See the Optical Illusion Mug Collection at this link.

It’s great having kids!

I’m often reminded of the things I took so much joy in looking at when I was younger, normally when they come across something they have never seen and think it's something new.

The other day, one of the kids came running downstairs and asked me to look at a picture that seemed to be moving .................. but wasn’t.  It was then that the conversation started about ‘Optical Illusions’ and that they had been around for AGES, some of which fascinated me as a kid.

Believe it or not, optical illusions have been around for HUNDREDS of years, and we’re talking BC here with the first illusions being used by the Greeks in about 5BC for art and architecture. One of the popular ways of using these ‘illusions’ was to paint onto roofs so the ‘straight’ roof looked curved with the artwork painted on it.

If you look on Google you’ll see a few definitions of ‘Optical Illusions’, we think this is the most simplistic explanation:  “an experience when something deceives the eye by appearing to be other than it is.”


EXAMPLES OF FAMOUS ILLUSIONS

A couple of famous optical illusions are the ‘Old Lady / New Lady’ (see below) from way back in the 1800’s. Some people see the old lady, from the left side – others see the younger lady looking away from you – what can you see?


Another great famous illusion was the 'cricket stumps' (see below), where the top end shows 3 stumps and the bottom end shows 2.


There are thousands of awesome optical illusions but my favourite of all time was the ‘Rabbit or the Duck’ (see below), because of its simplicity.  You see a rabbit, but then a duck, or is it a rabbit.


After looking through many of these illusions, we thought, why not create a range of ‘mugs’ with optical illusions and geometric patterns on them?

Some of the designs are quite simplistic, others will make your eyes bleed – but we’ll let you decide if they are ‘your cup of tea’ and something that will guarantee a conversation or two at ‘Coffee Break’.

See the Optical Illusion Mug Collection at this link.