{"id":2237,"date":"2018-05-18T10:57:42","date_gmt":"2018-05-18T10:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/stamford\/?p=215"},"modified":"2018-05-18T10:57:42","modified_gmt":"2018-05-18T10:57:42","slug":"215","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland-and-stamford\/highlights\/215\/05-2018","title":{"rendered":"Grand National Trophy Designed by Stamfordian"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Did you watch The Randox Health Grand National this year? Perhaps you even won some money on Tiger Roll, the brave little horse who won.<\/div>\n
During the prize giving, you\u2019ll have noticed the stunning trophy but did you give it more thought than, \u2018what a work of art that is, good on that jockey Davy Russell he rode\u00a0beautifully;\u2019 did it occur to you that those perfectly sculpted helix curves were made by hand?<\/div>\n
The next day, that same trophy is all over the newspapers being kissed, held in the air and shown to the world but what you may not know, is that very trophy and last year\u2019s was designed by a silversmith at Burghley House.\u00a0It\u2019s unusual for the same designer to design The Randox Health Grand National trophy but this was the case for Shannon O\u2019Neill.<\/div>\n
Originally coming from Liverpool,\u00a0Shannon found herself at Burghley House after a period of her life where you could say she was hiding from her true passion.<\/div>\n
\u201cEvery time I came close to \u00a0working for myself I would jump at a new job opportunity,\u201d says \u00a0Shannon who boasts a very \u00a0impressive CV in the world of animation.\u00a0Under the watchful eye of\u00a0Burghley\u2019s Barry Witmond,\u00a0who has been a self-employed\u00a0Silversmith on the premises for\u00a0almost 30 years.<\/div>\n
Shannon was mentored, moulded and Barry says slightly manipulated into taking back up a craft she hadn\u2019t laid hands on for almost four years.<\/div>\n
It\u2019s not difficult to see how\u00a0Shannon was diverted down a\u00a0different path several times.<\/div>\n
After completing a design led\u00a0education, she found herself working on a Tim Burton\u00a0animation, a relatively well paid extraordinary first job.<\/div>\n
\u201cI fell into animation and fell in love with the people,\u201d says\u00a0Shannon. After this she worked on Corpse Bride, the head\u00a0mechanics and animation\u00a0specifically all while partying\u00a0hard and working even harder in the big smoke. But still, even with London\u2019s magnetic force of fun, in the back of Shannon\u2019s mind she was thinking about silver.<\/div>\n
The animation took off and Shannon\u2019s next position was \u2018more of a 9-5\u2019 she laughs, in the Cotswolds on Timmy Time.\u00a0It was in this period where she started designing again, her\u00a0hands picking up a skill they new so well until they were picked up again and thrown into another mad world in Oregon, America.<\/div>\n
\u201cI had a wild time, but even when I was at these hot tub parties\u00a0I\u2019d turn around and think, hang on, am I at the wrong party?\u201d<\/div>\n
The passion Shannon was no longer feeding haunted her but she just couldn\u2019t see how she could make money as a\u00a0Silversmith, especially on her own. Then along came Barry, the manipulation, the bitter smell of silver cleaning products, a twitch for chasing and a chance to finally take up the dream.<\/div>\n
Just as before, Shannon was being handed her dream on a plate but no real financial stability. She was also in contact with animation companies who wanted her on\u00a0the set of the new Star Wars film after she\u2019d worked with Warner on King Arthur. Shannon threw\u00a0caution to the wind and stuck with Barry and just two weeks later, Randox Health called\u00a0saying she\u2019d been selected, the\u00a0rest is history!<\/div>\n
The selection process for the\u00a0designer is no mean feat. Randox Health begin by contacting\u00a0Goldsmiths who put together a showcase for them of the\u00a0contemporary silversmiths they can choose from.\u00a0They start with 65 and will be given some sort of silver piece to study by each designer before they whittle this list down to 21.<\/div>\n
At this stage, they get in touch with each chosen Silversmith and ask them to provide an idea, what do they think the trophy should look like?<\/div>\n
Then, they will choose a final three who will receive the brief and work on a design that meets their requirements.<\/div>\n
After this stage, Shannon\u2019s\u00a0beautiful helix structure stood out and so she had from August to create the trophy from scratch, which is not long at all!<\/div>\n
From the design, there are lots of lovely little touches that nod\u00a0towards Randox Health.<\/div>\n
The base of the trophy with their name on it has the drop of blood in the form of the stone.\u00a0Then of course there\u2019s the stem which is a wonderful spiral helix of DNA to represent the\u00a0thoroughbred racing lines.<\/div>\n
There are little horse shoes within and around the spiral to give the DNA some biological structure, they\u2019ve been carefully positioned to hold onto that mystic Irish luck.\u00a0When you get up to the bowl you\u2019ll see carvings of brain synapses, fat cells which also\u00a0replicate champagne bubbles, red blood cells and a magnificent heart beat of a racehorse borders the top of the trophy.\u00a0The trophy is Stirling silver and the DNA helix has been gilded in gold. All of these different\u00a0components help represent what it means for Randox Health to sponsor such a prestigious event.<\/div>\n
They\u2019re very passionate about what they do and hope that this will transpire into the racing crowd to be more aware of their health options.<\/div>\n
You can visit the studio at\u00a0Burghley but only if you make\u00a0an appointment. Shannon is open to commissions all year round with prices starting at just \u00a350 and as is clearly demonstrated here, no commission too\u00a0ambitious!<\/div>\n
It\u2019s the perfect way to give\u00a0someone a unique gift or perhaps create a memory in solid form.<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did you watch The Randox Health Grand National this year? Perhaps you even won some money on Tiger Roll, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[272,28],"class_list":["post-2237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlights","tag-burghley","tag-stamford"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland-and-stamford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland-and-stamford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland-and-stamford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland-and-stamford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland-and-stamford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland-and-stamford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland-and-stamford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland-and-stamford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland-and-stamford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland-and-stamford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}