Polygonal Tiles from Hitomezashi Patterns and Heat Equations
Bjorn Vermeersch

Proceedings of Bridges 2025: Mathematics and the Arts
Pages 325–332
Regular Papers

Abstract

This paper presents a method to transform procedural sashiko embroidery into intricately coloured polygonal tiles. Two-coloured hitomezashi stitch patterns are used as time-periodic inputs to the heat diffusion equation. Rendering the resulting temperature field with a photograph as colour wheel produces decorative rectangular tiles. Conformal Schwarz-Christoffel mappings extend the recipe to both regular and irregular polygons of arbitrary vertex count. A range of tile designs and examples of an Archimedean and Cairo tessellation thereof are showcased.

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