Optical illusion spiral table

Etsy seller ExoticTiles made this eye-watering optical illusion table out of hand-cut tiles. It's $500 plus your optometry and psychoanalyst bills. The effect is called a Café wall illusion.

This table is made from hand-cut and hand-glazed trapezoidal tiles. It comprises four concentric circles (believe it or not!) around a central disc. The way the brain processes contrast information causes one to perceive the circles as narrowing. Each circle contradicts the ones beside it.

Café Wall Illusion Table (Thanks, Kim!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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jungletek

It’s a bug, not a feature.
Anonymous

I must be missing something. Where’s the spiral?
tweaked

this is a sweet table if you like headaches with your coffee.
gwailo_joe

I like. . .but too many spilt drinks at my place already.

#3 +1! That would indeed make family-style dinners more interesting. . .
lyd

It seems amazingly low-priced, even compared to the same artist’s other works.
Anonymous

Not making it a lazy susan was very short sighted.
Anonymous

@anon, the maker _does_ take orders for lazy susans. one must simply be proactive to get one.
Egypt Urnash

Oh wow, I want this.

Lectroid, I’ve done a few pieces of art that use Op tricks, and I have resorted to various cover-up layers in my source files now and then. Staring at stuff like this while you work on it can be fatiguing!
Anonymous

Just make a real synthesizer keyboard that way and you have the perfect psychedelic instrument.
Jake0748

ASFAIK, I have a really strong stomach. But just staring at the photo for half a minute made me a little nauseous. I can’t imagine having one anywhere where I had to look at it every day.

I mean, nice work though. :D
lectroid

I wonder if the artist has to cover each circle as they finish it to avoid gouging out their own eyes with his tile knife?
Victor Drath

Sometimes these things fool my eyes, but not this one for some reason. My optics just arn’t illusioned.