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Saturday 25 August 2012

Custom Made Paperweights

“Not more custom made paperweights” I hear you so. I am afraid so, not sure what to blog about this week so thought I would show off a few more paperweights that I have made recently. I love blogging about my jewellery but I get excited when I am asked to encase something different within a paperweight... and just want to share them with everyone!

The first paperweight contains several parrot feathers and this was made for a lady in America. The photograph really doesn’t do the paperweight justice since in real life the subtle colours and textures of the feathers are fantastic.

Custom Made Paperweight - Feather Paperweight
Parrot Feather Paperweight


This next paperweight is the first one I have made to contain a real flower. The flower was actually brought back to the UK from a funeral that was held in Cyprus and I am sure made a lovely keepsake.

Custom Made Paperweight - Real Flower Paperweight
Real Flower Paperweight


This next paperweight is a square option that I provide and in this case contains a lock of hair...

Custom Made Paperweight - Lock of Hair Paperweight
Lock of Hair Paperweight


The beauty about the square paperweight is that it can be stood upright on one of its edges to provide a display piece as illustrated in this example:

Hair Keepsake
Hair Keepsake


If you would like to read more about my paperweights, please visit my Custom Made Paperweights website page.

I appreciate I haven’t been blogging for a while but it should be back to normal next week since my children go back to school! It has been a little difficult juggling my jewellery business and entertaining them over the summer holidays but I have managed to survive!

Mick

Friday 10 August 2012

My London 2012 Olympics Experience

It all started last Saturday when I had a visit from my brother who asked if I was interested in going to London the next day (Sunday 5th August 2012) to watch the Olympics. He had managed to get tickets that day including some extremely sought-after tickets for the stadium to watch the athletics!

How could I turn down a chance of a lifetime opportunity like that; we set off for London at 5.00am the next day and after parking and getting the tube, we arrived at the extremely impressive Excel centre in the docklands area.

London 2012 Olympics - Excel Arena
London 2012 Olympics - Excel Arena


The Excel building is huge and houses indoor Olympic events including Wrestling, boxing, fencing, weight lifting and our event Table Tennis (or ping-pong that we were calling it). We watched over four hours of quarter final team performances between China and Singapore (for which my Brother bought a Chinese flag that he was waving between points) and a very close game between Hong Kong and Japan.

London 2012 Olympics - Mens Table Tennis Teams
London 2012 Olympics - Mens Table Tennis Teams


The arena was packed and we were treated to some excellent games and jaw-dropping rallies from the players. When the ping-pong finished we made our way via the tube to the Olympic park. First impressions were how clean, tidy and well organised it was and after passing through the airport style security checks we began to look around.

London 2012 Olympics - Olympic Park
London 2012 Olympics - Olympic Park


We had all afternoon in the Olympic park until early evening when we needed to head for the Olympic stadium so had plenty of time to soak up the atmosphere and have a good look around. We soon began to appreciate the enormity of the place and did lots of walking and taking in the sights.

London 2012 Olympics - Around the Park
London 2012 Olympics - Around the Park


The Olympic stadium itself is the centre piece of the park and is enormous. It seats 80,000 people however seems a lot bigger and has a beautiful presence.

London 2012 Olympics - Olympic Stadium
London 2012 Olympics - Olympic Stadium


Close by to the stadium is the Orbit, love it or hate it, initially I found it quite odd but began to quite like it as the afternoon wore on.

London 2012 Olympics - The Orbit
London 2012 Olympics - The Orbit


The landscape of the Olympic park has been very well planned with and has a mature almost wild feel to it with lots of flowers and trees; it is hard to imagine that the park has only recently been built and feels like it has always been here.

London 2012 Olympics - Olympic Park Landscape
London 2012 Olympics - Olympic Park Landscape


They have even thought about the flooring with a mixture of traditional tarmac, wooden decked flooring and this beautiful multi-coloured floor used throughout the park.

London 2012 Olympics - Olympic Park Floor
London 2012 Olympics - Olympic Park Floor


We took a breather and escaped the endless meandering crowds and visited the Park Live area to watch the Big screen TV.

London 2012 Olympics - Park Live area
London 2012 Olympics - Park Live area


We then continued our walk around the Olympic park and witnessed the different architecture around the park. From the Athletes village that reminded me of Eastern Europe blocks of flats...

London 2012 Olympics - Athletes Village
London 2012 Olympics - Athletes Village


...To the beautiful wooden exterior of the Velodrome.

London 2012 Olympics - The Velodrome
London 2012 Olympics - The Velodrome


It was now time for our evening entertainment within the Olympic stadium. Armed with our Team GB Great Britain flags we entered the stadium and it was awesome! The stadium was much bigger than I expected and as always so well organised.

London 2012 Olympics - Inside the stadium
London 2012 Olympics - Inside the stadium


We had a great night’s entertainment including Gold medal ceremonies for Greg Rutherford (long jump) and Mo Farah (1000 meters), Christine Ohuruogu winning a silver medal (400m), 400 metres hurdles, women’s triple jump, men’s high jump, men’s 1500m, men’s hammer, men’s steeplechase and then the highlight of the night watching Usain Bolt win a gold medal in the 100m final...Wow what a day!

London 2012 Olympics - Athletics
London 2012 Olympics - Athletics


My fondest memory of the London 2012 Olympic games has to be of the ‘Games Makers’, an army of volunteers who provide help, directions and a very warm welcome to all the visitors to the Olympics. They always had smiles on their faces and went out of their way to help and many entertained the crowds whilst we queued to enter venues.

London 2012 Olympics - Olympic Park at Night
London 2012 Olympics - Olympic Park at Night


What a brilliant day and one I am unlikely to have again in my lifetime (it isn’t often the Olympics comes to Britain) and a day I will never forget.

Mick