5x5 Sterling

This pattern reminds me of the logo for Sterling Savings Bank.

4x4 Power Series

The number of stripes on the first three sides of the 4x4 represent the first three entries in an even power series: 1, 2, 4. As a simple exercise I extended the pattern to a custom-built 2x2x6 cube, but as the series 1, 2, 6.

5x5 Parallels

This string pattern wraps around 4 sides of the cube, leaving the top & bottom blank. The string rises and descends on alternate sides. On the 3x3 there's one string, but on the 4x4 there are two parallel strings, and on the 5x5 there are three parallel strings.

The picture at right shows the reverse sides.

Octahedron Christmas Trees

Okay, there's nothing particularly Christmas-like about this pattern. It's just a vague depiction of a tree, but I chose to call it a Christmas Tree because of the season.

Woolworths used to sell decorations like this back in the 70's when abstract geometric shapes were the "in" thing.

Pyraminx Christmas and Hanukkah

This is a chance color scheme that appeared while I was toying with Meffert's 25th Anniversary Edition Metallized Pyriaminx. When the colors are permuted as shown the red-green sides suggest a Christmas color scheme while the gold-blue sides (roughly) suggest a Hanukkah color scheme.

The color scheme isn't a perfect match, but it's powerfully suggestive when holding the puzzle solved this way.

5x5 Curvy Snake

This is a 5x5 variant of the standard "snake" pattern from the 3x3 cube, but with curves added.

I made this pattern during a holiday in Hawaii and accidentally stumbled on the Tropical Petals pattern afterward. So the simplest way to create either of these patterns is to first arrange the edges as shown here for the Curvy Snake, then adjust the center pieces to match either the Curvy Snake or Tropical Petals pattern.

Octahedron Snow Angels

This shape was inspired by a traditional snow angel.

As usual, the design is somewhat abstract. But when working with a slate of nine triangles any patterns has got to be pretty abstract.

Broken Python

On the 4x4 this pattern looks a lot like a standard "python" pattern, except that the pattern has a beginning and an end instead of being a loop. On a 5x5 it's a little more obvious that the pattern itself IS a type of loop.

It's constructed like a standard python, but the pieces on one edge (the purple-white edge in this example) are swapped around to break the pattern.

Octahedron Black Widow Spider

I'll finish the week with one final pattern that shows that Octahedron patterns don't have to be so complicated-looking.

Each face shows an hourglass, resembling the markings on a black window spider. It's a natural shape for this kind of puzzle, and it can probably be done a few different ways. As shown in the end-view at right, each "hourglass" pairs a mobile edge piece with a non-mobile center piece without involving any corner pieces.

Orthogonal Pinstripes

Possibly the simplest pattern for the even-numbered cubes, Pinstripes requires only 4 moves on a 2x2x2 and only 8 moves on a 4x4x4. Only 12 moves would be required on a 6x6x6 cube.

A similar-looking pattern can be arranged on the 5x5x5, but it's based on a different principle.

Triskelion

Geometrically speaking, a triskelion is a three-armed spiral form. In heraldry (flags that is) it instead refers to a three-legged spiral such as the flag of the Isle of Man.

The pattern extends neatly to any higher-order puzzle cube in case you just happen to have a 9x9x9 cube lying around. Here's the opposite-side view:

5x5 Spring Time

This spring-shape looks a lot like a 3-cycle rotation, but it's really an opposite-face pattern. For an opposite-face pattern, it employs the bare minimum number of edge cubies of each type (other than none).

Some faces use odd numbered quantities of center-edge and center-corner cubies, adding a little complexity to what would otherwise be an easy beginner's pattern. Just a little.

5x5 Clover

This pattern uses a fairly simple opposite-face two-color scheme. It's a nice exercise for cubers who are just learning to do 5x5 patterns. How few moves can you reduce it to?

The string winds up to the top face, then curves down and back up onto three adjacent sides, then winds back down to the bottom (where it repeats the pattern). If the sides were folded up where you could see them they would form two three-leaf clover shapes.

The pattern is illustrated schematically at left. There are straight line on only one side. It's more interesting to look at in person than in a photo.

5x5 Plumber's Snake

This is another snake-like pattern, this time wrapping around using a mix of left, right, and middle edge cubies.

The shape on the purple/white sides reminded me of the drain pipe under the sink, so I called the pattern "Plumber's Snake." But schematically this is really a variation on the common python pattern.

Sawtooth

This pattern that can be adapted to any size cube. The sawtooth pattern winds around four sides, and the top and bottom are just blank.

5x5 Twisty Snake

This is just one of the countless ways to extend the basic 3x3 Snake onto the 5x5 cube. As the two views at right show, the snake worms its way around each face, making three turns on each face.

On the 5x5 cube the snake can be arranged to enter and exit each face in any combination of edge cubies. The simplest variant has a single turn on each face while the most elaborate has five turns per face. Another challenge is to extend it to three, four, or even five colors per face.

Cube-in-Cube

The Cube-in-Cube is one of the few patterns that can be adapted to all orders of puzzle cubes: Rubik's Cube, Rubik's Revenge, Meffert's Master Cube, Rubik's Wahn, et cetera.

In fact, there are a variety of options for the higher order cubes. Should the smaller cube be 2x2 or 3x3? Or even 4x4 (on the 5x5)? Take your pick.

I used Eastsheen cubes for the 2x2x2, 4x4x4, and 5x5x5 in the illustration and a Famwealth 3x3x3 that had a similar color scheme on the red-yellow-blue faces. The colors on the 3x3 don't quite match on the reverse side, as shown below.

3x3 Snake

Sometimes called the Worm, the 3x3 Snake is a fairly common pattern for longtime Rubik's Cube enthusiasts. The colored stripe winds around each side of the cube, making a right-angle turn on each.

Many patterns on the higher-order cubes are derived from this basic 3x3 pattern.

4x4 Crooked Snake

I'm partial to "snake" patterns that run from one side of the cube to another. The Crooked Snake is a variant of the common 3x3 Snake pattern, which runs through all six sides in a regular pattern as shown here.

Unlike the standard 3x3 Snake, this version has extra crooked turns on some sides but not others.

5x5 Be My Valentine

The bright colors of Eastsheen's 5x5 cube inspired me to build this heart shape on its red and white sides. The other four sides have an abstract 2-color pattern that just occupies the remaining pieces, nothing terribly special.

Sometime I'd like to try to extend a theme to the remaining sides, such as X's and O's for hugs and kisses. Uh...that's beginning to sound a bit too cutesy for me.

The cube is a contemporary Eastsheen A5. Here's a view of some of the other, uninteresting sides.