- 6 weeks ago
In this episode of Made In, we explore four of London’s rare crafts: globe making, millinery, whip making, and woodwork. Follow Peter Bellerby of Bellerby and Co. Globemakers, master whip maker Mary Wing To, Kimiko Shiga and Eliska Murray of Lock & Co. Hatters, and wood artist Darren Appiagyei as they reveal the skill and artistry keeping some of London’s rarest craft traditions alive.
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00:01London's craft heritage has deep roots. It goes back centuries. I'm very proud
00:07that the pieces that I make carry a little bit of London with them. The most
00:11important thing about what we're doing it's a geographical representation but
00:15it's also a moment in history. It's nice to say that you source the material from
00:19London and it's made by an artist based in London. What we do by hand cannot be
00:26recreated by AI. It's such a gift in life to be able to make.
00:37I think we all get fascinated by globes from a young age. I just took a little bit
00:42further than most people. My name is Peter Bellaby. I run our little studio in Stoke
00:47Newton. Bellaby & Co. Globe Makers where we make handmade bespoke globes. I started the
00:52company in 2008 or at least I started the process of making a globe in 2008. It was my dad's
00:59upcoming 80th birthday and I wanted to get a special present. I could only really find very
01:04expensive pieces at auction which every time you spun them another country or continent fell off.
01:09I thought I would start to make my dad a globe and I thought it would take three or four
01:14months.
01:14Two years later I finished the first globe and I had imagined I would be spending maybe up to
01:21£10,000. I was wildly out with that projection. In fact I think I went over that probably in the
01:27second month. Globe making is publishing. It's exactly the same as books. So the original globes,
01:32someone made a sphere, someone put some paper around that sphere and then they did everything by
01:38hand. When we first started getting globes impounded in various territories we realised we needed to be
01:45proactive. There are various countries that don't recognise other countries. We sold a globe to a
01:51diplomat in Morocco and he couldn't have Western Sahara on the globe. There are nuances to how India
01:58and Pakistan see their border. If we send a globe to India with the wrong border depicted I can do
02:04six
02:05months in an Indian prison. It's always very interesting for me how political what we're
02:10doing is because I never even thought about it at the beginning. I thought I would just make a map
02:13and that would be it. It's so difficult to say how long it takes to make a globe. This one
02:19to our right
02:20is probably going to be one of the longest ones ever. To paint this is going to take around 12
02:26weeks.
02:26The smaller ones they might look small but they are actually technically more difficult. We're in the
02:32cartography department. This is where we start the whole process. We have different maps for all the
02:38different sizes of globes. Obviously as you get bigger we can populate a globe with a lot more
02:42information. But you can see on this one we've illustrated a customer they want to have themselves
02:47cycling on a globe and so we will do individual illustrations and that makes it special to them.
02:53Every globe can be dated within a couple of years of its manufacture because oceans, seas, mountains,
03:01country names, change names. It very much is a moment in history captured on a geographical footprint.
03:07These are our wide format printers. We use inks that are guaranteed between 80 and 200 years. We also
03:14work with our chemists so that we use the most long-lasting paints so it's very much a process of
03:19ensuring what we're doing has longevity. This part is cutting the gauze. We'll print the gauze and then with
03:26the scalpel we will cut around longitude lines. That's something again that you have to do thousands
03:31of times and then you will be amazingly good with the scalpel. This is one of the gauze for a
03:37Churchill
03:37globe. 127 centimeters diameter. This will be dipped in water and wet through before being stretched on the
03:46globe pole to pole. It takes about a year minimum to learn how to do it and it's just understanding
03:52how to
03:53manipulate paper with your hands barely putting any pressure on the paper because you obviously don't
03:58want the paper to rip but equally if you press too hard you will bruise the paper. With hand to
04:04eye
04:04coordination you really require a certain amount of focus that you can only really achieve when you're
04:08in a completely deep state of mind. There are many things that can aid with that and so something for
04:13me personally is cold showers which help me regulate my breathing. There's a certain element of wanting
04:18to get to the end result quicker than is really necessary. Being able to sort of remain calm and
04:24particularly being able to control your body temperature because when it gets really hot in
04:27the summer for example if you're hot yourself then it just doesn't work. You start tearing paper and
04:32everything starts going wrong. Every single person that we have here that has either made a globe or
04:37worked with a globe has never really come from a globe making background purely because it's so rare.
