Tile Designs: More Than 100 Ready-to-Use Tiling Patterns

Leila Adamis a mathematician who began drawing tile patterns when a local mosque asked her to design a new tiled floor. When she was unable to find any information on designs that used standard floor tiles, she created her own patterns using her mathematical skills.

Introduction

This book offers an opportunity to make creative patterns with tiles, without the specialized techniques required for mosaic work or tile painting and glazing. It is about using the tiles that can be bought in any flooring store and laying them in the usual way, but with the added benefit of creating an interesting pattern. No extra skill is required besides normal tile-laying techniques. (These are outlined on pages 8-13.) The key concept is that tiles of different colors are laid according to a plan that creates a pattern.

Where can one look for inspiration in designing interesting tile patterns? In fact, any design that can be envisaged as being based on a square grid can be used. If a design can be translated onto a square grid, it can be represented in tiles. For example, one could take a plan that would normally be used in cross-stitch and make a tile pattern with it, using a square tile to represent each cross. Quilting patterns with geometric shapes can be used in a similar way.

Tessellation lends itself very well to tile patterning. Tessellation is the mathematical art of fitting a shape together continuously, leaving no gaps. If a tessellation pattern can be fitted onto a square grid, it can be represented in tiles. The most often used tile pattern, the checkerboard pattern, is in fact a tessellation of squares. This book explores the use of tessellation in tile pattern designing.

Interesting patterns can be found in many traditional cultures. Decorative work on masonry, fabrics, pottery, basketwork, glass and other traditionally used surfaces can provide inspiration for a tiling pattern. Zigzags, woven lines and geometric designs can be lifted from traditional artwork and used in a whole new way. It takes just a little practice to train the eye to spot the possibilities.

The Middle East provides a rich source of traditional patterns. One reason for this is the fact that its dominant religion, Islam, discourages realistic representations in art. Art has had religious connections in all cultures, and while other societies developed artistic genres showing lifelike representations of gods and traditional stories, Islamic art was, for the most part, completely abstract. This book explores many examples of traditional designs from the Middle East.

The idea for this book came about from a flooring project for the entranceway to a public building. The floor was to be tiled in a way that would produce a pleasant visual focus for people entering. But, being a community project, it was undesirable to involve the extra costs and expertise associated with producing a mosaic for the entrance. A simpler idea was needed, and so we sat down with square grid math paper and started to experiment with shapes. Once we began, we realized the possibilities were endless! We also realized that many classic geometric designs that are usually produced using different media could be very easily produced in tiles. Soon, drawing tile patterns became an obsessive hobby, and the Tile Designs book was born.