Anna Maria Island, Florida 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Nautical Chart
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.
- SurveyReal bathymetric sounding data sets every contour line before a single cut is made.
- CutEach depth band is laser-cut from its own sheet of Baltic birch, up to nine layers deep.
- StainWater layers are stained by hand, reading darker the deeper the water runs.
- StackThe sheets are registered and stacked in sequence, and the bed's true shape rises out of the wood.
- EtchDepths and place names are burned into the grain itself, never printed on it.
- FrameA solid Baltic birch frame and acrylic glass finish the piece, ready to hang.
Anna Maria Island in stacked Baltic birch, 24.5 by 31 inches: the old-Florida island at the mouth of Tampa Bay, its beaches, piers, and passes carved one depth contour per layer.
Anna Maria stayed itself on purpose. Building height limits kept the skyline at treetop level, so the island still runs on beach cottages, the Rod and Reel and City piers, and the free trolley rolling between Bean Point and Bridge Street. The water does the showing off: clear gulf green along the beaches, Tampa Bay's big channel sweeping past the northern tip, Longboat Pass closing the southern end. On the chart, Bean Point's sandbars shift into the top layers exactly where the paddleboards congregate.
Each contour is a separate laser-cut sheet, stacked by hand and engraved, with acrylic glass over the relief and a solid Baltic birch frame.
Island regulars book the same week and the same cottage for decades. This chart hangs in those cottages.
The engraving spans Bean Point, the piers, Bradenton Beach and the Cortez fishing village across the bay, and the passes at both ends. The island chain continues on Longboat Key and Siesta Key.
- 24.5 × 31 in
- Solid Baltic birch frame
- Acrylic glass front, ready to hang
- Free next-business-day shipping on orders placed by 2 PM EST
- 14-day returns
Live from the water