I love doing these. They take a while but I love the layered effect. For the mandala in the background I was going for pure angular geometry and the carved/layered piece reminds me of some of the early clock gears. The title “The Inner Gear” reference to the piece that makes us, us. Especially when we are being creative. The reason interesting art, music, literature, personalities, dreams continue to appear is because that inner gear we all have is totally unique to us. It is our job to find it and come up with a way to express it.

I cut and power carved that layer from spalted hackberry and then I just used a clear stain with four drops of red for the center and a basic mahogany for the rest of the insert. I burned the frame with my hand held torch, lightly sanded and used another clear stain with 2 drops of orange which makes a nice accent.