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

Seattle, Washington 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Nautical Chart

$ 328.00
Size
Frame
24.5 x 31 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.

Seattle in laser-cut Baltic birch, 24.5 by 31 inches: the city's whole water system carved one depth contour per layer, salt and fresh, bay and lakes, and the canal that stitches them together.

Seattle is a city assembled around water connections. Elliott Bay fronts downtown with the ferries fanning out to Bainbridge and Bremerton; behind the hills, Lake Union floats its houseboats and launches its seaplanes; and the Ship Canal links it all to Lake Washington through the Ballard Locks, the busiest locks in the country, where boats and salmon queue side by side all summer. Alki's point closes the bay to the south where the city began. On the chart, the engraved canal threads between the deep bay and the deeper lake, the connective tissue of the whole map.

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

Ferry commuters, houseboat dwellers, and locks-watching tourists share one water system. Here it is, complete.

The engraving spans Elliott Bay and Alki, the locks and Ship Canal, Lake Union, and Lake Washington's near shore. Companions: Puget Sound and Lake Washington.

  • 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
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