You should add a +1 button on your site, I had to copy/paste the link manually :).
Woodcut Maps: Handcrafted wood-inlay maps, designed by you
41–50 of 84 posts
Re: Woodcut Maps: Handcrafted wood-inlay maps, designed by you
#42Having done my fair share of laser marquetry, let me first tell you that I truly appreciate the amount of work that goes into the whole process, and really respect what you are doing. The intricacy of these types of patterns makes for a very high level of difficulty.
That being said, it appears to my somewhat trained eye that you are using Photoshop (or other CG) mockups on some of the product pages (http://woodcutmaps.com/146 for example), without saying explicitly that that's what they are. I know how difficult straight on photography is with these textures, but if those are indeed Photoshop generated, you run the risk of increasing expectations beyond what is technically possible with the process.
Excellent work either way, as I can tell from the genuine product shots. Like I said, not easy stuff.
Re: Woodcut Maps: Handcrafted wood-inlay maps, designed by you
#43Cool idea! Here's a product my ad network manages the promotion for that is quite similar: http://go.chaseclicks.net/SHHK
There isn't as large of a variety of woods, but there is good flexibility in pricing, size, and it's more for photographs and keepsakes than a map of an area.
Also, not trying to detract from your post by sharing this other product, just thought it was very similar and thought I'd share. Looks like a well thought out system and business model! Best of luck!!
Re: Woodcut Maps: Handcrafted wood-inlay maps, designed by you
#44Cancun is a "designed" city and the core districts are laid out inspired in Mayan hieroglyphs. This makes terrible urbanism but some pretty sweet woodcut maps. http://woodcutmaps.com/11254
That is amazing.
Look at DC, which is the exact same thing - but with masonic symbolism rather than mayan symbolism.
Re: Woodcut Maps: Handcrafted wood-inlay maps, designed by you
#45Would it be possible to provide a data format by which one could upload custom inlay layers to produce a design of his choosing? I'm thinking specifically about a silhouette photograph I shot of my son. Is there a way to validate the manufacturability of an arbitrary layer set?
Bizarro gabesmed here -- my noprocrast settings got the better of me! Yup, contact us at team@woodcutmaps.com and we can pretty much do any image. Our processing settings are tuned specifically for maps, but could be applied to any image. Would be curious to see how a photo would come out.
How about a circuit board layout diagram? It's been a long-standing tradition at my work to etch designs onto PCBs as gifts for employees who are leaving. These are beautiful, and would really raise the bar.
Re: Woodcut Maps: Handcrafted wood-inlay maps, designed by you
#46This is so great. Is your backend set up to do other vector paths besides just map tiles?
Yup. The settings are tuned for maps right now, but we can take any raster image with up to four b&w layers and send it through the same process.
Whats the max size?
What if I want a rooms floor done like this?
Re: Woodcut Maps: Handcrafted wood-inlay maps, designed by you
#47Centered on Y Combinator: http://woodcutmaps.com/13111
Google: http://woodcutmaps.com/13154
Re: Woodcut Maps: Handcrafted wood-inlay maps, designed by you
#48I'd love to hear the dev talk about the architecture of this service – there's nice work for the site itself with queued renderers, and apparently back-end work to generate the laser-cutting instructions. More on the process: http://woodcutmaps.com/process
Heya, I'm the developer behind Woodcut Maps! The site is built on python/django and hosted on AWS. Most of the interesting work happens in python with PIL, numpy and scipy. We download maps tiles (Google for now, working on an OSM render path), and split them into channels for landscape, water, roads and parks. Then we apply several steps of scipy's image morphology filters to get the masks ready for laser cutting an…
Strictly for the sake of curiosity, how large of a custom piece could you produce with and without seams (e.g. another commenter asked about creating a custom floor)?
Re: Woodcut Maps: Handcrafted wood-inlay maps, designed by you
#49beautiful. @gabesmed is the wood sustainable & ethically sourced?
Allow me to hijack the discussion ever-so-slightly and point out that imported wood is now a Big Deal, and potentially very dangerous to work with, due to recent expansions of the Lacey act. You may have heard of the case of Gibson Guitar: -- "They...come in with weapons, they seized a half-million dollars worth of property, they shut our factory down, and they have not charged us with anything," says Gibson Guitars…
"... point out that imported wood is now a Big Deal, and potentially very dangerous to work with ..."
Shipping timber has consequences. Tall timber, hardwood in particular is the flora equivalent of the Rhino, Elephant and big Cats. Hunted to extinction, chopped up, chipped & poorly used.
"... The woodlands & forests that had once ringed the entire Mediterranean & provided a home for a rich population of animals had now largely gone. They survived only places for which no soldier bothered to fight, where no forester found it possible to haul out timber, & no farmer thought it worthwhile to make a field. ..." David Attenborough, "The First Eden: The destruction of the forests", Pt3, p173.
Learn the lessons of the past.
Re: Woodcut Maps: Handcrafted wood-inlay maps, designed by you
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here's a cool idea if you haven't thought of it already: Find a way to inlay routes on the map. It would be cool to plot a marathon course and give it as a gift to a friend who finishes.
We can do anything custom, just shoot us an email at team@woodcutmaps.com
Thanks! I'll definitely keep this in mind when I need it. Your startup is a awesome blend of design, technology, and craftsmanship. Best of luck.