I’m in the process of resecroating, which is going to involve some tiling. I thought it would be neat to use a Penrose tile pattern rather than the usual boring checkerboard or whatever. Nothing too garish, just two subtly contrasting colours.
(For those that don’t know, Penrose tiling produces patterns that look symmetrical, but actually aren’t. Unlike wallpaper, which will match up if you shift it a set distance side to side/up and down, a Penrose pattern will not superimpose on itself however much you shift it.)
So, does any enterprising tile manufacture sell tile of the correct shape? I have tried Googling, and although other people seem to have had the same idea, I have not been able to track down a supplier. The alternative (hours spent with a protractor and a tile cutter) doesn’t bear thinking about…
A friend of mine runs a hat shop with a penrose tile pattern on the floor - it did indeed involve many hours of cutting, etc; fortunately she had created a template to work from but, even so, it didn’t come out exactly right…
I was thinking more of small mosaic tiles, suitable for a wall, which would be even more fiddly than cutting floor tiles (those look like vinyl/lino tiles, right?)
Yeah, just regular vinyl, maybe even from offcuts she had around.
Now I think about it, she was aiming to do some ‘Penrose’ kitchen tiling at her home, but If she did I know she’ll have cut it all by hand…
Not as impressive, of course, but you could always simply paint (or better yet stencil) the pattern onto a normal ceramic surface. Or, a heavy duty cutter might allow you to do a stack of tiles at once.
I was told by a friend (who appears to have done a fair amount of research) that Penrose tiles cannot be freely manufactured - they would be subject to royalties.
Nothing would stop you from making tiles for your own use. You might want to talk to some pottery-savvy friend who could help you make molds and fire the tiles.
The demand being what it is for pentile cut ceramic tile you are on your own.
The obvious solution is to cut your own.
This will require a wet diamond saw available at the BBDIY or tile store. Lay out your pattern and make a jig to hold the tile in the proper position(s). Allowing for grout joints, a small error can probably be tolerated.
You can use tiles of various colors to create a masterpiece with a bit or two of patience!
You mean you don’t think there’d be much demand? :dubious:
Looks like a DIY job then… once I have a lot more spare time!
There are various shapes you can use, of course… this is quite a neat pattern, using two kinds of parallelogram, but I think the best ones are the “arrow and dart” shapes… like this.
Interestingly, that same site shows how to cut the arrow and dart shapes from pentagrams.
Actually I’m wondering about the legal situation here. Can Penrose legally lay claim to a simple geometric shape, like a parallelogram with specific interior angles? Sounds a bit optimistic to me.
There was a picture of actual Penrose tiles in an issue of Scientific American and they told where you could get the tiles. I had the issue years ago, but I no longer have it and I can’t remember how long ago it was. Penrose tiles were discussed several times in Mathematical Games, but this was a regular article.
On the legal issue, Penrose has licenced a company called Pentaplex to produce puzzles based on the tiling. They also appear to produce legitimate tissues using the design. However, there’s no mention of them doing kitchen tiles.
As I recall, using Penrose patterns on toilet tissue etc. means that the paper wraps around more evenly and keeps the roll’s cross-section more circular.
I’m not sure I could handle those colours early in the morning, though…
Based on the responses to this thread, I reckon there would be a market for weird and wonderful tile shapes. Print out brochures with some of those tiling patterns and they’d sell themselves to geeks everywhere! University maths departments could tile entire lecture-theatre floors in them! Professors’ shower stalls would never be the same again! Get to it, somebody!
