Case study · 2024
Celestial Drift
A 30th-birthday gift from a partner: a single disc showing the exact night sky above Utrecht on the recipient's birth date.
- Place
- Utrecht, NL
- Scale
- 1 disc
- Lead
- 3–5 business days
Client
Private gift · Utrecht
- Discs
- 1
- Source
- Birth night sky data
- Print passes
- 1 translucent
- Lead time
- 5 days
The work
The challenge
Star maps printed flat look like clip-art. To feel like sky, the constellations needed depth and a sense of the disc disappearing into space when you tilt it.
Our approach
We sourced an unusually deep-mirror disc and printed the star map in translucent inks rather than opaque white. The disc's reflective layer becomes the night sky itself — tilt the piece and the stars seem to drift across a black mirror.
The outcome
Delivered framed in a deep shadow box so the disc floats inside the frame, with the date and coordinates pencilled on the back of the mat.
In their words
It doesn't sit on the wall — it's a window. I keep catching myself looking up at it.
Materials & build
What's in the piece.
Dimensions
120 mm disc · 240 mm shadow-box frame
- 011 deep-mirror salvaged disc
- 02Translucent ink star-map pass
- 03Shadow-box frame with floated mount
- 04Pencilled date and coordinates on backing
In situ
The piece, from a few angles.
Before & after
Drag to see the restoration.
Every disc starts scratched, dusty, on its way to a bin. We hand-polish, mask, and print — turning a forgotten silver circle into the piece on the right.
Want a piece in this spirit?
Tell us about the wall, the room, the feeling. We'll come back with sketches and a fixed quote within two working days.
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