9/17/13 - Tessellations

A tessellation is a pattern of repeating shapes that fit together with no gaps.  It is a good lesson to introduce line, shape, pattern and color.  Tessellation comes from a latin word meaning small stone cube.  Very early tessellations were in the form of mosaics.  Modern ones come in all different shapes, but they still interlock and have no space in between.  Artist M.C. Escher, born in Holland in 1898, is known as the "Modern Father of Tessellations".  He became obsessed with filling surfaces with pictures that did not overlap or leave space.

For today's project we will start with a pre-made tracer. It will require some tracing, cutting and taping to have a working piece.  Students will also have the option of cutting their own organic shape. I will walk them thru it.

The shape will be traced across the page and continue on each row, making sure the pieces interlock.  The photo below show examples of the shapes the students can pick from.

Here are the birds interlocking on the entire page.  We will talk about color families (warm, cool, primary, secondary) to help with color selection and how the same color should not touch each other.  If students feel confident, they can try and add some value to the project (light to dark).