5x5 M.C. Escher's Pretzel

M.C. Escher used to draw all sorts of pictures of impossible objects like stairways that ascended in loops and waterfalls that drained into their own tributaries.

If M.C. Escher tried to draw a pretzel, it just might have looked something like this cube pattern.

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!

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:

Octahedron Tri-color Triquetra

All eight faces of this Magic Octahedron depict a three-color triquetra pattern. It took me three tries to get this pattern right because there are so many sides and colors that I kept making mistakes. This color scheme integrates the trivial tips, rotating quadrants, and mobile edges on each face, but is edge-agnostic on adjacent faces.

The Magic Octahedron puzzle is more complex than the eight-sided Skewb Diamond puzzle, but much more versatile. According to TwistyPuzzles.com the Taiwanese version of this puzzle was called "Star Puzzler." Such puzzles are relatively scarce, but occasionally obtainable on eBay. (Or at a flea market in Berlin.)

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.

5x5 Isle of Man

This abstract pattern represents the Armored Triskelion from the coat of arms and flag of the Isle of Man. Due to mechanical constraints, the two figures in my representation are running in opposite directions.

Despite its apparent simplicity, I was forced to adopt the thick thigh for practical reasons rather than aesthetic ones.

This cube is about twenty years old, probably a Rubik's Wahn, but it has held up magnificently except for a chipped sticker on one of its corners.

3x3 Illusion Pinwheel

The Illusion Pinwheel is a rather subtle pattern. At first it can be difficult to see, hence the 'illusion' part. The picture shows two views of the same cube so you can see all sides.

This pattern demonstrates that the 3x3 cube can conjure more interesting patterns than just the typical checkboards and squares you see so often.

Edge cubies are face-agnostic, meaning the edge piece serves different functions on two adjacent faces. For example, the green-yellow piece represents the background on the green face and part of the pinwheel on the blue face.

The cube itself is a cheap, shoddy Magic Keychain cube that retails for less than a dollar. The pieces are riddled with defects and it has one of the worst color combinations I've ever seen with pink, yellow, and two shades of orange. Yuck!