Rajordan (rā'-jər-dăn')

Tessera - The Perpetual Puzzle

"Tessera - The Perpetual Puzzle" has apparently morphed into "Busy Beetles" but with different colors. The box has this information:

© 1996 DaMert Company, Berkeley, California
Beetle sculpture: © 1996 J. Osborn, Patent Pending
Tessera is a trademark of DaMert Company

(J. Osborn is John A. L. Osborn of www.ozbird.net. I emailed him to thank him for the hours of amusement the "Busy Beetles" have provided. He told me that if I liked the beetles, I would enjoy "Batty Lizards." What can I say? He was right. I ordered two sets of Batty Lizards and they are endlessly fascinating.)

We bought our Tessera set sometime in the late nineties. It has 60 tessellating pieces of eight unique shapes which fit together in "endless patterns." The colors are red, green, purple, white, blue, pink, gold, and black. Some of the patterns I made are below.

all 60 pieces in rectangular shape

all 60 pieces in hexagonal shape	all 60 pieces in hexagonal shape	all 60 pieces in hexagonal shape	all 60 pieces	all 60 pieces	all 60 pieces
solid blue/green	circles of blue/green	rows of green/blue	rows of pink/red	circles of pink/red	solid pink/red
circles of black/gold	rows of black/gold	circles of black/gold	circle of purple/white	circles of purple/white	circles of blue/pink, green/red and purple/white

The classification of the pieces. There are eight unique pieces (red, green, purple, white, blue, pink, gold, and black) each with three characteristics:
Short horns - gold, blue, pink, white	Thin bodies - gold, red, white, green	Long wings - purple, gold, green, pink
Stubby wings - red, white, blue, black	Fat bodies - purple, black, blue, pink	Long horns - purple, red, green, black

For an in-depth investigation of Tessera, the best I found was a page by Rick Peterson.

Photos by Rajordan

Last updated on February 01, 2009

"Never Forget 9-11-01" Ribbon