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[Editor's Note: There used to be a post here about some Escher-esque molds for creating tessellating gecko-patterned paving stones out of concrete. The creator of the molds got all 20th century (19th century?) on us and demanded that we take down the post (something about needing to negotiate a contract and cut a deal before publishing anything on the Web). We've removed all direct references to his product, but left up the post to retain the comments. We apologize for the inconvenience.]
Props to Steve for submitting this.
I find the guys claims to the IP related to said pavers to be a bit.... disingenuous.
These are so terribly obviously a copy of Escher's work. No problem there. But to turn around and claim all kinds of PROPRIETARY ONLY I CAN MAKE THESE is a bit obnoxious.
Anyone care to post a howto on making the mold? I'd love to do the Devil Dogs for pavers on our back porch.
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Yea, I wonder what the MC Escher Company thinks of this.
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Neat idea, but "creates its own border?"
You could spend an afternoon edging your driveway with that border. I would be cutting them to create a conventional straight edge border.
It is interesting that the link to the comments ends in "mc_who_he_outta_philly.html#comments" Little dig there?
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I think that by "creates its own border" he means you don't need to add a border to keep the pavers at the edge from wandering off, because each is locked to its neighbors. But yeah, cutting them straight would be kind of a pain, but worth it IMO.
Oh, and "MC who? He outta Philly?" was the original title of my post, but The Man came down on me and made me change it.
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...I would point out that making a mold to the necessary accuracy to produce reliably interlocking pavers of this complexity can't be easy. Even if his shape is just a rounded-off version of Escher's reptiles, this guy has definitely added value and, I think, deserves to reap the benefits thereof.
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I dunno, I think it's a pretty doable Re-MAKE. Plus much more satisfying.
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Well, making a suitable mold from a pattern, in itself, is not difficult at all. In this case I think the hard part is coming up with a pattern that is sufficiently accurate. Seems to me like you'd almost have to have it machined, CNC cut, or 3D-printed. Which of course is doable, but costly.
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Quotes from SMR:
"...I would point out that making a mold to the necessary accuracy to produce reliably interlocking pavers of this complexity can't be easy. "
"Well, making a suitable mold from a pattern, in itself, is not difficult at all."
"Seems to me like you'd almost have to have it machined, CNC cut, or 3D-printed."
(Or have the artistic ability and perseverance(sp?) to make them by hand...try it...then make the 'easy' mold and market it.)
NOW you see the wonder in the product. Neat to see the thought process required to admire this in action, however.
I wish the artist great rewards for the effort.
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Anyone who is interested in the process of constructing an accurate reptile tessellation would probably be interested in my page here:
http://www.seanmichaelragan.com/html/%5B2008-04-18%5D_MC_Escher_lizard_vector_art.shtml
Turns out, at least by my analysis, even Escher's original reptiles are not accurate enough to tile the plane ad infinitum. That's why I still think you really need computer numeric control or at least a skilled machinist to make a suitable pattern for this process.
Nice lively discussion, folks. Thanks to all of you for your input.
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