CNC carved maps, cribbage boards, artwork

Your landscape, as a piece of art

Give me any location, and from it, I'll make a wooden 3D map, cribbage board, table, or whatever else you want.

No upfront commitments; I'll work with you and send you renders of the design before any carving happens.

Order a cribbage board Start a custom piece

Prince William Sound cribbage board with blue resin water and pegs — Prince William Sound cribbage board60.8°N 147.0°W

25+

Cribbage boards and maps shipped

30+

Locations carved, across 3 continents, from whole countries to individual buildings

0.01″

Carving tolerance. The cutter works to a hundredth of an inch.

What I make

Places, carved in wood

Almost every piece is made from wood, based on the area of your choosing and my artistic sensibilities. I have specialties, but I can make just about anything out of wood.

Topographic cribbage board with turquoise resin

Cribbage Boards

from $375

A real, playable board, with the pegging track winding through the mountains and shoreline of your place.

See boards →

Relief map of Prince William Sound with blue resin water

Relief Maps

from $250

Your mountains, lake, or hometown, carved from real elevation data. Desk-sized up to a whole wall.

See maps →

Round carved panel of a bear among swirling waves

Wall Art

$119.99

Round carved panels of Alaskan scenes and wildlife, cut deep enough to throw shadows.

See panels →

Custom Work

quoted

Puzzles, tables, keepsake boxes, buildings. If you can describe it, I can probably carve it.

Get a quote →

Kaden Cullen above the Port of Valdez — Above the Port of Valdez.

About

About Me

I was born and raised in some of the prettiest mountains in the country, in Valdez, Alaska. These mountains have always made my soul sing.

When I graduated with a mechanical engineering degree, little interest in office work, and a desire to add beauty to the world, I soon discovered how beautifully mountain landscapes could be carved out of wood using my engineering skills.

These carvings carry with them my love of the beautiful, impossibly intricate masterworks that we call mountain ranges and terrain, condensed into a form factor that can become a treasured heirloom.

I hike, ski, skate, and sail through the mountains and valleys of South Central Alaska, having returned to this wonderland after living in Bozeman, Montana for 8 years. Since returning, I've made work for clients ranging from grandmothers to investment firms in London. I'd love for you to be my next customer.

— Kaden Cullen

Recent work

Recent Pieces

Switzerland Alp Puzzle

An investment firm in London wanted a gift for each participant at a business summit in Lucerne. After some back and forth, we settled on a puzzle of the mountains around the summit, with each participant's name laser engraved on their own piece. Each guest took their piece home; together, the pieces fit into one landscape.

I had three weeks, start to finish. That meant building a workflow to cut 18 interlocking pieces from one landscape mesh, carving each piece separately so they fit perfectly, boxing them, and 12 hours of driving to make the right mail plane to London.

They loved it; the customer said that the conference went as smoothly as the pieces fit togther.

Place: Near Lucerne, Switzerland
Size: 10 × 20 inches
Materials: Walnut, oak, mahogany
Shipped to: London, United Kingdom

Close-up of carved peaks in raking light

The process

How I make them

I use publicly available map and building data, downloaded at 10 meter resolution or higher.

From there, in 3D modeling software, I work to bring out the natural beauty of the landscape, based on the client's needs: carefully placed cribbage tracks that follow the contours of the landscape, mountains scaled vertically to match the true experience of seeing the mountain in person.

Materials are then carefully picked, glued, and cut; the machine I built takes somewhere between 8 and 40 hours to cut the wood, 1/100th of an inch at a time. The final result is carefully polished, preserved, and made ready to be shipped to its destination.

Data: USGS 3DEP in the US, national datasets elsewhere; 10 m or finer
Machines: 1 custom built CNC machine, maintained with love
Woods: Walnut, oak, mahogany, sapele, padauk, Alaskan birch
Water: Blue epoxy, carefully hand swirled at the perfect time to freeze its fluid beauty
Finish: Mineral oil or Rubio Monocoat

How ordering works

From a place name to a finished piece

Prices include the design, the renders, and two rounds of revisions. Larger maps start at $600, custom work is quoted for free, and shipping is quoted separately.

01 · Request
Tell me the place
Either give me a place name, or use the place selection feature in the cribbage board or relief map sections to get exactly what you want.
02 · Preview
See it before it's carved
I send you renders of the design and a quote, usually within a week. We adjust it until it's right.
03 · Make
Carving and finishing
Once you approve, I glue up the wood, carve it, pour the water, and finish it by hand. Most pieces take 1–2 months.
04 · Ship
On its way
Packed carefully and shipped from Valdez, anywhere in the world.

Questions

Good questions

Can you do my place?

Almost certainly. Anywhere with public elevation data works, from a whole mountain range down to a single neighborhood. Flat places get a little extra vertical scale so there's still something to see, and fictional places work too; they just take more modeling.

What if I don't like the render?

Then we keep working on it. Two rounds of revisions for free are included, and nothing gets carved until you've signed off on the design. Revisions after that will be a small fee. Once carving starts, the piece is made just for you, so it can't be returned, but anything damaged in shipping gets repaired or replaced.

How do I take care of it?

Keep it out of direct sun and away from heaters. Every so often, a light wipe of mineral oil keeps the wood looking rich.

Have a place in mind?

Send me a location. That's all I need to start. You'll get renders and a quote back, with no commitment.

Get a quote Email me