Our globes are precision handcrafted. Whole gemstones are hand cut in the shape of the countries. Lapis, onyx, howlite, jade or powdered mother of pearl are ground into a powder and applied over the entire globe to create the ocean. The next step is to hand polish and sand the globe until the gemstones reappear. Gold leaf ribbon is hand placed into position for the longitude and latitude lines along with the names of the countries and islands. The last process is to apply a high luster acrylic coating. It can take a skilled artisan up to a thousand hours to craft and assemble one of our beautiful gemstone globes.