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Insanely intricate oceanic maps combine laser-cut birch and bathymetric data
By Robert Dalheim
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Pangea founder Tom Percy

Pangea laser-cuts and handcrafts beautiful and extremely precise 3D oceanic maps from birch plywood.
 
Tom Percy, founder of Pangea, begins by isolating a desired region of coastline. He then sources actual bathymetric data - the submarine topography of underwater terrain - and sketches contours of each layer. He then laser-cuts the design from a sheet of aircraft birch plywood. 
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After laser-cutting, Percy carefully hand-glues each layer together.
 
The maps come framed, ready to hang, with a hardwood frame and are protected with shatter-proof plexiglass.
 
The scale and composition of each map is carefully considered, says Percy on the Pangea website. Sourcing the bathymetric data and the following sketching of contours is a meticulous process, combining modern surveying techniques with CAD and cartography. 
 
Each layer represents between 1-5 meters of water depth (depending on the region).

 

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About the author
Robert Dalheim

Robert Dalheim is an editor at the Woodworking Network. Along with publishing online news articles, he writes feature stories for the FDMC print publication. He can be reached at [email protected].

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