According to the Smithsonian Institute the possible number of snowflake shapes is 10 to the power of 178! There are as many snowflake patterns as grains of sand on earth.  No two will ever be alike, each flake having its own distinctive fractal pattern.

 

Fractals, spirals, symmetry, tessellations are all around us in nature, but we create patterns to wear, to hang over our windows, to walk on, to sleep under, to hang on our walls...JME