04:42We find people that have very particular sets of skills that enable them to adapt to the processes that
04:48are required. To become a globe maker you need to have some form of problem solving skills and
04:53ideally have some interest in mathematics because we're working with pi every single day and every
04:58single sphere is slightly different. You're building a relationship with paper in a way that requires
05:02you to react every single time so every globe is unique from a making perspective. We have 11-12 painters.
05:11It's the role that takes the longest in the whole process. When we're printing we're printing in outline with
05:17very little or no colour on the gauze. When the painters receive the globe from the makers they
05:23will have already painted some of the ocean colour in but they will then go around all the land all
05:29the continental shelves to make the land masses pop. That's really what brings the globe to life.
05:35Painting globes has really impacted the way I experience travel. A lot of it is on the plane so
05:42looking out of the window when you actually can see earth below you and knowing what you're looking
05:48at because you know before I worked here I didn't know exactly where those coastlines were. You're like
05:53in the midst of mountains and then thinking about the mountains we paint and think about how you can
05:58translate that on the globe. Watercolour is a natural medium like a lot of natural pigments. They all have
06:05their own properties. Some are more opaque, some are more transparent, some really stick to the paper and
06:11some don't and for the globes we need a little bit of everything. So we need it to be transparent
06:17so you
06:18can see the cartography underneath but we also need some opacity for the more intense globes and some
06:25pigments they like to mix together and some don't and we like that because different colour schemes will
06:32have different personalities. So some of them we want to have a scale of colour and depth in which
06:38you can see a little bit of blue and a little bit of red. This is the workshop where we
06:44make all the
06:46bases. This particular one is a one-off design. We've never made this before so we have to obviously
06:51draw this up, design it and get the customer to approve the design and then we will start to make
06:57it and you can see everything's done with hand tools. This is where things all come together before
07:02we ship all around the world. Everything we do really requires an awful lot of patience. If you're
07:09not on your A-game you won't do whatever you're doing properly. If you can imagine painting this for
07:14three months that requires quite a lot of patience but if you can imagine the makers have taken five
07:19years to get to the point where they can put one piece of panel on without it breaking or splitting
07:25or
07:25creasing you have to have patience. You have to measure over and over again in order to get it
07:30right. It's all about patience but it's also about persistence and perfection to use a bit of
07:36alliteration. London has been a centre for crafts because a few hundred years ago everything was made
07:42by hand. London pushed things and people pushed themselves to make things to a really really high
07:47standard. Although I would point out many of our staff are not from England. We probably have
07:53mother tongue every language in Europe here just about. So perhaps London draws in people from all
07:58around the world and then we as a maker follow this tradition of making high class products.
08:08I have a bit of an obsession with horses. I've always felt kind of drawn to them. Horses represent
08:15freedom and strength. I feel like that's kind of embodied in my work in a way. Coming from parents who
08:22were
08:22immigrants that came over to the UK. I've really had to work incredibly hard to earn my place here.
