  A novel form of the current potential, a mathematical tool for the design of
stellarators and stellarator coils, is developed. Specifically, these are
current potentials with a finite-element-like basis, called \textit{current
potential patches}. Current potential patches leverage the relationship between
distributions of magnetic dipoles and current potentials to explore limits of
the access properties of stellarator coil sets. An example calculation is shown
using the Helically Symmetric Experiment (HSX) equilibrium, demonstrating the
method's use in coil design and understanding the limits of the access
properties of coil sets. Current potential patches have additional desirable
properties such as of promoting sparse current sheet solutions and identifying
crucial locations of shaping current placement. A result is found for the HSX
equilibrium that shaping currents covering only 25\% of the winding surface is
sufficient to produce the equilibrium to a good accuracy, provided a toroidal
field is pre-supplied.
