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!

Octahedron Four Clovers

My previous Gnostic Triquetra attempted to demonstrate how the Magic Octahedron could be divided into odd-and-even faces with two different patterns. This pattern shows it a bit more clearly: four sides have clovers, and four sides are blank.

The pattern is arranged so each face with a clover is flanked by three adjacent blank faces. And each blank face is flanked by three clovers.

4x4 Tricolor Python

This pattern is related to the 5x5 Quad-color Python pattern I posted a few months ago. It retains the off-center stripes, which were the most challenging part of the 5x5 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.

4x4 Water and Fire

I named this simple 4x4x4 pattern for the 3-color groupings into cool and warm colors representing water & fire. I stumbled onto this pattern while playing with a big, cheap 4x4x4. It works pretty well, despite the cheap price.

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.