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© Bellerby & Co Globemakers, © Euan Myles
© Bellerby & Co Globemakers, © Euan Myles

STILL NEW WORLDS TO EXPLORE

Bellerby & Co – The Art of globe making

Words by Maria Bellotto

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime. – Mark Twain

There is something magical in the world of globes, that involves much more than maps and geography; it’s about reviving an era of brave explorers, undaunted men and women dressed up in bush jackets looking for the mouth of the Nile, but also attentive and passionate artisans that create real and imaginary worlds, expressing a need for wanderlust, freedom and yes, even some space for dreaming.

© Bellerby & Co Globemakers, © Euan Myles

What has remained of this after Google Maps and satellites? What about the poetry and the mystery that has permeated centuries of geographical studies? It’s not gone thanks to a niche that never died, that was never lost: and that niche is that very one of globe-makers.

Setting off, first of all, from the desire of knowing more about the planet we all live on, and from the search for a globe for his father’s 80th birthday present, Peter Bellerby, founder of Bellerby & Co Globemakers, states how globe-making for him started as a hobby. “I found the options available were either poor replicas or priceless antiques. It seemed the art of traditional globe-making was gone. I decided to go about making my own – thinking I would make one for my father and one for myself and that would be it – but after two years of teaching myself and hundreds of globes that were not good enough – and after nearly bankrupting myself a business was born!”, he explains.

And not an easy business, indeed: globe-making involves incredible accuracy, artisanal skills and almost no technology, as the key tools involved in the process are “hands, water, glue”. Bellerby continues, “going back to the 1400’s, the map was etched onto a copper plate and run through a printing press to produce the gores; now we, of course, use modern printers. Then we need endless tools for working with the metals and woods for the bases”. Endless tools and hours of accurate work, since it takes between a few weeks to 6 months or more to realise a globe, depending on the size, the detail and the base.

Entering Bellerby and Co laboratory is like taking a journey back in time: a team of 25 makers, painters, woodworkers, metal workers, engravers and illustrators are working together with incredible patience, and attention to detail.

© Bellerby & Co Globemakers, © Euan Myles

If you are wondering how to make a globe, you can be inspired by Peter Bellerby’s lesson:

“Firstly, you need to create a perfect sphere, using two half-moulds. Next, we edit our map, since each globe is made to order we are updating our cartography regularly and personalise depending on our customers’ preferences. Once the map is ready, it is printed and cut up by hand into precise shapes called gores. The gores are painted by hand using watercolours, which give a unique result for each globe. When the gores are dry, they are ready to be attached to the globe, which is called ‘goring the globe’. That stage is very precise work and very difficult because you’re wetting the paper and stretching it; wet paper as you can imagine is very fragile. After the gores are applied many more layers and detail of watercolour are added and the globe is sealed with either a gloss or matte finish. The globe is then placed into its base. We make a variety of traditional and modern bases of our own design which are fully handcrafted and stained to the customers’ preferences. When the globe is complete it is placed together with the base and engraving. Once we are happy with the final outcome and have thoroughly checked the globe over, it is packaged carefully in either a bespoke “flight case” or a special made crate and shipped off to its new home.”

Bellerby & co is shipping globes all around the world and custom orders are prevalent, from heads of state, secretive organisations, Hollywood actors and globe lovers. Hand-crafting globes also mean the customers can choose every detail about the globe – add personalisation and have something created just for them.
The Bellerby team works with extreme care on delicate paper, performing slow and precise movements to create – among traditional ones – custom globes, tracing commissioned personal journeys, particular elements of history or art, like the Seven Wonders of the World, the Silk Road, Family Portraits or simply illustrating family histories through their travel routes.

When we thought there was nothing left to discover and to explore on the Earth, Bellerby and Co taught us that people don’t want items, they’re looking for meaning.

“Items where they know the background and the story of who is making it, how they are making it and why”.

People want to be inspired by objects of beauty,

“You would not use a globe to find a shop down the street of course. A globe will inspire you to look up a place in more detail and it’s something handmade and hand-painted – one of a kind that you can pass down to future generations”.

Making globes has taught Mr. Bellerby how important it is to learn something new every day, and the importance of taking your time, because making a globe is an act of love, and love needs patience.

“More than machinery, we need humanity; more than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness” as Chaplin’s The Great Dictator teaches us, while playing with his giant globe.

Further Reading

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