08:28I'm Mary Wintu and I'm a master whip maker and founder of Whipping Hand. I did a master's degree
08:33in fashion and that's where I kind of first was introduced to traditional leather craft. I did a
08:39City and Guilds qualification in traditional saddlery and that's when the amazing opportunity to
08:46train under the late Queen Elizabeth II's master saddler at the Role Mews Buckingham Palace came
08:53about. I learned about the discipline required, what it takes to actually make something really properly,
08:59you know, hand stitched to perfection. Whip making is now a red endangered heritage craft because horses
09:07are no longer a means of transport. I think a lot of workshops then shut down. With that they lost
09:12the
09:12skills as well and they weren't passed on and if you were a whip maker you didn't really generally
09:17want to pass on the skills because it was your livelihood and your business. So yeah it took
09:22quite a lot for me to actually persuade my master to teach me and when my master sadly passed away
09:28I realised that I was maybe one of two whip makers left in the UK. So there became this like
09:34huge
09:35responsibility to pass on this craft. I educate people about whip making and let them know that it is still
09:41craft and hopefully one day I'll be able to pass on the skills to someone else.
09:47The space that we're in right now is my lovely garden studio which is my leather sanctuary. It's
09:53where I create and make all the pieces. To start off making the whip I make this shaft so I
09:59use a piece
10:00of ratting cane, take the car off and then I shape it and taper it to the length that is
10:06required using a
10:07spokeshave and some wood tools. I will then begin to make the leather which is all made by hand so
10:14I'll
10:14take a piece of kangaroo hide and I'll start cutting it into a circle and once that's cut within like
10:20a
10:20half an inch circle I'll then taper that even more. Once the lace has been done I'll then work on
10:27the handle.
10:28One of the things that's always been traditional in whip making is they roll a piece of newspaper inside the
10:35whip handle. Not only is it kind of like a time capsule with the date of when the whip was
10:40made but it also
10:41gives the handle a slight taper which is also like evidence of how a good whip is actually made.
10:50It's something that my master passed on to me and it's something that I've also seen and recognized in
10:57old whips that I've repaired in years to come. Should someone need to repair the handle and they remove it
11:04they will see the exact date when that whip was actually made so I think that's a really nice
11:08kind of touch that not everyone who buys a whip will even know really. The leather is then wrapped
11:13around that and hand stitched. With the hand stitching you develop what we call a saddler's
11:18muscle as well which is this muscle here because you have to push through so much leather you develop
11:23a massive muscle here. If you're a proper saddler then you should have that muscle. I'll then prepare the
11:29flapper which is at the end of the whip, create the pattern for that, prepare the leather, edge, coat,
11:35die, stitch mark and then I will hand stitch the flapper. I will then put all those components
11:41together including finishing the whip with silver collar and turk's head at the end as well.
11:49How long it takes for me to make one of my whips depends on the design really from something really
11:54simple could take about 20 hours to something very intricate that requires intricate braiding or certain
12:01details could take over 100 hours to complete. Every piece that I've designed and made has been made
12:06in my studio. London's always been a city of makers from shoemakers to leather workers to silversmiths.
12:13It's got this amazing hub of guilds and livery companies that help to preserve and protect and
12:21educate on these crafts. I'm a liveryman of the Cordwainers company which is a livery in the city
12:27of London. I was invited to be in this livery company because of my leather skills and that in
12:35turn gave me the freedom of the city of London which for those of you who don't know what that
12:39means,
12:40it means I have permission to take a herd of sheep across London Bridge if I wanted to.
12:50London offers a lot of opportunity to be inspired from drama to art to fashion to music. It's a
12:59wonderful city. I chose to come here to do final degree because I felt very at ease being a foreigner
13:06because everybody looks like a foreigner or if not they come from other parts of UK. It's such a
13:11welcoming city. My name is Kimiko Shiga. I'm a milliner working for Lock & Co. Hatters.
13:17Lock & Co. is the oldest hat shop in London but also the oldest hat shop in the world. The
13:23shop was
13:24established in 1676 which makes it 350 years. It is still run by the same family today. Hello I'm
13:33Alishka. I'm the hat smith at Lock & Co. Hatters. We are all so proud of this building so we
13:38try to
13:38preserve it as well as trying to accommodate our modern needs. It has a character. I don't know I
13:44just like those beams. I come from Japan. I live in a very old house with big beams as well
13:48so I feel
13:49quite connected being able to work in such a room. Sort of imagining all the millionaires who have gone
13:55through in the past. It's such a good energy. Yeah we are all female. There are male millionaires in the
14:01world but more tend to be working on men's hats. I don't know why. More men please. I work for
14:09the
14:09workroom for the ladies couture collection. Creating hats basically we make everything from scratch.
