LEGO Optical Illusion Mosaic

This project combines two of my favorite things: LEGO bricks and optical illusions! The main illusions are the circle made by the studs and the appearance of curved pieces. This design really has the 'wow' factor though because it can appear very different depending on the angle it's viewed from and I'm still discovering surprising patterns in it. 

The design is pretty straightforward, consisting of a 15x15 grid of 3x3 squares with 1x1 round plates, or studs. I decided to use plates instead of bricks to reduce both cost and weight of the final mosaic. I also decided to cobble together the back instead of using a 48x48 stud baseplate to avoid having to add a border to the 45x45 stud design. It's not pretty but with a little bit of planning I was able to use miscellaneous plates to hold together the whole thing. This is a surprising sturdy piece considering the total thickness (minus the 1x1 studs) is less than a standard LEGO brick. 



How I Made It
I used the following parts:
-113 2x3 black plates
-113 1x3 black plates
-112 2x3 white plates
-112 1x3 white plates
-120 1x1 round black plates
-120 1x1 round white plates

I built the back layer of plates on top of a 48x48 gray baseplate, keeping in mind the 3x3 square division lines. Next I arranged all the 1x3 and 2x3 pieces into a checkerboard pattern. I attached the studs in concentric diamond shapes, layer by layer. Finally I peeled off the gray baseplate and with a few adjustments I had a very trippy LEGO mosaic. 


I originally found this design on brickitgood.net but that site doesn't seem to exist anymore.