Comments on: Bathroom Penrose tiles

Question: Bathroom Penrose tiles

sandking — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 08:48:12 -0800

How can I get a Penrose tiling installed on my bathroom floor? Would Penrose sue me if I did it myself? And where the heck can you buy the tiles from?

I can't find anyone would makes the "kite and dart" shapes necessary, or even the correctly shaped rhombuses. How could I do this, short of getting a lot of normal tiles and cutting them?

And would a professional tile installer be up to the task? Maybe he would need a Jiminy Cricket-style geometry helper..

By: Floydd

Floydd — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 09:40:17 -0800

Saxe-Patterson will make them for you.

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 10:51:35 -0800

Can I assume that the prices are "If you have to ask..."?

By: alms

alms — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 11:08:54 -0800

A former roommate got some samples from Saxe-Patterson about ten or fifteen years ago. At the time I remember them being "too expensive" for him to consider for his house, but I don't remember exact numbers. They were very pretty tiles.

By: substrate

substrate — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 11:29:54 -0800

Couldn't you use a tile cutter or diamond saw to make penrose tiles? It'd be labour intensive but it'd save money.

By: metaculpa

metaculpa — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 11:55:51 -0800

Several of the so-called Penrose tilings weren't found by Penrose himself, but instead by a (if I recall correctly) "rather savant housewife from LA". So, one could always look up which ones belonged to whom.

Also, I'm sure that if you weren't making a mint off of them (like the TP folks were), Roger wouldn't mind.

Ha. "Roger", as if I know him. Or, as if I even know whether or not he's still alive.
I did see him give a lecture once, in which he claimed that consciousness resides in the quantum fluctuations inside microtubules in our neurons, god what bullshit

By: box

box — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 12:03:16 -0800

If I remember correctly from another discussion, balisong is in the tile-laying biz in Colorado, and may be able to offer some insights.

By: Floydd

Floydd — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 12:06:06 -0800

What, the actual King of Sand is on a budget?!
How about this, then. Go to a sheet metal shop and have them cut, bend and solder the appropriate shapes into cookie-cutter like dies, then find a potter who will roll out some slabs, cut out the tiles using your handy dies, glaze them per your specs and fire them. That might be a middle path between cutting each tile yourself on a diamond saw and paying Saxe-Patterson to do it. Either way, it's custom work and it's going to cost you. Time or money, it's your choice.

consciousness resides in the quantum fluctuations inside microtubules in our neurons, god what bullshit
...wait, you mean it DOESN'T???

By: Johnny Assay

Johnny Assay — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 12:21:18 -0800

Ha. "Roger", as if I know him. Or, as if I even know whether or not he's still alive.

He's alive. I chatted with him about collapse of compactified dimensions in the spring when he visited Chicago on a book tour — he and my advisor know each other fairly well. His latest thing to think about is quantum gravity being related to wavefunction collapse — still pretty out there, but not as rarefied as the quantum consciousness stuff in "The Emperor's New Mind."

By: kindall

kindall — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 13:22:19 -0800

Indeed, I feel my consciousness sloshing around in my microtubules right now.

By: Floydd

Floydd — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 17:05:48 -0800

Um, kindall? You're supposed to think with your big head.

By: Floydd

Floydd — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 17:15:35 -0800

Ohhh! Ooooh!! You could cast tessellated tiles in concrete!!!
This one is especially cool.

By: ikkyu2

ikkyu2 — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 19:47:24 -0800