14:15Starting from like blocking the material we have to choose the base layer to give some structure or
14:22stiffness. The balance of the hat, how it sits, obviously very important. It's got to be comfortable
14:27and all of that is in planning. When you handle materials such as cutback satin that requires
14:34patience because anything you have on your hand it shows. Even like a blow will dust my
14:39lever mark. I have to be very very patient and very thorough. But for a hat material is almost like
14:45an infinite choice. It depends on how you construct it. I do love that freedom. I could spot a Lock
14:51& Co.
14:51hat on the street straight away. Probably even who stitched the ribbon. People don't know what the term
14:57hatsmith is. It was actually created by Lock & Co. I do the restoration of the men's hats. There's no
15:04other hat shop in London that does restoration on site. We realised there was a great need in repairs
15:10and restoration. We always have replacement parts. We actually have a hat hospital on site where we have
15:17organ donor hats. Either abandoned hats or hats that have had damage and weren't good enough to sell on the
15:23shop floor. We have people from all walks of life coming here all the way up to royalty. Winston Churchill,
15:31Oscar Wilde, Charlie Chaplin, Jackie Kennedy. We've also refitted the crown for the queen at her coronation.
15:39So fitting a hat will always start by measuring their head. On the widest part of the head, just about
15:45an
15:45inch above the ear. Then the hard hats, they need a conformator. The device created in 1852 by a chap
15:52called
15:52Ali Mallard. It looks like a medieval torture device. It is used to find the shape of the head. It
15:58takes an
15:59imprint of a sixth of the head shape and from that we put it into another tool called the familion,
16:06which we then heat the hat, put the device inside and it'll make the exact shape of the head inside
16:13the hat.
16:13You can only learn from putting an actual finished hat on someone's head and how it looks because the
16:20volume of it looks so different depending on someone's facial shape or height. That is very
16:26difficult to learn with that experience. Hats give people confidence. It makes them unique. It's an
16:32individual marker of style, but also it's that finishing touch to an outfit. Garment makes such a
16:39different how you feel and who you are. But hat in particular, because it's not a day-to-day item,
16:45it's such a
16:45perfect way to make you feel more elevated. You can present yourself in a different light and it's such fun.
16:53Craftsmanship is deeply embedded in as a human being because expressing ourselves, that's part of our nature.
16:59If you go to the British Museum, you see all the ancient tools and a cape painting as well.
17:03That's not just the history recording. Whoever is drawing has an eye for layout and colour. There's
17:10some beauty, aesthetic in there. We have tools to converse with others through medium of art.
17:16Everyone can enjoy making. If you are encouraged to do so from a young age, I've got children,
17:21so if you've been trying that, you might have been told like, are you not good at it? Then you
17:25might feel like,
17:26oh, that's not for me. But you don't have to show it to others. It can be just a process
17:30of expressing your emotion at the time.
17:38London is a beautiful place. You have Greenwich Park, which was the Queen's house. But at the same
17:45time, you have the rough parts of London, the edgy or the dark parts. I like to showcase that in
17:50my work.
17:51And I'll have a beautiful silhouette, but it's full of texture. It's raw. It's got energy to it. I feel
17:57like that encompasses London. My name is Darren Apierde and I am a wood artist based in London.
18:05I see timber like people. I never know what to expect until I carve into it. As I get to
18:11know the
18:11timber, it reveals its nature. Like as you get to know people, a person reveals his character or her
18:17character. Woodturning has a massive history. Even before we had glass plates, it was wooden plates.
