Two-Tone Tree of Life Clock, 13 in

Crown above, roots below, cut right through

A walnut-toned disc with a tree cut right through it: a dense crown of branches filling the upper half, a trunk at the centre, and roots spreading into the lower half, all of it opened so that a paler layer shows behind. Short markers sit at the hours around the rim, and the hands are black with a red second hand.

The two layers are what give it depth. The cut tree stands proud of the pale ground behind it, so the branches throw small shadows and the pattern shifts with the light. Against a dark wall the pale layer does the work; against a white one the walnut outline does.

It is made in one version.