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

Lake Charlevoix, Michigan 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Depth Chart

$ 148.00
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.

Lake Charlevoix in laser-cut Baltic birch, 16 by 20 inches: the main arm reaching from Charlevoix to Boyne City, the South Arm bending down to East Jordan, every depth contour stacked as its own layer.

Among Michigan's largest inland lakes, Charlevoix is really three waters in conversation: the big lake, the South Arm, and Round Lake at the town of Charlevoix, where the Pine River channel lets boats pass straight through to Lake Michigan under the drawbridge. At the narrows between the arms, the little Ironton Ferry has been carrying four cars at a time across a few hundred feet of water since 1926. On the chart, the deep main basin steps down in birch toward 120 feet while the narrows pinch to a single bright layer.

Contours are cut sheet by sheet and stacked by hand, names engraved into the wood, the finished relief protected by acrylic glass in a solid Baltic birch frame.

Hemingway fished Horton Bay as a boy and set stories on this water. Whatever your own version of that is, the spot is engraved here.

The names run from Charlevoix and its drawbridge to Horton Bay, Boyne City, and East Jordan. Nearby waters share the neighborhood: Walloon Lake over the hills, and the ferry to Beaver Island leaves from Round Lake itself.

  • 16 × 20 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
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