my-globi
Large globes from a professional globemaker cost a lot of money. If a large globe is too expensive, here’s what you should do - buy the components and make a globe yourself.
We are Globi - we specialise in designing and making globe components and globe cartography so you can make a large, beautiful 700mm diameter globe for a fraction of the cost of a professionally made 700mm diameter globe.
Who we are and what we do
How hard is it to make a Globi globe?
How long will it take me?
How much will it cost?
What’s included and what’s not included.
Is a stand included?
Where are you based?
Who we are and what we do
We’re a husband and wife team; we got into globe-making a few years ago, during lockdown. We don't make globes but we do make components - all the bits and bobs you’ll need to make a complete globe. We’re doing this because we want large globes to be widely affordable - we’d like to see a globe in every household. Large globes are valuable as an educational aid that can help all of us - but children and youngsters in particular - to better understand our world.
How hard is it to make a Globi globe?
As we’ve refined the design we’ve made the assembly process easier. We used to say that on a scale of difficulty it would be 8 out of 10 - now we reckon it’s 6 out of 10. The components are glued together with fast-setting CA glue - superglue - which can glue your fingers together, so we emphasise that making our globes is definitely not for children or anyone incapable of using strong, fast-setting glue.
To put it another way, if you have the ability to make a complicated model aircraft - the type that’s built from balsa wood and tissue paper and can fly when it’s finished, it’s unlikely that you will have any difficulty making a Globi globe.
How long will it take?
About 20 hours, excluding cartography.
The globe assembly process consists of (i) making the frame and (ii) making the surface of the globe from a card and attaching the globe surface to the globe frame. In these two stages, there’s not much room for creativity and everyone who makes the globe frame/globe surface should end up with the same product.
But when it comes to cartography there’s unlimited scope for creativity. We do supply cartography in the form of hundreds of “slices” with each slice having its own unique projection and for us there was a lot of complexity in this process. We supply 720 individually referenced map slices which are pasted on to the appropriate slice of the globe; the result is beautiful and unlike anything you will have seen before - it’s like hundreds of pages of an atlas with all the pages flowing seamlessly into one another.
How much will it cost?
If you buy all the components together the cost will be £360.
However, because of the challenge of building a globe, we want to offer interested parties the option of buying self-contained component sub-sets on a stage-by-stage basis. The cost of buying components on a stage-by-stage basis is about 15% more than buying a full set of components in one go, but it removes the risk of wasting money on an abandoned project.
What’s included and what’s not included.
If you buy all the components together as a “complete pack” you’ll get all the components that you’ll need to make the globe frame and all the card triangles that you’ll need to put a surface on the frame as well as four nncc glue containers, template components, two G clamps, and a shaft.
The large and small starter pack includes the components to make a 1/10th or 1/20th (respectively) of the globe surface, as well as the template components and glue.
Is a stand included?
A globe stand will be available in early 2025.
Where are you based?
Dunblane Station, Platform 1. Our premises are in what used to be the waiting room and it's here that we design and make our products and have a retail area.
Dunblane Station
Station Road
Dunblane
Email: 1milesturner@gmail.com
Phone - 0777 3557189