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

Put-in-Bay, Ohio 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Nautical Chart

$ 148.00
Size
Frame
16 x 20 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.

Put-in-Bay and the Bass Islands of western Lake Erie, carved in Baltic birch at 16 by 20 inches: South Bass, Middle Bass, North Bass, and the shallow, storied water between them, cut layer by layer.

These islands watched the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813, and the 352-foot column of Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial still marks it, visible from miles out on the lake. Underfoot, the islands are hollow with limestone: Perry's Cave sheltered soldiers, and Crystal Cave beneath a winery is the largest known geode in the world. Ferries stream over from Catawba and Port Clinton all summer to a harbor that swings between family daytrips and legendary weekends. On the chart, the western basin's shallowness is the whole story: broad top layers everywhere, with the channels between islands engraved through them.

Each contour is a laser-cut birch sheet, stacked by hand, names engraved, acrylic glass over the face, solid Baltic birch frame in Dark or Light.

Everyone who has idled into that harbor behind Gibraltar Island has a version of the weekend they tell and a version they keep. The harbor is here either way.

The engraving covers South Bass and Put-in-Bay, Middle and North Bass, and the passages toward Kelleys Island. The whole lake around them is the Lake Erie chart.

  • 16 × 20 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
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