Antidote Create Royal Ascot-Themed Globe

Why did you decide to do this project?

How could we pass it up? It was a wonderful opportunity to collaborate with a highly respected British institution and not only take a look at their world but create something entirely unique for them. Though every globe we make is bespoke to order and includes personalisation and customisation, this was a chance to make something even more highly specialised and a step away from our usual style. Also we always enjoy new challenges!

What was the brief?

Antidote provided us with very in depth briefs from start to finish, from the shades of colours to the style of shading - we had detailed instructions on the overall look which they and Ascot were hoping the achieve. The great thing was... I think it ended up being ever more beautiful then any of us imagined.

How did making this globe differ from making one for your usual clients?

The World Like Nowhere Else globe is not a standard terrestrial map but rather a unique work of art. It started with hand drawn illustrations that were stitched together and then morphed into “gores” - triangular pieces that are applied to a sphere one at a time. We spent a few weeks adjusting the images and land masses, placing the unique cartography and then printing to test all was going as planned.

 Apart from it being a completely different “map“ - we were also working with an outside illustrator and a third party (Antidote) - while usually all our work is done in house and in our own particular style. In the end I think it was a good mash-up of our style of globe and oceans... with outside influence of the “land” and cartography as well as the painting style with great use of vibrant colours.

How was the globe made?

Firstly, you need to create a perfect sphere, usually using two half-moulds. My first globes were made using plaster of Paris, but for the larger globes we now use GRP (fibre glass) and the smaller ones are made from resin (these are a one piece solid). Once the sphere is assembled, it needs to be weighted so that when it spins, it rotates perfectly. 

Next, we edit our map or in this case created a map from a series of images and unique cartography to help tell the story of Royal Ascot.

Once the map is ready, it is printed and cut by hand into precise oval shapes called gores. The gores are then painted with several layers of watercolour by hand, which give a unique result for each globe. When they 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 more layers and watercolour detail and hand shading are added before the globe is sealed. This one was given a Satin finish.

The globe is then placed into its base, we make a variety of traditional and modern bases of our own design and work with both wood and metals and this particular one was turned Cherry wood with cast brass pieces.

What was the biggest problem you encountered?

The most challenging part of globe-making in general is wetting and stretching a piece of paper across a sphere without ripping, rippling or tearing it, whilst the most satisfying is when the last gore goes on, you inspect your work and see all went perfectly to plan. Even as you place the last gore you can easily damage the globe, which will be sitting on areas that are already finished but not protected. With every gore you place you need to measure and calculate to make sure you are placing and sizing right because as little as .1 of a millimetre under on 24 gores around a globe will be 2.4 mm at the end. This is why making a globe takes so long because if you don’t measure and re-measure constantly your results will be off.

With the Royal Ascot globe in general there was more time that needed to be spent getting the images transformed from a 2D map to artwork that would not be distorted on a 3D sphere. It was definitely not a problem but like all one-off projects it required more trial and error to get it perfect compared to working with our usual cartography.