Heart Tessellations: Three Lovely Math Art Designs

Heart tessellations make a relaxing math art project, especially for kids who like patterning, and repetitive doodling. Art doesn't always have to mean drawing still life, after all. Combine this math art project idea with Möbius strip hearts and you and your kids can celebrate Valentine's Day in style.

Made famous in popular culture by M.C. Esher, tessellations are repeated patterns in which shapes fit exactly together.  Esher's tessellating patterns are composed of fantastical shapes. Floor tiles or brick patterns are examples of commonly found tessellations. Honeycomb is a good example of a tessellation found in nature. All kinds or tessellations, like our cat tessellations or star tessellations are examples of the way mathematics makes the world fancy!

So for the love of math art, try this heart tessellations art project with your kids! 

Tessellation Video

We've made tessellations before, and if you want to get a feel for what the process is like, you can watch our video:

How to Make Heart Tessellations with a Template

What you need:

• Pencil
• Scissors.
• Protractor (optional)
• Thin cardboard (such as a cereal box)
• Art paper, or art journal
• Art supplies such as colored pencils, markers, etc.

Instructions:

Step 1. Create the heart template. This took a bit of experimentation on our part to find the right angle for the bottom point of the heart. We finally decided on an 80 degree angle, which we drew with our protractor. Be sure that the measurement of side of the heart is twice as long as one of the top "sides" or your tessellations will be off. Our measurements were approximately 6 cm and 3 cm.

Cut out the template on thin cardboard and trace a couple of practice tessellations to make sure your template is accurate. Trim template as needed.

(Somehow I forgot to take a photo of tracing the template. Sorry 'bout that (but you can see it in action in the video above.)

If you are creating the template in a classroom, this is a good place to discuss how to create a perfectly symmetrical heart and how exact measurements are necessary to make perfect tessellations. Creating the template by hand and not a computer means it can be challenging to make a perfect angular heart.

But perfection is not necessary! The slight imperfection of the template and the resulting traced tessellations are a good lesson in how mathematics works in real life.

Step 2. Trace your heart template on paper and tessellate!

Step 3. Color as desired.

Heart Tessellations on Graph Paper

In contrast to the above heart template method, these tessellations will be mathematically perfect. Children can even create them using a computer if you have an appropriate program. However, drawing the heart math art out on paper is also very satisfying.

What you need:

• Graph paper
• Pencil
• Art supplies such as colored pencils, markers, etc.

Instructions:

Step 1. Draw the outline of the heart tessellation as shown and fill the paper.

Step 2. Color as desired.

Step 3. Admire your handiwork.

Heart and Square Tessellations

I really wanted to make tessellations that more closely resembled a traditional heart shape than the designs above. So with some experimentation this heart and square design emerged.

What you need:

• Graph paper
• Scissors
• Art paper
• Pencil
• Watercolors or other coloring medium.

Instructions:

Step 1. Create a template using the graph paper and cut out. Trace template onto thin cardboard as in the first example, if desired.

Step 2. Tessellate hearts as shown. Notice that as you match the sides of the hearts, a square "hole" forms between the hearts.

Step 3. Color as desired!

Step 4. Admire your beautiful math artwork!

There you have it! Heart tessellations three different ways! Even though I encourage you to try this mathematical wonder any time of the year, this math art idea makes a great STEAM project for Valentine's Day.

Know what also makes for great Valentine STEAM inspiration? The STEAM Kids book I co-authored! Chock full of other super duper fun love and heart themed STEAM projects for kids ages 4-10. Learn more about it here: STEAM Kids Valentine's Day ebook.