Columbia designer, illustrator, artisan and country songwriter Elliot Park on his ten year quest to hydraulically press a good map into good materials. Discussed: the lack of texture in today’s stuff, moving from DEM to CNC to a big beautiful copper/leather map, learning by (expensive) trial, the quest for a leather globe, and the challenge of creating lasting art that’s meant to be touched. See his leather and copper maps at columbiapressworks.com

25x60" pressed leather elevation map of Tennessee
32x42" pressed copper map of NYC
Columbia Machine Works: get your own 520-ton hydraulic press
Bellerby & Co. hand-painted globes
Carved Earth: hand-carved physiographic globes
The Lord of Maps
The Mediaeval Mapmaker
My hand-lettered map of the Tongass National Forest

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