Alaska 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Alaska 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Alaska 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Alaska 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Alaska 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Alaska 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall

Alaska 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Depth Chart

$ 375.00
Size
Frame
24.5 x 31 in
Baltic birch, hand-stained water
Up to nine laser-cut birch layers
Carved bathymetric relief, laser-etched labels
Soundings: NOAA nautical survey data
How the Water Becomes Wood

A chart is a stack of flat sheets until the water's real soundings tell it what shape to take.

  1. SurveyReal bathymetric sounding data sets every contour line before a single cut is made.
  2. CutEach depth band is laser-cut from its own sheet of Baltic birch, up to nine layers deep.
  3. StainWater layers are stained by hand, reading darker the deeper the water runs.
  4. StackThe sheets are registered and stacked in sequence, and the bed's true shape rises out of the wood.
  5. EtchDepths and place names are burned into the grain itself, never printed on it.
  6. FrameA solid Baltic birch frame and acrylic glass finish the piece, ready to hang.

Alaska in stacked Baltic birch, 24.5 by 31 inches: the great land and its waters carved one depth contour per layer, a coastline longer than all the other states' combined.

Alaska's statistics read like typos: more coastline than the rest of the country put together, some three million lakes, tidewater glaciers calving into fjords, and seas on three sides running from the rain-soaked Inside Passage to the Bering's crab grounds and the Arctic's ice edge. Kodiak's fleet, Prince William Sound's glacier bays, and the Aleutians trailing toward tomorrow all share the frame. On the chart, the continental shelf's engraved edges, the deep trench off the southern coast, and the island chains render the state's oceanic scale honestly, a map that is mostly magnificent water, as Alaska is.

Each contour is a separate laser-cut sheet, stacked by hand and engraved, behind acrylic glass in a solid Baltic birch frame in Dark or Light.

The Last Frontier, measured in fathoms: the whole improbable state, framed.

The engraving spans Southeast to the Aleutians, Cook Inlet and Kodiak, and the northern seas. The panhandle gets its close-up on the Inside Passage chart.

  • 24.5 × 31 in
  • Solid Baltic birch frame in Dark or Light
  • Acrylic glass front, ready to hang
  • Free next-business-day shipping on orders placed by 2 PM EST
  • 14-day returns
View details