

He managed to laser cut 6 tiles, with one pass, from the 12x18 inch sheets of linoleum that we sent him from Takach Press in Albuquerque:

Laser cutting 6 tiles

from a 12x18 inch sheet of linoleum

7 inches at the widest part

Making "hat" tiles at Xerocraft makerspace

on their 80 watt Monoport laser cutter

The 6 tile layout

in LightBurn software

The stack of "hat" tiles

made from 8 sheets of 12x18 inch linoleum

The stack of tiles are for JOE MARSHALL of the Heart of the Sun studio/gallery. He is starting up the EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Print project in TUCSON:

Joe Marshall is starting up the tessellation project

from his studio in Tucson

Joe cut down the first batch of linoleum that we gave him by hand:

Joe Marshall cut these "hat" linocuts

by hand

QUELAB
in ALBUQUERQUE

We laser cut the first tiles at Quelab makerspace in Albuquerque in May 2024. The laser cutter was out of focus, so I could only get good cuts in the middle of the bed, and had to cut one at a time. Moreover the air assist was kinked and did not work for the first cuts, but we fixed that soon:

7inch_hat_square.LBRN2

The air assist did not work properly

with the first laser cuts at Quelab

We set the Quelab laser cutter to 100% power, 25 speed, and 7 passes. Later after cleaning the laser lens, I reduced the passes down to 3:

Settings on the Quelab laser cutter

I only get 4 "hat" tiles when I use the Quelab laser cutter:

Experimenting on the 12x18 inch sheet of linoleum

The first batch of linocuts was ugly,

with frayed edges as the laser did not cut everything

all the way through

As of November 2024 I have almost 60 carved tessellation tiles in Albuquerque, and El Paso has produced about the same number

We also left linoleum sheets in El Paso and Silver City to be laser cut into "hats"

EXQUISITE TESSELLATION

PRINT Project

We hand the linocut "hats" out to other artists to carve by hand -- and then we piece the tiles together to make larger collaborative tessellation prints. We call this the EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Print project, after the surrealist game of EXQUISITE CORPSE:

EXQUISITE TESSELLATION print

made at Hecho A Mano gallery in Santa Fe

EXQUISITE TESSELLATION print

made during the Southwest Print Fiesta

in Silver City, New Mexico

We also post the individual tessellation prints on a blog:

We post the individual tessellations on a blog

CONCEPT

This "hat" shape was discovered by DAVID SMITH in England, and has only been known for about two years -- known as "an APERIODIC MONOTILE". This is the solution to the "Einstein Problem," as it is a single shape that will tessellate infinitely without ever making a regular pattern (like the number "pi").

This YouTube video below by Dr Ben Miles explains the concept better than I can: