Tessellation:
According to M. C. Escher, a tessellation is "a regular division of the plane".

On this website, we define a tessellation as "a repetitive interlocking pattern of shapes that fills, or clearly could fill, a surface entirely without gaps or overlaps". A tessellation looks a bit like a simple jigsaw puzzle, but all the pieces are just one or two or three shapes.

Occasionally, a tessellation fills a 2D surface that isn't an infinitely wide plane. For example, that surface might be the outside of a ball, the outside of a lampshade, the inside of a decorated egg, the skin of a snake, a flat hexagon, a big wall, or a "circle limit". Also, occasionally a tessellation fills a surface that isn't flat, like the outside of a soccer ball or a dodecahedron.

On this page, you'll find examples of art. Some of the artwork is by children, some by adults, and some even by the past and present webmasters of Tessellations.org. You should judge for yourself whether each artwork is a tessellation, and then you'll have the chance to compare your decision with the webmaster's opinion.

Is It A Tessellation Or Not?

Defining tessellation through examples
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