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Land Rover Magazine Issue 39

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Icelandic surfing, enabled by the new Land Rover Defender | Artisanal globe-making in London with Bellerby & Co | Gallery of stunning drone photography | Author Helen Russell explores the meaning of happiness | Exclusive short story by Jean Macneil

The revival of a complex

The revival of a complex and difficult craft resonates with a “re-evaluation of what things mean to people” resolved to turn it into a business. Eventually he finished a globe, sold it for about 50 per cent less than it cost to make and pushed on, selling just five between 2010 and 2011. The turning point came in 2012, when he finally got a sought-after opportunity to exhibit at the Royal Geographical Society in London. “That’s when things started to take off,” says Bellerby. “We got features in magazines and then my partner joined the business. She got one of our Instagram posts on the Explore page and we went from 5,000 followers to 60,000 in a day.” The craft of globe making became a viable business. It’s that craft, from the precision of watercolour shading the coasts to the exceptionally tricky goring (when the strips of paper map are wetted and fixed to the sphere), that gives these objects authenticity and desirability. It is, as Bellerby found out, difficult and time consuming. It takes six months to learn how to make globes, a job PHOTOGRAPHS: TOM BUNNING; PAUL MARC MITCHELL 70

he describes as “requiring an interesting mental profile. You cannot get annoyed by it or fight it. You’re dealing with wet paper. It’s terrible stuff, fragile and unstable. It’s all about practice. There are no books telling you what to do.” This might sound like the preserve of time-served artisans but one of the most striking aspects of Bellerby’s workshop is the fact that all the makers and artists are under 40, with many under 30. And every time they advertise a job, they’re inundated with applications. “We get people turning up at the door wanting jobs,” says Bellerby. Globe making, once forgotten and arcane, has become a sought-after occupation. Anastasiya Levashova (26) is one of Bellerby’s watercolourists. On our visit she is shading coastlines with the darker blue that delineates where land meets sea. “I saw these globes being painted at the Chelsea Flower Show and wanted to get involved,” she says. “Someone sent me a link to this job and I’ve been here for two years.” For Levashova, who has a degree in illustration, it’s more satisfying than illustrating books, her former occupation. Watching her brush washing paint along the Argentine coast, never straying over the land’s black outline, demonstrates what makes Bellerby’s globes unique and why people will pay significant sums for them. They represent the revival of a complex and difficult craft, one that resonates with what Bellerby describes as a “re-evaluation of what things mean to people. They would rather have a few very good things than lots of lower quality stuff”. Globes, explains Bellerby, have a universal appeal that continues to fascinate us millennia after the first was made. “We’re transfixed by them,” he says. “Six-year-olds might not understand globes but they remember them. Everyone does.” And with that he disappears back up stairs to resume his position as a creator of worlds. 71

 

Land Rover

Land Rover Magazine 39

 

Land Rover Magazine showcases stories from around the world that celebrate inner strength and the drive to go above and beyond

Land Rover stands for not only the most capable premium vehicles, but a state of mind where a sense of curiosity, exploration and wonder informs all of life’s adventures. Encounter this throughout the latest issue of Land Rover Magazine, from meeting a herd of Ice Age survivors on the Dutch coast with the Land Rover Discovery, to the most innovative sustainable architecture on a Californian journey with the Range Rover Evoque

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