Several people have asked why I don't show any of my own pictures on this site. Well, probably up to now it's been for fear of direct comparisons being drawn. However, maybe it's time to venture a few and see how they're received. Most of these date from the Eighties.

Below are some experimental tile designs. The aim was usually to see how extended a pattern was possible using just a couple of different tiles, but with some I got carried away. If you click on the patterns you'll see the cells below the patterns they were used to create.

The problem with actual tiles like this is that it would be much like doing a jigsaw puzzle on your bathroom wall or floor, which is not what most tilers want when trying to get a job done. However, I've just found a use for them as backgrounds to web pages, as you may have noticed elsewhere on the site. I've no idea how much people like them, but I'm having a lot of fun doing it. This is how they were meant to be seen in the first place, as potentially infinite expanses.

People often assume that these are simply Islamic patterns, but although they were certainly one of the main inspirations, I don't believe anyone has used hexagons to build patterns in this way before. They were equally inspired by Celtic abstract patterns but again, the Celts never quite used hexagons like this. Help yourself if you want to use any as backgrounds.

Thinking about it, this could be a place to look into abstract patterns in general, starting with one made from the logo of that 70s icon of style - the Biba store and fashion factory. Then a couple of examples of the Islamic and Celtic art that inspired the tiles above. Being basically rectangular makes them a lot easier to tile as backgrounds than the hexagons, though personally I like the spin that hexagons give the symmetry.