Pattern and Randomness in Nature

I started the year with a goal of permaculture weaving. Exactly what that meant, I wasn't sure, but I knew I wanted to apply permaculture principles to weaving design. I wanted to use nature as the basis for my weaving. I made a list of four things to form a starting point: colors, patterns, shapes, and fibers from nature. 

Pattern is one such permaculture principle. I see patterns everywhere in nature: waves, spirals, lobes, branches, nets, scatters, cloud forms, tessellations, Fibonacci sequences, the golden rectangle, etc.

Trees grow in a predictable branching pattern. It may look
different for different types of trees, but the pattern is there.

When I started making my stripes from nature photographs, I found myself asking questions. Does everything in nature fits a pattern? I'm applying human tools and techniques to get color stripes from photos. The result is a set of random stripes. But when I duplicate them to make a larger design, a pattern always emerges. 

In experiment #4 I managed to create random stripes, but they didn't come easily, they came with quite a bit of mental effort. It got me asking the question, is anything in nature truly random? Permaculture leans toward answering that question with "no." Curious, I brought the question of randomness in nature to the permies.com forums. It lead to an extremely interesting discussion, which you can read for yourself by following that link. 

After thinking about the various views, my takeaway is that what we see and how we see it is a matter of perspective. For example, these fallen leaves

I see no pattern in the way they lie upon the ground. Yet in reading other peoples' views on the forum, I realized that the pattern is in the seasonal cycle of growth and dormancy. In spring new leaves grow and in autumn they die and fall to the ground. This is the pattern. Perhaps "random" is what we see when we focus on details instead of the big picture. 

Trying to translate that to permaculture weaving will be a challenge. I'm not working with tangible objects such as growing zones, varieties of plants, weather patterns, the slope of the land, the type of soil, etc. I'm working with yarn, color, texture, and the interlacement of warp and weft. At best, I can create an abstract interpretation of what I see in nature. 

Artists and artisans must focus on details to decide how to interpret them with their art or craft. In weaving, this is the basis of weaving draft design. My challenge will be applying my knowledge of weaving to what I observe in nature. Should be fun. 

Pattern and Randomness in Nature 

© 2026 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal