DOI: 10.14714/CP99.1797

© by the author(s). This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0.

That’s a Relief: Assessing Beauty, Realism, and Landform Clarity in Multilayer Terrain Maps

Robert Hickey (he/him), Central Washington University | rhickey@cwu.edu

INTRODUCTION

The goal of this project was to make a sculptural map of Australia, illustrating a trip my wife Holly and I took to study microbiology and vacation together. Combining two of my passions—woodworking and cartography—the map was a Christmas present for her. I wanted the map to show the lakes we sampled for their microbiome composition (she is an extremophile microbiologist), the places we stayed, the car and train routes we took, and to include a special nod to the stromatolites of Shark Bay. I started with a half sheet (4 × 4 ft, or 122 × 122 cm) of quarter-sawn white oak plywood, chosen because it’s my wife’s favorite wood. I was inspired by two projects posted to Imgur in 2014: “Plywood map of New Zealand” and “Map art project,” both of which I found to be aesthetically pleasing and interesting representations of the continents. More specifically, I thought the design (different sized holes) combined with the natural wood grain looked spectacular as wall hangings. After seeing these works, I was eager to personalize and enrich the basic concept with my own story and materials.

METHODS

Given that my goal was a map made to-scale, the first step was building a digital base map of Australia and our travels. Using a Lambert conformal conic projection in ArcGIS Pro, I downloaded a shapefile of the outline of Australia and then used Google Earth to digitize line and point files of the routes we traveled, lakes we sampled, and places where we stayed, all of which I then imported back into ArcGIS Pro. I added a 1-inch grid to the final output and printed the results on a piece of Arch E (36 × 48 in, 91 × 122 cm) paper.

In the area around the coastline, I then manually labeled (values 1–4) every intersection on the paper grid based upon the percentage of the neighboring cells that were within the land borders of Australia:

• ½ to 1½ surrounding squares were land: labeled 1
• 1½ to 2½ surrounding squares were land: labeled 2
• 2½ to 3½ surrounding squares were land: labeled 3
• 3½ to 4 surrounding squares were land: labeled 4

Ultimately, this technique gives a tapering visual effect where land meets water and helps preserve shoreline detail more than uniform hole diameters would.

This map was then taped to the half-sheet of quarter-sawn white oak plywood. As reference and starter points, every intersection labeled 1–4 was drilled with a ⅛-inch (0.32 cm) bit (see Figure 1). The paper map was then removed, and each of these holes was then drilled out depending on the label:

• ¼-inch (0.64 cm) drill bit (labeled 1): 21 holes
• ⅜-inch (0.95 cm) drill bit (labeled 2): 68 holes
• ½-inch (1.27 cm) drill bit (labeled 3): 63 holes
• ⅝-inch (1.59 cm) drill bit (labeled 4): 621 holes

Figure 1. Map showing labeled intersections and ⅛-inch (0.32 cm) drill setup for starter points.

The holes were first partially drilled from the back in an attempt to eliminate tearout. To further reduce tearout, I used Forstner bits (instead of spade or pilot point bits) and padded them with wine corks to protect the wood from being hit by the drill once the wood was completely penetrated. The 773 total holes were cleaned up using a Dremel sander (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Map with all holes drilled, and after sanding with 120 and 220 grit sandpaper.

To simulate a cartographic neatline and provide visual contrast, I added a 9/16-inch (1.43 cm) walnut border, completing the woodworking phase of the map sculpture. I installed French cleats on the back to serve as wall mounts (Figure 3). Everything was finished with three coats of OSMO oil/wax finish.

Figure 3. Back of map showing French cleat mount system.

With the base map complete, I moved on to the symbology. We spent most of our time in Western Australia, acting both as tourists and sampling the microbiomes of a number of saline lakes for my wife’s research. Western Australia wasn’t enough, though, and we took a train to Adelaide, rented a car, and drove to Melbourne, sampling along the way. I used the following to depict the routes and stops:

• Copper wire for the routes driven, with a larger gauge for the train portion of the trip.
• If I were to do this again, I would use a different colored wire, perhaps aluminum, for the train segment to provide better contrast.
• Different semi-precious stones for the sampling locations. My choices were dependent on what was available as a cabochon from eBay at a reasonable price and with sufficient contrast.
• Rose quartz for the acidic saline lake (because I mentally associate acids with red).
• Amethyst for the alkaline saline lakes (because I mentally associate alkalinity with blue).
• Diopside for the stromatolites (because it provided sufficient contrast to the above and was readily available). This particular stop was included on the map because a trip to visit stromatolites is something of a career pilgrimage for microbiologists.
• Red-tipped map pins for locations where we stayed, chosen because they were easy to obtain, high contrast, and not overwhelming.

I bent the copper wire to shape, then added earring posts to the wire. Small holes were drilled into the map, and the posts were epoxied in. All the gemstones were epoxied onto the map; the red pins were simply driven into the map (Figure 4). A legend with a verbal scale was included to complete the cartography (Figure 5).

Figure 4. Closeup of the Western Australia portion of the trip.

Figure 5. Legend.

CONCLUSION

The final product combines aspects of traditional (pen and ink and/or digital) cartography with woodworking and jewelry smithing, giving a unique end product. I gave this to my wife on Christmas in 2014, and she was thrilled to receive it and look back at the wonderful trip. It also serves to help educate students, both in the biology and geography departments, as we talk about the cartography, geography, and ecology depicted on the map.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my wife for an excellent trip to Australia! Further, thank you to Keith Lewis, professor of Art at CWU who bent and installed the wire routes. Finally, thanks to individuals at the Department of Parks and Wildlife, Western Australia for permission to visit some of the lakes.

Figure 6. The final map.