San Diego, California 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Depth 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.
San Diego in stacked Baltic birch, 24.5 by 31 inches: the great natural harbor, the bays, and the point that shelters them, carved one depth contour per layer.
San Diego Bay is the reason the city exists, a deep, hook-shaped harbor that made it the Navy's Pacific home, carriers and submarines sharing the channel with the ferry to Coronado. Point Loma stands guard at the entrance above its kelp beds, the Silver Strand's thin arm encloses the bay's south reach, and Mission Bay next door was dredged into the largest aquatic park of its kind, a made-for-play mirror of the working harbor. La Jolla's coves and underwater canyon close the northern edge. On the chart, working water and playing water sit side by side in the birch, each with its true depths.
Each contour is a separate laser-cut sheet, stacked by hand and engraved, behind acrylic glass in a solid Baltic birch frame in Dark or Light.
Carrier wakes and beach cruiser bells, one city, one chart.
The engraving spans the bay and Coronado, Point Loma, Mission Bay, and La Jolla. The coast north runs on the LA to San Diego chart.
- 24.5 × 31 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
Live from the water