LA to San Diego, California 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
LA to San Diego, California 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
LA to San Diego, California 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
LA to San Diego, California 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
LA to San Diego, California 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
LA to San Diego, California 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
LA to San Diego, California 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
LA to San Diego, California 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
LA to San Diego, California 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall

LA to San Diego, California 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Depth Chart

$ 332.00
Frame
24.5 × 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.

LA to San Diego in stacked Baltic birch, 24.5 by 31 inches: the whole Southern California bight carved one depth contour per layer, from Santa Monica Bay to Point Loma.

This is the most lived-on stretch of ocean in America, and the chart holds its full cast: the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the busiest container complex in the western hemisphere, breakwatered against the bay; the pier towns running south through Huntington and Newport; Dana Point and Oceanside's harbors; La Jolla's coves; and San Diego's great natural bay closing the run. Catalina stands offshore mid-chart, the escape hatch twenty-two miles out. In the birch, the shelf's gentle slope and the deep basins beyond it explain the marine layer, the fisheries, and the surf all at once.

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

A hundred miles of beach culture and two great harbors, one frame.

The engraving spans Santa Monica to Point Loma with Catalina offshore. Zoom in with Malibu, Newport Beach, Catalina, or San Diego.

  • 24.5 × 31 in
  • Solid Baltic birch frame in Dark, Light, or White
  • 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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