Ever wondered what is the most romantic profession in the world? Well, I have and though there are many great competitors such as: wedding planers, bluesmen and that clay shaping thing like the pottery scene in Ghost. But today all this changed. A few years back Peter Bellerby wanted to get his father a nice big globe for his father’s 80th birthday. The thing is, when he went looking for one he was very disappointed as he had to choose between some flimsy cheap little excuses for a globe or some ancient fragile antiques. So, he decided he will do something else entirely, do it himself. Realizing it was so much harder than he thought, having trouble with finding accurate enough maps and struggling with the globe rotation, he finally decided that he wanted to perfect this awesome craftsmanship and so he started that workshop which is now making some pretty awesome and stylish globes. Now Bellerby and Co. Globemakers workshop is one of the two remaining globe making companies in the world. Peter officially started making the globes in 2008 and now he even employs a few young artists, teaching them how to do it right and passing his knowledge. All of them have to go through six months of training before he lets them start making globes on their own.
Not only there is that nostalgic and romantic feeling about those men’s incredible work but the way they are making them is also fascinating. Each globe is created in sections which they call gores. Gores are basically strips of paper that they glue to the sphere. At first they are painted only with black ink and color is added only after the gores are glued to the sphere in order for the artists to reach maximum accuracy.
Their crown jewel, their pride, their biggest globe Churchill reached the majestic 50 inches in diameter was inspired by no other but Winston Churchill himself and Frank Delano Roosevelt who both owned a globe like that one, which is also the reason to name it that way.
Some of you will probably say “who needs globes when we have Google Earth on our phones” and to those of you I say that Peter Bellerby’s work of art, his mixture of both old school methods and modern techniques alongside his passion, hard work and devotion into each and every one of his globes is a reason enough to go get a globe right now. His work deserves our upmost admirations.
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