From shoreline to sheet
A single plate takes between eight and twelve weeks. Most of that time is waiting for the right tide.
-
Walk the shore
We survey on foot at spring tides, when the water goes out furthest. Positions come from a handheld receiver, a tape and a notebook. Anything the receiver cannot reach, we pace.
-
Compare the record
Back in the studio we lay our measurements over older surveys, aerial photographs and tide tables. Where they disagree, we go back and look again.
-
Draw in pencil
The first full drawing is in soft pencil on paper. This is where we decide what the chart is about: one season, one decade, or the whole record.
-
Ink on film
Each colour is inked separately on drafting film with dip pens and a ruling pen. The shoreline, the soundings and the magenta all get their own sheet.
-
Print and tint
Line work is printed on cotton paper. The shallow-water tints are brushed on by hand afterwards, so no two sheets in an edition are quite the same.
On using the charts
Our plates show real places, measured carefully, and they go out of date. They are made for walls and for curiosity. Please do not navigate by them; use current official charts and local tide tables for that.
- Paper
- 300 gsm cotton rag, torn to size, with a deckled edge on all four sides.
- Ink
- Pigment inks that keep their colour. The magenta is the one most likely to catch the light, so we suggest a wall that doesn’t get direct sun.
- Editions
- Forty sheets per plate, numbered and signed. When they’re gone, we redraw the place from a new survey rather than reprint.