A Colossal Coastal Project

I haven't posted anything new in a little while. Things have been moving at a snail's pace for me as of late. So I thought I would show you all what I have been working on, slowly but surely.
My Mom likes lighthouses. She lives in another state. I know I'll be seeing her soon and wanted to make her something. I was looking at some of my favorite websites for patterns for a lighthouse portrait to cut when I came across this project. It is called "The Coast" coffee table. You can see or order the plans here at Scroller.
I am making a couple of changes to the project. My Mom and Dad will be visiting in a car and I have to make sure it will be able to be placed in their back seat to make the long trip back to their home. I done the most time consuming part of the coffee table first, making the multi-layered top. The top will be built in layers which will be visible under glass. This will allow the glass to serve as a flat top while showing a 3D appearing coastal scene under it. I guess it is easier to show than explain. So here it is.
The first layer is just a flat piece of wood that I have stained blue with Minwax tinted water based stain. To make sure this stays flat to be a good base for the top, I glued and nailed firring strips on the bottom.
The next layer is made of cottonwood and pine. It includes the light house sitting on cliffs with the sun, clouds, sun and ripples on the water.

Then the next layer is the cliffs in the foreground, a tree, a sail boat, and some of the birds. This layer is cottonwood, pine, and mahogany.
The top layer consists of the rest of the birds, and the posts in front of the foregrounds cliffs. This layer is made of mahogany, oak and cottonwood.

After the top layer is done, a ridge has to built up all the way around to support the wood that will go on top of all this that the glass will sit on.

So this is what my little bit of shop time has been spent on as of late. I will be back to show you the finished coffee table when I can get it done. I hope you all enjoyed the preview.