This is a very early Snowflake Mandala from Tom Kuhn's shop in San Francisco. The odd colors are from experiments in wood staining mandalas, even fading the stain across the half. Deep engraving, flat hex nuts, large logo. A truly unique early mandala.
Tom Kuhn responded to my pictures and request for information. Here's the response from the master himself ...
"You have a very 'rare bird'. Where did you find it?
The first Mandala Yo-Yos were lasercarved to a wider diameter. That’s why some of the brown boxes had a larger cutout hole, so the entire design could be seen. You also have the flat hex nuts which where used initially and then changed to the raised taper style. We experimented with some staining, so this may have been a prototype. The more reddish side was probably hand stained by my workers in the yo-yo workshop. You’ll notice that the middle part is more like the color of the lighter side. At that time I used Lasercraft of Santa Rosa. Initially the lasercarving was very deep. I felt that the the spin times were diminished compared to a No Jive or Clean Machine, so I asked them to make the carving depth more shallow."
