People That Make Handmade Globes Of The World Are Rare,

craftsmen that make handmade globes of the canals on Mars are rarer still,

 the tradition of globe making dating back to the mid-2nd century B.C.remains alive, practised by a select few, Michael Plichta is one of these individuals, in his Mannheim, Germany-based workshop, he produces globes under the name Planetenkugel Manufaktur, 

but his globes are different, they are of the canals of Mars, to produce his Mars globes, Plichta uses traditional building techniques, He first shapes a sphere out of plaster of Paris using a metal-revolving machine, 

 then, he draws orientation lines with a compass and lays the map—in 12 to 24 segments—and secures them with glue, from start to finish, it takes about six to eight weeks to complete a globe,

he uses Percival Lawrence Lowell’s drawings which were influenced by Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, who observed a series of lines he called “canali” on the surface of Mars, Schiaparelli published them on a map and marked them as long, straight lines, something that Lowell interpreted as too calculated to be naturally occurring, Lowell posited that these marks were actually a complex irrigation system that could’ve only been built by an alien race, when Mars’ polar ice caps melted, according to Lowell, the canals carried water to the other parts of the planet, a nice story, if only it were true!

back to Michael, above is a video of him at work, I hope he will train others in the art of globe making or it will be another lost art and no I am not on commission I just thought it was a neat idea to make a globe of the canals of Mars.