I've been wanting to experiment with the idea of tiles in crosswords since the einstein took the popular science world by storm a couple years ago. At first I tried to make a grid shaped like an einstein tile, but after hours of trying, the grid bore no resemblance to the shape.
I gave up on the shape itself and turned to creating tiles with a regular mini crossword grid. The einstein's uniqueness comes from its nonrepeating pattern, which I obviously couldn't replicate in crossword format, but I did manage to create a series of 5x5 mini grids which, when repeated infinitely like tiles, form a coherent grid. (The idea is that the letters repeat as well as the pattern of black squares.) I call them the Repeating Tile Mini Grids; if you can think of a catchier name, please tell me.
I wrote a script to generate all possible mini grids which are fillable and follow crossword rules when repeated infinitely, and dumped them all in an Excel spreadsheet. Each sheet shows a different grid repeated four times so you get an idea of the pattern. There are 4,831 grids, some of which are more visually interesting than others. And since I can't fill them all myself, I am sharing the spreadsheet with you all. Browse the patterns, pick a favourite grid or two, and fill it yourself! Be sure to let me know (via blog or email: fcorbin567 at gmail dot com) when you make one so I can solve it. You can also use them in your bathroom tiles, or perhaps the fabric for your newest piece of crossword-themed clothing.
This example is on sheet 78. I've called it "Checkmarks" because I think the pattern looks like checkmarks.
Sample puzzle (PDF + solution)
Here are some more of my favourites that I've found so far:
Interesting-looking stairs, #91
