A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Adams — I make globes of varying sizes from one to forty-two inches, which is quite large. Because my globes are bespoke, I get the chance to customize them for clients. So if they have traveled extensively and wanted their routes plotted on the globe or if they wanted their little town marked on it, I could quite easily do that for them.


I've been commissioned by museums and private collectors around the world. I've made globes for films and television. One of the globes I've made recently is for a blockbuster Hollywood movie coming out next year, which my sons are very excited about because it's with their favorite actor, so we're looking forward to seeing it. I am particularly proud of being associated with the Victoria and Albert Museum where one of my handmade globes is on display.

Adams —The historical processes inform and complement my craftsmanship. For me, authenticity is important. It gives the finished product authority. It gives it substance. I've always used plaster. It’s what globes were traditionally made from. I’ve tried to remain faithful to the way old artisans made the mold, however I’ve reversed the plaster process slightly. I skim the mold with plaster. Then, when it is dry, I line it with paper and plaster so it's a form of papier-mâché to reinforce the plaster shell. The paper gives it rigidity, a bit of extra strength, whilst retaining its lightweight nature. 

It's fairly important to me to maintain a certain weight to the globe. I could make them ever lighter, given today's advances and improved technology for the construction of the plaster, but I think it should have a weight to it or else it might feel plasticky and cheapened. Then when the two hemispheres are dry, they are joined together and sanded down to form a smooth sphere upon which the gores can be laid. The gores are the map sections that are applied to the globe. There are twelve in total and they're applied one at a time.

I also design the bases. A few of them I've re-developed from existing historical styles, but we have also come up with modernized designs. I try to incorporate wood that has a history behind it. I feel it's important to give new life to older pieces. Because we are in Cowes, there are a lot of boatyards here that are renovating old boats. If I come across a particularly famous boat, or it has some historical resonance, I prefer  using wood that's been salvaged from that boat. I'm currently producing a wooden stand utilizing wood from Osborne House, Queen Victoria’s palatial holiday residence.

Adams —There are a number of issues I need to think about when I'm designing a new globe. This ranges from the aesthetic appearance of the globe to the information that will be portrayed, they are objects to gather information from after all. I try and imbue every contemporary globe with a certain sense of twenty-first century aesthetics. Moreover I see myself as a craftsman, as somebody who records where we are in the world. A lot of my hours are spent at the computer plotting places and upgrading the maps. It's an ever-changing geography. Borders and place names are constantly changing. A thorough way of dating a globe is by identifying what's on there and what's not. For example, you can pinpoint a globe to the eighteenth century by the fact that New Zealand isn't there or the Northwest Passage hasn't been discovered.  Globemaking is surely a combination of craft, science and aesthetics.

Adams —It's a nice feeling looking at old globes and being able to date them by what's on there, knowing that my own globes, in hundreds of years’ time, will probably be similarly judged.  That does imbue a sense of responsibility upon me to make sure every globe is perfect in order to stand the test of time. People will be looking at them for, hopefully, centuries as they do now for globes produced hundreds of years ago. It’s rewarding to think that they will be enjoyed by generations to come.

Adams — I think there's still a place for globes in education, in schools, in colleges. Before the days of the internet, every school would have a globe. Nowadays, we mostly get our information from Google Earth, or an iPad or an electronic device, resulting in a flat representation of the earth. There's something tangible about being able to spin a globe, especially for a child, to physically touch it and say, "I'm here, what's around the other side?”