Big Bear Lake, California 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Big Bear Lake, California 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Big Bear Lake, California 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall

Big Bear Lake, California 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Topographic Chart

$ 258.00
13.5 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.

Big Bear Lake in stacked Baltic birch, 13.5 by 31 inches: Southern California's alpine lake carved one depth contour per layer, seven miles of mountain water at nearly 6,800 feet.

Big Bear is where LA goes for seasons. Two hours from the beach, the lake sits high in the San Bernardinos with ski slopes on its south shore and twenty-two miles of shoreline wrapping marinas, boulder coves, and the observatory that studies the sun from a causeway on the north side, using the lake's cool air to steady its view. Winter brings bald eagle counts; summer brings the wakeboats and the village's mountain-town bustle. On the chart, the dam's end holds the deeper engraved water while the lake shallows east toward Stanfield Marsh, the whole basin honest in birch.

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

Cabin people mark years in first snows and first swims. Both happen on this water.

The engraving spans the dam and the village, the marinas, Boulder Bay, and the solar observatory's point. Its sister mountain lake, Lake Arrowhead, sits one ridge west.

  • 13.5 × 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
View details