Decorative Penrose Tiles

I’ve long been fascinated with the artistic possibilities unleashed by Penrose tiles. These are tiles that can tile forever without ever repeating exactly, and they produce intriguing patterns as they go. The slice shown below would be repeated an infinite number of times on an infinite plane, but at irregular intervals with different connecting stretches between them. Convoluted pentagonal trails would snake for miles through such a plane, and complex rosettes would emerge in ever larger scales. There is something of the beautiful chaos of nature in these infinitely variable patterns.
PenroseTileLeaves Decorative Penrose Tiles
The pattern above is built out of just two tiles, shown below. Thanks to Craig Kaplan for the Java applet that generated the tile shapes.
PenroseLeafTile1 Decorative Penrose TilesPenroseLeafTile2 Decorative Penrose Tiles

Not the sort of thing your typical bath and tile contractor would necessarily come up with, but if you’re looking for that exquisite touch for the solarium or atrium, or a cool table top concept…


Other artists’ works using Penrose tiles:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roger-Penrose-Kachelstruktur.jpg
http://parrotdolphin.deviantart.com/art/Penrose-Tile-2-27686652
http://mosaik.wordpress.com/2007/04/21/penrose-patterns-physics-and-tile-polygons/
Penrose fabric art!
http://www.stitchamaze.com/gallery-guest/stephenmooney.aspx
Penrose pavement in Helsinki: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amnellanna/4130607976/
 

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