Welcome!  My name is Rick, and I am a graphic designer and woodworker who stumbled upon the awesomeness of the laser cutter [while running a Kickstarter campaign for a video product…long story for another time] and have combined a few of my interests into a new passion: laser cut nautical maps and charts.

Hand drawn in Adobe Illustrator from original NOAA maps and bathymetric data, then laser cut like a 100 [or 1000] piece jigsaw puzzle and hand assembled, my maps are not cranked out by the hundreds in a factory in China, but rather are painstakingly hand crafted in my West Michigan workshop. Obviously much credit goes to the laser cutter, which is best described as a robotic jig saw with ridiculous precision and tireless repeatability, but there is a huge amount of hand craftsmanship involved as well.  I cut and assemble each map from strong, hand selected, top quality Baltic Birch plywood, making sure to “match the grains”, then airbrush the water layers with fade-proof artist ink, and finally seal the entire map with Urethane to prevent smudges, etc.

In addition to the maps you see on this site, I also make custom maps big and small, just ask.