Saint Augustine, Florida 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Saint Augustine, Florida 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Saint Augustine, Florida 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall

Saint Augustine, Florida 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Depth Chart

$ 299.00
13.5 × 43 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.

Saint Augustine in laser-cut Baltic birch, 13.5 by 43 inches: the oldest city's waters carved one depth contour per layer, from the inlet past the fort to the rivers that made the town defensible in 1565.

America's oldest continuously occupied European city was sited by sailors, and the chart shows their logic: Matanzas Bay tucked behind Anastasia Island, the inlet's shifting bar discouraging enemies, the Castillo de San Marcos commanding the channel with walls of coquina, shell-stone soft enough to swallow cannonballs instead of shattering. The black-and-white spiral of the St. Augustine Light has marked the island since 1874. On the chart, the bar, the bay, and the long Matanzas River running south all keep their true depths in the birch.

Contours are laser-cut sheet by sheet, stacked by hand, engraved, and set behind acrylic glass in a solid Baltic birch frame.

Four and a half centuries of arrivals came over this bar. The chart maps every foot of the approach.

The engraving spans the inlet and the fort, the Bridge of Lions, Anastasia Island and its light, and Vilano Beach across the channel. Up the coast: Jacksonville and Amelia Island.

  • 13.5 × 43 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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