Leaf of Lorien

I'm starting my LoTR planning by making myself a Leaf of Lorien.  

I'm using FIMO Effects modelling Clay by #Staedtler in "Glitter Green" 

"Not idly do the leaves of Lorien fall" ~ (Aragorn)

Step One:  I printed out a picture of the leaf of Lorien in the size that I wanted it (I went for 10cm x 6.8cm) and roll thin lengths of clay with your fingers to cover all of the veins of the leaf, making the ends of each bit taper off to a point, as it creates a more realistic effect.  I used a round glass mat to work on, but you could easily just cover a book with clingfilm - just make sure that it's not something that your clay will stick on.

Step Two: I did the same, but with longer lengths of clay, building the outline of the leaf.

Step Three:  I put the 'veins' to one side and worked on the body of the leaf next.  I rolled out the clay to about 1mm deep and enough to cover the template.

Step Four:  I used a cocktail stick to engrave the outline of the template into the clay.

Step Five: I cut out the leaf outline (I used a standard kitchen knife, but a craft knife would be a lot easier).

Step Six: Here is where I found my glass plate particularly useful - I flipped the glass over and used it to place the veins on top of the body of the leaf.  Because I could see through the glass, I was able to match them up more or less perfectly.  Without a glass plate, I'd recommend doing it the other way and placing the leaf on the veins, apply a little pressure to get them to stick to each other, and then peel the leaf off of your working surface.

Step Seven:  I added the "stem" and "vines."  These will be painted silver later.

Step Eight: Using a cocktail stick, I added texture to the leaf.

Step Nine: I flipped the leaf and placed a needle on the back, securing it with some more clay.  (This is so that I can add a brooch attachment later.)

Step Ten: Bake!  I put mine in the oven at 110 degrees centigrade for 20 minutes.  Depending on how thick you have rolled your clay, it may take longer - but not more than 30 minutes.

Step Eleven: Paint!  I used green and white acrylic paint (I would have used silver instead of white, but I didn't have any).  

Step 12: I coated the whole brooch with clear nail varnish to give it an enamel sheen.

Et voila!

LoTR Party!

I've started a new project - I'm having a Tolkein themed party for my 18th 

(the party will be on the weekend of the 1st - 2nd of February).

I'm working on all of the props, invitations, recipes, and will bring you along with me!

We're going on an Adventure!

Gap Year Plans

While I'm writing this post, I'm sat in a picturesque location of the Lakeland fells.  I'm in Blencathra Field Centre, completing my Gold Duke of Edinburgh residential, at the moment I'm waiting for everybody else to arrive (which they will do at 3.30pm).

I decided about 2 weeks before results came out that I'd really like to complete a Gap Year before going to University.  Law is a really intense course, and career, to go into, so I've decided that if I want to go travelling, I'm only really going to have this one opportunity to do so.

So, I'm going to talk you through a few of my plans. 

Firstly, next year, for a few months the title of this blog is going to change.  I'm planning on walking all 214 of Arthur Wainwright's fells in just over 2 months, wild camping and B&Bing my way around the beautiful Lake District.  And, every week or so, I'll be logging on and talking about the routes I've taken, the weather, the views, etc.  I can promise some stunning scenery!

This is all training.  By the end of the year, I'm hoping to have completed the 3 peaks challenge; have gone to Sicily with my sister to climb Mount Etna; and train up my school's teams for the Ten Tors Challenge.  Maybe I could have another go at the Gold challenge if they need a reserve.

Other things I'm planning on doing are learning to play the violin (something I've wanted to do for years, but have never got around to) and getting shed-loads of work experience.  The ideal would to get a 3 or 6 month contract for a firm, and do basic secretarial tasks (and get paid) but that's so incredibly unlikely to happen.  So, work experience in the day, and a part time job in the evenings to fund the rest of the challenges that I take on.

That's more or less everything I have at the moment :)  Lots more to think about, and I need to get some of these plans finalised.  Most importantly, I'm going to be keeping September 2014 free in order to complete my University application and LNAT.  Excited!

Extended Project: Primary Research

Another post about my extended project.  You might be bored of it, but I need somewhere to go through my ideas, so here is where I'm doing it!

Tonight I've taken on the challenge of looking for primary research.  To get the top marks, I need to feature quite a lot of research that I haven't just lifted out of books and off of the internet, and I've decided that I really want to contact people that I really care about the opinion of.  So, I've been contacting all of the people that might be teaching me in the years to come that specialise in Criminal Law.

My current title, if you didn't know, is 'to what extent should violent crimes be subject to contrasting legal consequences in the English Legal System if it can be proven that there was no intent to cause harm?'

It's slowly becoming more and more specific.  It began life just considering intent, and then I was told that there was a word limit.  Not impressed.  My supervisor had told me that I could write as much as I liked, but when I had to be signed off by my Head of Year (in order to be allowed to finish for Summer), I was told that I was allowed a maximum of 5,200 words.  Maybe this might have been good information before having written a 2000 word introduction, but now I'm having to cut down massively.

