Wednesday, December 31, 2025

EXQUISITE TESSELLATION SUMMARY -- 2025

DAVID SMITH discovered the single Aperiodic Monotile that we are using to make the artistic collaborative EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Prints.  We are just one of the many ART PROJECTS that David Smith blogged about based on his tessellation shapes:

TESSELLATIONS:

We pushed the EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Print Project all year, culminating in Silver City where we made big collaboration Steamroller Prints, ran two tessellation workshops, and had an exhibition at the SOUTHWEST PRINT FIESTA in October 2025:


** MAJOR EXHIBITIONS **

SOUTHWEST PRINT FIESTA
Silver City, New Mexico




Our EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Exhibition
at the Southwest Print Fiesta 2025


Quick Tessellation -- SWPF 2025 -- PART 1
We gave a quick EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Workshop
by gouging stiff foam with ball point pens


COLLABORATION TESSELLATIONS
 at the Whiskey Creek Zocalo 
We also gave an EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Workshop with linocuts
in the Zocalo bar at the After-Party


EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Steamroller Prints


TESSELLATION STEAMROLLER PRINTS 
We made BIG EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Prints
with a Steamroller

***

TUNEL GRAFICO
JUAREZ, MEXICO

We also showed 163 EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Prints in the TUNEL GRAFICO exhibition at the University of Juarez in Mexico from August 22, extended to November 15, 2025:


INDEX of BLOG POSTS


GALLERY -- TUNEL GRAFICO
The Gallery for the TUNEL GRAFICO exhibition 
at the University of Juarez in Mexico


ALBUQUERQUE Tessellations -- TUNEL GRAFICO
69 individual EXQUISITE TESSELLATION just from Albuquerque
hanging in the gallery


OPENING -- Part 1 -- TUNEL GRAFICO
We had a great crowd for opening night
on August 22, 2025


Quick Prints -- TUNEL GRAFICO
During the opening visitors could design their own prints
by gouging into the stiff form with ball point pens



We cut out both SMALL and BIG tessellation tiles, by laser cutting Linoleum, and CNCing Expanded PVC Foam:


** TESSELLATION TILES **

SMALL LINOCUTS

 2024 SUMMARY
The linocuts are all 7 inches at the widest --
(the linocut would fit in a 7x7 inch square)


 "HAT" FILES
 for LASER CUTTING

 
SINGLE Tiles

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):



LITTLE Tessellation prints and COLLABORATIONS -- Remarque OPEN HOUSE
The small linocuts make great individual prints
which we can store in a scrap book


LITTLE Tessellation prints and COLLABORATIONS -- Remarque OPEN HOUSE
Letterpress Masterpiece


FAT CROW PRESS -- Color Tessellation SUMMARY
The small EXQUISITE TESSELLATION linocuts
also piece together to make great big prints too



BIG LINOCUTS
for the STEAMROLLER

TESSELLATION STEAMROLLER PRINTS --
Moving the big prints in Silver City
that we just made with a Steamroller


Revving Up for STEAMROLLER TESSELLATION Printing
The big Steamroller Linocuts
are 20 inches at the widest
(the linocut would fit in a 20x20 inch square)

20_inch_hats.LBRN2 (18.22 KB)


Revving Up for STEAMROLLER TESSELLATION Printing
The Big STEAMROLLER Linocuts
were a mirror image of the small tessellation linocut tiles


Steamroller EXQUISITE TESSELLATIONS
We bought three big sheets of 36x36 inch linoleum
for about $125 from Dick Blick, for the big tessellation linocuts


EXQUISITE STEAMROLLER TESSELLATION Prints
We cut the first batch of Big STEAMROLLER Linocuts
on Ethan's laser cutter


Southwest Print Fiesta -- Preparation
Adam also laser cut a big EXQUISITE TESSELLATION linocut
on the laser cutter at UNM


REMARQUE OPEN HOUSE -- 
Big Tessellations and Detonography
Later we made big EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Prints
at Remarque Print Workshop in Albuquerque


More Big EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Printing at CNM
Later we also made big EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Prints
at CNM community college on the west side of Albuquerque



STIFF FOAM
TESSELLATION TILES

We also cut small stiff foam EXQUISITE TESSELLATION tiles -- from Expanded PVC Foam -- for quick tessellation workshops.  Visitors can gouge into the stiff foam with ball point pens, quickly and easily, and we can quickly print those with a Tortilla Press or Portable Press.

