Nantucket, Massachusetts 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Nantucket, Massachusetts 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Nantucket, Massachusetts 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Nantucket, Massachusetts 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Nantucket, Massachusetts 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Nantucket, Massachusetts 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall

Nantucket, Massachusetts 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Depth Chart

$ 168.00
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.

Nantucket in laser-cut Baltic birch, 16 by 20 inches: the Grey Lady thirty miles out to sea, with her harbors, shoals, and long sand arms cut one depth contour per layer.

For a few decades in the 1800s this small island was the whaling capital of the world, and the town it built, cobblestones, ship-owner mansions, the candle factories turned museums, still stands nearly intact. The sea that made it is all around on the chart: the sweep of Great Point's sand spit, the shoals that forced whaleships to lighten their loads offshore, Madaket's rips at the western end, and the protected pocket of the harbor behind Brant Point, where generations have tossed a penny overboard rounding the light to guarantee a return trip. The fog that earned the island its nickname is the only thing the birch cannot hold.

Contours are cut sheet by sheet, stacked by hand, and engraved, with acrylic glass over the face and a solid Baltic birch frame in Dark or Light.

Thirty miles of open water makes an island a world. This is that world, in wood.

The engraving runs from Madaket to Sconset, out the haulover to Great Point, with Tuckernuck and Muskeget trailing west. Companions: Martha's Vineyard and Cape Cod.

  • 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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