5x5 Sterling

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

5x5x5 Dado Rail

The varying-width stripes remind me of the way a chair rail divides a wall between the dado below and the...uh... non-dado part.

But when viewed from a different angle it's easy to see this is just a simple 3-cycle pattern. (More precisely, it's two slightly different 3-cycle patterns.)

5x5 Grecian Urn 2

This string pattern has the same layout as my previous Grecian Urn 1 but with a somewhat more complicated arrangement of colors, so the side faces have four colors each. No two string fragments on the same face are the same color.

Too complicated? Here's a schematic showing how the pieces are laid out on the cube.

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.

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.

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.

5x5 Tropical Petals

This pattern occurred just by chance during my holiday in Hawaii. An Eastsheen cube naturally forms two groups of colors that look tropical: a red-yellow-blue scheme reminiscent of a tropical Macaw, and a white-purple-green scheme like an orchid.

The pattern itself is a variant of a standard snake, albeit with several modifications. The pictures were takent near Kona, Hawaii.

5x5 Grecian Urn 1

This pattern features two strings, one which weaves on-and-off the top of the cube and the other weaves on-and-off the bottom.

The picture doesn't make it entirely clear, so the schematic is shown at right.

5x5 Interlaced Spirals

My goal was to create a spiral path from the center to the outer edges. There's not more much to say about this one!

5x5 Dodecahelix

In this pattern, a string visits each face twice as it winds its way around the cube. The two green/yellow faces are turned a quarter turn from each other.
Since it's not entirely clear from the photo above, I've included a schematic diagram at right.

This is another of those patterns that's most interesting in person because you can follow the string around the cube. Or you can try, anyway. It's easy to lose count before following it around all twelve faces in the pattern!

5x5 Flipped DNA

This pattern is a another double-helix like the previous Twisted DNA with a somewhat ore complicated color scheme. In this instance, the colors on each face are flipped onto each adjacent face. For example, the white face shown above has a green stripe and the adjacent green face has a white stripe. The white face also contains a red stripe, and the adjacent red face also contains a white stripe.

This color scheme extends around the entire cube, as shown at right.

Because the colors are flipped from adjacent faces, all six colors are visible when the cube is viewed diagonally. At left the trio of red-green-blue faces contain stripes in white-orange-yellow. Naturally the white-orange-yellow faces must contain red-green-blue stripes.

I used different color groupings from the previous Twisted DNA (which was white-green-orange and red-yellow-blue) because
it provided better color-contrast for this pattern.


Both patterns are best when viewed firsthand because you can trace the double-helix all the way around the cube...

5x5 Twisted DNA

A pair of threads twist over and under each other, wrapping around all six sides. Shown at right, the color scheme is based on two ordinary 3-cycle twists. It's essentially two snake type patterns woven together to depict a DNA-like double-helix.

Because the color scheme is based on a 3-cycle rotation, the cube shows three colors on three sides when viewed diagonally as shown in the picture at left.

5x5 Dots Cube in Checkerboard Cube

This is a variant of the common Cube In Cube pattern in which the inner cube and outer cube are also depicting common patterns Dots and Checkerboard.

I tried to invert it into a Checkerboard Cube in Dots Cube,
as shown in the smaller picture at right. I don't think it worked as well, but it's still visually interesting . . . and an entertaining challenge to construct.

"Awful" Waffle

This just didn't work.

I worked out how to arrange the colors in a sort of "Waffle Weave" arrangement, but when I tried it out on a 4x4x4 cube it looked horrible. Really, just look at it!

So I tried again on a 5x5x5, hoping the background color between the stripes might make them more visible. It did, but it still looked awful.

Oh well, I've got better ideas...

[Edit] Patrick C noticed the Waffle pattern is somewhat clearer if you concentrate on just one face at a time. Sure enough! From the angle shown below, the pattern is even visible on the 4x4x4. (If you squint.)

5x5 Cube in Cube in Cube in Cube in Cube

Cube pattern expert Per accurately pointed out that my 4x4 Quad-color Boxes pattern is basically a mixture of two common patterns. I decided to push the concept to its maximum extreme, which you can interpret as five nested cubes or five nested rings.

5x5 Quad-color Snake

Although similar in appearance to the Quad-color Python, this pattern is infinitely easier to construct because there are dozens of possible solutions.

This is essentially a standard snake pattern extended to the 5x5x5 by permuting each of the three stripes differently to yield four colors per face.

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.