Victoria, British Columbia 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.
Victoria in laser-cut Baltic birch, 24.5 by 31 inches: the Inner Harbour city carved one depth contour per layer, from the parliament lawns to the whale lanes of Juan de Fuca.
Victoria's harbor is a working stage set: float planes landing between water taxis, the Empress and the lit-up parliament buildings facing the basin, and the whale-watching fleet slipping out past Ogden Point's breakwater toward the strait where the orcas commute. Juan de Fuca runs deep and cold just offshore, the Olympic Mountains standing across it on clear days like a rumor of another country, which they are. On the chart, the snug engraved harbor opens through its narrow entrance to the strait's broad deep layers, the small-city-big-water contrast in birch.
Contours are laser-cut sheet by sheet, stacked by hand, engraved, and set behind acrylic glass in a solid Baltic birch frame.
Tea at four, whales at five: the itinerary is charted.
The engraving spans the Inner Harbour and Ogden Point, Oak Bay, the Gorge, and the strait beyond. Companions: Vancouver and the BC Coast chart.
- 24.5 × 31 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
Live from the water