HOWEVER we CANNOT laser cut the stiff foam, as it has PVC in it, and laser cutting will produce poisonous CHLORINE GAS.  So we have to cut out the stiff foam tessellation tiles on the CNC:

Expanded PVC Foam -- Tessellation Tiles
Stiff Foam "Hat" tessellation tile
cut on the CNC at Quelab

VECTOR FILE to upload to the CNC:
VCARVE FILE -- the CNC file with the layout for 24 x10 sheet (1/8 inch thick), to cut out six Ein Stein "hat" tessellation shapes, with a 60 Degree V Slotting cutter bit:

CNC cutting TESSELLATION TILES
People can create designs quickly
by gouging the stiff foam with ball point pens or styli


June 11, 2025
Adric at Quelab gouging a design
into a stiff foam tile with a ball point pen


ALTERNATIVE Tessellations
The Tortilla Press did a great job
printing 6 inch (at the widest) stiff foam tessellation tiles


TUCSON visits ALBUQUERQUE
Joe Marshall inks the stiff foam tile
for his daughter to print on the Tortilla Press


The Expanded PVC Foam tessellation tiles have to be cut on a CNC, as cutting on the laser cutter produces poisonous CHLORINE GAS:

CNC cutting TESSELLATION TILES
Cutting the Expanded PVC Foam tiles
with the CNC machine at Quelab Makerspace in Albuquerque



ALTERNATIVE TESSELLATION SHAPES


There is a whole family of aperiodic tessellation monotiles that can be derived by altering the "hat" shape that DAVID SMITH discovered. This YouTube  -- Aperiodic monotile animation -- shows how the "hat" shape easily morphs into other different shapes that tessellate as well:

So we experimented with other tessellation shapes after creating them with a program online:


VCarve file: 

ALTERNATIVE Tessellations
The angular stiff foam tiles
also tessellate nicely


At first we tried using a "Drag Knife" on the CNC to cut out tessellation tiles from Expanded PVC Foam.  However this did not work well, at least on our first try.  I am sure there is a way to do this better, but it was a lot easier using the drill bits:

Expanded PVC Foam -- Tessellation Tiles
The "Drag Knife" left jagged edges
on our first try



OTHER
** INNOVATIONS **

We ordered a "hat" shape die on Ebay from the Ukraine hoping to punch out tessellation tiles from both linoleum and Expanded PVC Foam.  The die is too thick to run through the FISKARS FUSE Die-Cutting SYSTEM, and we have yet to try using it with a Leather Cutting Press:

We ordered a metal "hat" shaped die from the Ukraine


Expanded PVC Foam -- Tessellation Tiles
The "hat" die was too thick 
to fit in the FISKARS FUSE die cutting system


The EXQUISITE TESSELLATION linocuts print nicely on the sleeve of a t-shirt...where your rank would go on your Navy uniform:

PRINT CRUNCH
UNM Professor Karsten Creightney printed my tessellation linocut
on the sleeve of a t-shirt


Printmaking -- Bits and Pieces
Chris Bardey made a big EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Print
from his single "hat" tessellation linocut


Bandana Tessellation
I hand printed a bandana with the tessellation tiles --
I think I needed to have a cushion under the linocuts to make a better print


October 1, 2025
David Brower made a drawing first,
and put that over the stiff foam "hat" tile,
and then pressed through the paper into the tile to make a design


We had the idea of making ceramic tiles from the "hat" tessellation linocuts. So Aaron and I experimented at Quelab with making a mold from my linocut. The idea would then be to make slip castings from the mold or something.  We also considered punching out "hat" shapes from leather hard dried clay, and letting the artists scribe into the clay directly, before cooking in the kiln -- which might be the best approach:

Making MOLDS from TESSELLATION LINOCUTS
Making a mold from my tessellation linocut


There is still so much to experiment with in 2026.

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