Hexy Arabesque Pattern - 10 Jul 2023

Arabesque? Islimi? Who knows …

The name for the ‘vegetal’ parts of Islamic designs is variosly called ‘arabesque’ or ‘Islimi’ - the latter is used in the book ‘Arts and Crafts of the Islamic Lands, which I highly recommend. In any case, they are an important part of these patterns, that I have neglected until now …

Drawing of the basic hex pattern

This is the basic geometry (incidentally, it is the pattern used on the cover of the Broug book).

and the vegetal bits?

The final design was just to fill in parts of the pattern with shapes that are traditionally used (or my attempt at them). I drew them on the original graph paper and then traced them to get an even shape:

Painting of the final arabesque hex pattern

The colours are a little wacky, but the overall look is good, I think. Perhaps still a little simple, but a good first try.

Final product

The completed item is here