There are seven individual designs in this series. Each piece was routed from a four ply laminate of Rainbow Wood, and covered in a thick layer of epoxy resin to form a solid shape. They maintain symmetry across either three or four lines radiating from the central point of the pendant or are composed with no symmetry, but share a common theme of form. On the back of each pendant you’ll find the WompGear logo; a ‘W’ inside the solid outline of a gear.
This series marks my first efforts into artwork made from homemade multicolored wood, or Rainbow Wood. The idea to make pendants specifically was born out of a need for rapid prototyping to hash out unforeseen difficulties in fabrication and a desire to practice various 3D sculpting techniques.
The original designs in this series were actually sketched by hand on a tiny notepad while lying on beach in Galveston Texas. Those designs were traced (with symmetry) on a gfx tablet and the resulting sketches used as reference for modeling. Once the models were cut they were cleaned up with a collection of X-acto knives and diamond files to remove burrs and refine detail. The designs were then treated with a few layers of sanding sealer and spray acrylic to seal the pores in the wood surface. This step is necessary to minimize the number of bubbles that form in the resin layer. The epoxy resin was then poured over the design cut outs and, once dry, the resin was routed to shape. This leases the routed resin opaque, but it’s clarified with spray acrylic.
Most folks that see these pieces have no idea how much effort and how many different steps it took to make something so small and humble. The point of making my process robust was always to allow for room to grow, but for now these little guys are gorgeous and, after months of trial and error, I couldn’t be happier with how they turned out.
