Illusion knitting, also known as shadow knitting, is a technique used to create patterns that seemingly appear and disappear when viewed from different angles. The technique is based on the fact that knitted yarn can be made to have ridges and valleys, or grooves. The image is hidden in the grooves when yarn is knitted with two or more colours.
Illusion knitting started in the 1800s but didn't really get going until the 1980s. New designs come out regularly, and people can embed nearly any kind of image, including drawings and faces, in their works.
We love all things geeky, and the first time we saw illusion knitting in real life (a large shawl with Hagrid from the Harry Potter series) we knew this was just the thing we like to do. However, we love to work in wood so we had to come up with a way of making illusion art on wood rather than knitted in yarn. After more thinking, trial, and error than we would like to admit, we finally came up with the design you see here.
We do it with wood, and we can do it with a wider range of images and in much smaller sizes. Knitting is limited to the thickness of the yarn and the precision of the knits and purls, but with a laser we can engrave at much greater detail at nearly any size.
There's nothing else like it in the world, so far as we know, and we have searched far and wide for anything resembling it because it's easier to riff off of others designs, or even buy the rights from them, than to design it ourselves. Still, much of what we love to do is come up with unique products no one else makes so we couldn't resist the challenge of designing this thing. We persevered until we had an item that we were proud of, and which we believed others will love. We were right about others loving it. At the first few shows where this product was available we've attracted buying customers and tons of shoppers geeking out over it. And rightly so, as you just won't see this anywhere else. If you do find it somewhere else they probably got the idea from us.
We don't mind others riffing off our designs because imitation is the is the sincerest form of appreciation (we don't go much for flattery). If this idea takes off, watch for it everywhere, not just from us. But in the meantime, there's only one place that makes it. Like we always say, We Make Awesome. We don't just make it to feel awesome; we want others to enjoy awesome and we want to add to the sum total of awesome in the world.
We make our own, unique kind of illusion art that we call "multi-angle art". Not very catchy, but very descriptive. These are completely awesome. Look at them from the front and you see a map. Then swivel the picture to the right and you see a wizard. Swivel to the left and you see a dragon.
Three images in one! That's how we make awesome.
Check out other photos of our illusion art in the Collection "Art and Literature". We will regularly add new designs. If you have any suggestions for things you think will work well, please drop us a note on the "Contact" page.