Mediterranean Sea 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.
The Mediterranean Sea in stacked Baltic birch, 13.5 by 31 inches: the cradle sea carved one depth contour per layer, three continents around one basin.
The Mediterranean is nearly a closed world: only the eight-mile Strait of Gibraltar connects it to the ocean, which is why its tides barely register and its history registers everywhere. Twenty-odd countries share its shores, its islands run from Sicily and Sardinia, the sea's two largest, through the Greek scatter to the Balearics, and its deep basins plunge past 17,000 feet in the Calypso Deep off Greece. Every wine-dark epic, crusade, and summer holiday crossed this water. On the chart, the basin's true architecture appears: the shallow sills at Gibraltar and Sicily, the deep engraved troughs between, the islands as stepping stones of birch.
Contours are laser-cut sheet by sheet, stacked by hand, engraved, and set behind acrylic glass in a solid Baltic birch frame in Dark, Light, or White.
From Odysseus to August ferries: the whole sea, one carving.
The engraving spans Gibraltar to the Levant, with the great islands and peninsulas in place. Close-ups: Italy and Israel.
- 13.5 × 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
Live from the water