Mom knows my love of globes. My obsession’s exact beginning is a little hazy, but Gadora suspects it started around the time I scored that insanely entertaining Fisher Price illuminated globe in Houston years ago. Now, my love for this earth goes beyond bumps on a globe or lines on a map. On a recent trip to Paris, she sent me a snap of Poops at the Centre Pompidou at the Modern Museum of Art. The exhibition, which I’m not able to find anything else on, was a series of globes on the wall. “The brown blobs on the globes signify the things we do to harm the planet and the pics on the shelves depict all the bad things happening in the world, such as war, famine, etc….” I would have found it mesmerizing too.

Perplexed Poops at the Pompidou.

On a recent trip, I reclined my seat back and grabbed the flight mag from the seat pocket in front of me. I scanned the blah, blah new-steak-restaurant-ads for some place I’d never visit, flipped past the wealthy-people match-making ads, and then spied this… I quietly tore the sheet out of the mag, and folded it into my bag. Gadora would be making this. At some point. Soon.

The Inspiration.

Back in Austin, and not thirty minutes after telling a friend I “NEED” a globe, I scored a National Geographic—1979 model—at the local Goodwill. $4.99. Sweet deal. It wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t totally smooth, but it would do. I loved the base. And because it was slightly damaged, I thought it the perfect guinea pig for my project. Turns out my love of globes is shared almost equally with my desire to paint everything I can with chalkboard paint.

We are the world.

This would turn out to be a really quick project.

The stuff.

Score globe. Check. Procure chalkboard paint. Done (Valspar from Lowes). Use a new brush, taking care to remove any loose bristles. Done. And done. Prepare work space and get to work.

True North.

The snappy thing about my globe is that it can be removed from its base. So, Gadora painted the Northern Hemisphere, allowed it to dry, then painted the Southern.

Northern Hemisphere wiped out.

Gadora allowed about an hour of dry time between each coat. Painted the top half, then flipped over. Applied three coats in all. Had I not been so impatient, I would have lightly sanded between each coat. The faint mark of brush strokes is barely visible, but when I scribble with chalk, they don’t lay entirely smooth. A slight crack in the globe is visible here, but after another coat was applied it all but disappeared.

Mother Earth.

Voila! I let the whole thing dry overnight. And in the morning it was ready for chalk! I’ve doodled a couple of lines on it, and am contemplating painting an outline of our earth (the inspiration piece featured this). I kind of love it! An aside: the BFF just returned from Fredericksburg, TX where she ducked into my favorite shop RED in Fred. They had just sold a chalkboard globe, vintage too no doubt, for $180 smackers.

This is the life...

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Easy DIYer project.

Supplies? Globe. Chalkboard paint. 1″ brush. Drop cloth (or recycled newspaper).

How-to: Gingerly wipe the surface of your globe. For this project, a globe without the raised relief surface (remember: this wants to be a chalk board!) is best. Stir and apply a light coat of chalkboard paint. Allow to dry. Rinse and repeat. If you’re lucky enough to have a globe that can be removed from its base, great. If not, you’ll have to get creative on how you’ll paint it. Allow to dry between each coat. You’ll know how many. My guess is 3.

The cost: $? for a good globe. $1 for the paint brush. And $10 for the chalkboard paint.

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Links to other nifty globes:

Discovery.com ~ I. Want. This.

Etsy ~ more than 5,940 globes online today.

Ultimate Globes ~ it seems they have as many globes as there are stars…

Worldglobes.com ~ a “replogle” Adventurer 12″ tabletop globe THAT GLOWS!!!