Our extra large circular map of Antarctica (nearly 90cm in diamter and almost 20kg!) is one of those unique showcase pieces we craft every so often out of interest ourselves and also to show the kind of custom work we do. This one rarely gets seen, so we decided to bring it along to Gifted at the RDS just before Christmas. We had a great response from everyone who saw it.
With Ernest Shackletons birthday passing just a few weeks ago, it really brings to life the epic feat they achieved. It is scary to see the sea dropping off to 5km deep all around, and picturing him and his men in that tiny boat on the open ocean.
Its also scary to think we made this map 3 years ago and already the ice layer would be smaller if we made it today.
These large round maps are really special pieces, and we have designed a few of them now as heirloom artworks. They take at least 6 months to create, between collecting the data, deciding with the client what are the most important aspects that need to be highlighted, creating a design that gives the best balance, and interprets and highlights the most personal elements, and then designing the individual layers. Each layer is cut pieced together from multiple sheets of bamboo, and then we custom build our solid wood round frames ourselves to highlight the beauty of the location.
These are highly specialised, exclusive pieces, and the inspiration behind our popular Local Spots series of small round maps! You can get the look from just €99 across a wide range of locations now, and we are adding more designs all the time.