18:24I definitely feel privileged to be able to continue a craft that people really appreciate.
18:31I gained my inspiration from different sources, but mainly nature. The nature is intrinsically beautiful.
18:38It's unruly in its own way, but at the same time organized and structured. And I love that contrast.
18:45Trees have experienced things that we can only imagine. That's the beauty of working with timber
18:49as a living organism that has a life before me. My sourcing process is almost the beginning of my
18:57making process, essentially. I source my timber from a woodland in Shooters Hill. They have a
19:04massive log path and I rummage through it. So I look at details such as the knot, it could be
19:11the grain,
19:11it could be even the bark itself. It could even be a crack. It's almost like a treasure hunt for
19:17me.
19:17It's observing, looking and thinking as well. Sustainability is quite crucial to my practice.
19:24So I don't buy timber. For me, it's important that the trees have naturally fallen. So it's not cut
19:30down for personal gain. Sometimes I'm carrying heavy timber, but it's part of the process and it's important
19:36to me. I'm very much aware of my eco footprint. I'm always taking tubes, taking the bus, thinking
19:42about what I'm going to do before I actually enter my studio. The first stage is actually looking at
19:48the timber, looking at the details, looking at the grain and just thinking and observing. The second
19:53stage is sharpening my tools prior to actually carving into the woods. It's like a pencil sharpening,
19:59it gets blunt quite evenly as I carve into the timber. So I sharpen my tools maybe every five
20:06minutes or so while I'm carving. The next stage is actually securing the timber on the lathe,
20:13pressing the on button, letting it run for a bit. It's like an engine almost like a car,
20:17letting it run for a bit. The last stage is actually carving into the woods. So I've got a motor
20:23essentially
20:23and it's got dials. And so it's about gradually carving into the wood, picking up the speed as I carve.
20:29Once I finish shaping the wood, I hollowed it inside. I cut the foot, I sand. I use a variety
20:36of
20:36different grits. 90 grit all the way to a thousand grits. And then I start to burn. So I use
20:42a pyrographic
20:43machine where I mark the wood, slowly scorching the timber or the vessel that I've made, mark by mark,
20:51dot by dot. It's a process. It's a delicate as a slow process. I feel like we live in the
20:57microwave era
20:58where we order things on Amazon and it comes the next day and that's just not reality. Things take
21:03time to make, things take time to develop. When I'm carving into the timber, there's a rhythm to it.
21:09There's a tempo and it's about gaining momentum as I carve into the timber. It's almost like boxing,
21:14jockeying, you're going back and forth. There's a rhythm to it. If I don't have the rhythm, I tend not
21:19to create good work. It's like when you're running and you listen to up-tempo music, you actually tend
21:26to find yourself running to that tempo. Calm music means I have more control when I'm carved into the
21:32timber when I'm making. I definitely feel like when I'm making, I'm almost creating my own legacy.
21:37I hope that a part of me is seen through my work and when I'm gone, people can still remember
21:43me through my work.
21:49The oldest hat I've restored, I think it was an old rugby cap from the 1920s. It was beautiful.
21:57A favourite. Ooh, there are lots of favourites. Might be making the rose, actually. The rose hat.
22:02This is quite oversized rose hat. I have to make petal from scratch, one by one.
22:08I've had a few favourite globes. I think the one that always comes to mind is an Ice Age one.
22:14It had
22:14two coastlines. So it had the current coastline and the coastline from Ice Age and then all the ice
22:20shelves as well and the animals that inhabited the earth at that time. That was really fun.
22:25I mainly worked behind the scenes, restoring like state harnesses. I was always fortunate to
22:31be involved with the Prince and Princess of Wales wedding. So I was in a van in the back.
22:37Because you always have to have saddlers following any kind of procession really,
22:41just in case any harnesses break or they need fixing at the times. We'd be waving like in the van,
22:46like people and they wouldn't really know who we were, but they were way back.