Provenance
The refusals are the point.
Anyone can draw a lake. The difference is what happens when the data does not hold up. This page is the working method, including the parts that are currently blocked.
Method
Six steps, and any one of them can stop a print.
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Find the authority
Work back to whoever actually took the measurement - a state DNR, a national mapping agency, an observatory, the OpenStreetMap contributors who surveyed the ground. A secondary blog post that quotes a number is not a source.
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Pull the geometry, not a picture
Vector contours, relation rings, coordinate pairs, ephemeris instants. If the only thing on offer is a raster image of somebody else's map, there is nothing here to redraw and the row is dropped.
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Bind the identity
The subject is pinned to a stable identifier so the right thing is drawn - an OpenStreetMap relation ID plus a Wikidata QID for circuits, a service feature ID for lakes. Matching on name alone is how you end up printing the wrong Loch.
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Verify, or refuse
A ledger records what passed. The renderer reads only from that ledger and has no fallback path to cached or approximate geometry. A subject that fails is not drawn - it is not quietly replaced with a near-enough version.
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Print only what was verified
Facts that were not independently checked stay off the sheet. Apex Lines prints the verified outline, the ledger-verified country and the attribution, and deliberately omits circuit length, turn counts and corner names, because those starter facts were never confirmed.
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Render at print resolution, then check the file
Masters come out at 300 DPI with a pinned colour profile, correct bleed and safe inset. QA re-renders the output and compares it byte for byte, and rejects an incomplete set rather than shipping a partial one.
Currently refused
Four things that are not for sale, and why.
The current OpenStreetMap relation for the circuit cannot be assembled into a closed main-course ring. Older cached geometry exists and would look right. Verification rejects the circuit rather than falling back to it, so Monaco is not sold - and neither are the three-circuit sets that included it.
Both fail the same identity and ring checks. Fifty-seven of the sixty circuits pass; the catalogue is described as fifty-seven rather than rounded up to the number that was originally planned.
Michigan and Minnesota publish real vector bathymetry services. Wisconsin inland lakes and most named national reservoirs did not yield clean vectors. Those rows stay in the catalogue as source-discovery entries and are not listed or described as real bathymetry.
The renderer works, but the current sample rows are schematic rather than survey geometry. The whole line stays off sale until each airport is rebuilt from current FAA NASR data and cached Overpass aeroway geometry, then checked against the published FAA diagram.
The ledger
Where each line stands today.
| Line | Primary authority | Status | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Year of the Moon | JPL DE440s ephemeris, via Skyfield | Available now | On sale as a digital download; 2027 edition |
| LakeLines | Michigan DNR hydrology ArcGIS contour service | In production | Wisconsin and national reservoirs held - no clean vectors |
| Apex Lines | OpenStreetMap circuit relations (ODbL) | In production | Long Beach, Mid-Ohio and Monaco refused |
| Cask & Compass | Wikidata coordinates and inception dates | In production | Names used factually; no logos or label art |
| Summit Sheet | Published peak lists, held as per-list CSV with fixed row counts | In production | Row counts validated per list before render |
| Gradient Climb | Route geometry (c) OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via OSRM | In development | Awaiting live route and elevation refetch |
| Cleared Direct | OpenStreetMap aeroway geometry, via the Overpass API | In development | Sample rows schematic; FAA NASR rebuild required |
Attribution
Credit is printed, not buried.
Open data carries obligations, and they are met on the face of the artwork rather than in a footer nobody reads. Route and circuit geometry is credited to OpenStreetMap contributors under the ODbL. Elevation is credited to SRTM (NASA) and Copernicus via OpenTopoData. Lunar eclipse dates carry the courtesy credit "Eclipse data: NASA GSFC".
Where a print names a real business - the distilleries on Cask & Compass - the name is used factually and nothing else is borrowed. No logos, no label art, no bottle silhouettes, no house colours. A map of where distilleries are is a fact; a distillery's branding is not ours to print.
Per-row source URLs are kept for every entry in the distillery data, so any single point on that map can be traced back to the record it came from.
The shop is on Etsy.
A Year of the Moon is available now as an instant download. The rest of the range is in production - the shop is where each line appears first.