I'm covering Manslaughter, Self-Defense, Euthanasia, Crimes of Passion, and what I'm calling 'Passionate Crimes.'  This includes my favourite piece of case law that I've found so far, which you can find in my earlier post 'What is meant by intent?'  I'm probably going to need to cut it down substantially, but I really don't know which bit to cut out.  Crimes of Passion is a possibility, but Euthanasia is going to be the most removed section.  I've two options really, if it goes massively over the word count:
(1) Not talk about Euthanasia at all
(2) Write about Euthanasia for fun and post it here for you to read...

Depends on how much effort it takes really, and if you let me know whether you're interested in reading my findings (that's a cheeky request for you to comment about your thoughts, by the way).

I've been talking about collecting primary research, and commenting, so I'm going to give you something to comment about.  Could you please let me know your thoughts about the following points (could be one, two, or all, it doesn't matter to me) and let me know how you're 'qualified' - this might mean that you're a 'prospective law student from Sheffield' or a 'law lecturer from Dundee' or 'a past magistrate' or even 'just a guy/girl who's interested in reading your blog'  I'm genuinely really interested to hear your thoughts, whether by private message or in the comment box below.

Thank you for reading, once again, and hope to hear from you soon!

Criminal Intent Survey

Hello Readers!

I'm powering along with my extended project and have created a short 5 question survey to gain some feedback about how far people think that intentions matter in varying situations.

You can find it here! >> http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GMJW97D

Please give me a hand and lend me 5 minutes of your time - if you'd be so kind.

"I'd rather kill myself"

This is just a quick one, as I'm mid-Extended-Project at the moment.

I heard on the news this morning that a man is appealing against his extradition to America by saying that he'd "rather kill himself than be extradited."  It's ridiculous.  If everyone could get out of things by threatening suicide, then we'd have murderers running rampant in the streets.  Nobody would pay taxes, because they'd "rather kill themselves."

"I'd rather kill myself than go to school."

"I'd rather kill myself than tidy my room."

"I'd rather kill myself than not win the lottery."

If we all got what we wanted by threatening to kill ourselves, then we'd all be very rich, very lazy, and very spoiled.  Lock him up with nothing to kill himself with, and then there'll be nothing to worry about.  A precedent cannot be set that says that if a criminal starts making threats against their own life, they'd receive a lesser sentence.

The Life Sentence

With the "whole-life" sentences being questioned in the news at the moment, I was actually quite shocked to read that only 50 people in the whole of the British prison system actually have these whole-life sentences.  It's probably because I'm a little sceptical about the nature of human beings, I'm unconvinced that people are intrinsically good - and I'm blatantly surprised that it's a mere 50 people that have committed crimes worthy of this whole-life sentence.

This week (if you've been under a rock and haven't seen it in the news), three men who have been given this sentence have made appeals to the European Court of Human Rights, that the sentence they've been given is "inhumane and degrading."

Let's take Jeremy Bamber.  He killed 5 people to gain his sentence of "at least 25 years" - his two step-parents, his sister and her two 6 year old sons.  The next appellant is Peter Moore, in the early 1990s, Mr Moore killed 4 men, reportedly "for fun."  The final man (at least mentioned by the newspapers) was Douglas Vinter who was sentenced to a life sentence for killing his work mate and then killed his wife upon his release.

Personally, I would rather that these people were never released.  The British penal system has three strands:
(1) Rehabilitation and Reform
(2) Protection of Society
(3) Punishment

If these men are 'beyond reform' - as I'd argue, at the very least, Douglas Vinter is (after all, the life sentence didn't do much to reform him last time, did it?) then there shouldn't be any opportunity for release.  For me, release without reform is, frankly, irresponsible and too much of a risk to society.  By this, I'm not saying that the penal system is good in every case, for petty crimes, there are often better options than prison - as community service often has a better track record with keeping criminals from reoffending than locking them up (where they can interact and learn from worse criminals...)  What I'm saying, is that it is in the best interest of society to keep them where they cannot cause further harm.

But apparently, the European Court of Human Rights doesn't agree with me.  Or, at least, that's the view that many newspapers are portraying.  What the ECtHR have said is that there should be an opportunity for review, and that this does not have to lead to release.  So, nobody is telling us that they have to be released.  What they're saying is, that without the incentive to reform, they won't - which is true - and that the only incentive to reform when given an indefinite sentence, is the opportunity for release.  I don't know how many hoops they'd have to jump through to gain their release, but I can't imagine the British government would make it easy for them.  And besides, despite my incredulity, there are only 50 people that this would apply to.  In theory, I'm happy with them getting the opportunity to appeal their sentence every once in a while, but somehow I question whether I'd be as happy if I thought they'd actually succeed...

So, should there be an appeals system?  Does "good-behaviour" in prison really matter if they might be faking reform just for release?  Do you, even, believe that it would be cheaper, easier and more humane to bring back the death penalty?  Your thoughts are very welcome :)