Tiling and Patterns
 "Every known human society has made use of tilings and patterns in some form or another…
To consider geometry without drawings as a worthy goal seems to us as silly as to extol the virtues of soundless music." *
Tiling is an obvious topic to include in any activity in shape and space. Tiling patterns are timeless and exist in all parts of the world. For instance you will see wall coverings, wrapping paper, carpets, baskets and fabrics that draw upon tiling designs from many cultures including Celtic, Islamic, African, American, Roman, Greek etc. You also see more examples in the modern era from quilters and even mathematicians.
The human need for pattern can be satisfied in the school environment – especially in mathematics where students experience pattern and visualisation when working with angle, enlargement, rotation symmetry, line symmetry, translation and area. Using appropriate activities within mathematics, art and history it is possible to involve children in this topic whilst giving them a context in which to classify and make hypotheses.
 "At first I had no idea at all of all the possibilities of systematically building up my figures. I did not know of any “ground rules” and tried almost without knowing what I was doing to fit together congruent shapes…" **
You can use Revelation Natural Art to investigate 2D shape with the minimum of restrictions; to provide a dramatic increase in accuracy and productivity over conventional paper, pencil and scissor techniques. Revelation Natural Art lets you explore geometry by providing a flexible tool that allows tiles to be easily drawn, saved and manipulated in a similar way to moving shapes around on a table top.
If you want to practice first with paper, pens, scissors and glue first – give it a go!
Here are some ideas to get you started with tiling in Revelation Natural Art.
For the tiles see the Tessellation, Shapes and Patterns categories in your Stamp Browser.
Click and drag a tile to the page. You can fine tune the position of each tile using the arrow keys. Use the colour replacer or fill tools to change the colour of the tiles
Overlap the tiles for some interesting effects.
Rotate tiles for more sophisticated tiled patterns.
You can also rotate and transform shapes (see right click options).
Copy your coloured tile sections for some creative effects.
Now you have a try! Look at examples of tiling on the internet or invent some new ones for yourself.
Quotations
* GrunBaum & Shephard 1987 Tiling Patterns, Freeman
** MC Escher quoted Schattschneider, 1990, Visions of Symmetry, Freeman
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