A Queer In A Field

The art blog of artist Leo Verstappen (25, NB, he/him they/them). I am a stonemason and artist, working in a variety of media.

[aqueerinafield]

Hey everyone, I only just came across this on my feed and I thought it needed some more attention. There are companies ransacking our oceans and getting away with it cause the fine hey get is less than the profit they make. This neo-colonial and ecological ransacking behaviour is disgusting and needs to be stopped please if you can send an email to the eu commissioner for fisheries. Hopefully this will help make a change in the right direction. Here is a link to make sending the email easy and quick:

https://stopthedirtydozen.org/act/dd-email-kadis?utm_source=organic-share&utm_medium=share-copy&utm_content=petition_chapter&utm_plan=anonymous

[aqueerinafield]

Recently I seen an open call and the brief was about the environment and human interaction. So I came up with an idea to make a little project that combines ivy weaving and crochet lace. I decided to look in the books I have to find a motive that spoke to me. I wanted to keep it traditional this time. I found one and boy did I wrestle with this motive. The pattern only had written instructions and the terms were outdated so it took a little bit of converting terms which is fine. But the next problem is that the petals for the small centre flower are worked over a row of chain stitches and not into the stitches of the centre ring, but this was not explicit so I had to redo this row a few times to figure that out. Then the pattern says that there are 4 rows, but that is not true depending on the technique and pattern adjustments. And for the last row with picot stitches I realised only after 2 attempts and adjustments that these stitches were not worked into but over the previous row of stitches. The upside of all of this is that I have gotten a lot better at reading pictures to figure out how it was made. The only thing that I did different is that I worked in continuous rows instead of what the pattern says and tieing off at the end of each row and working over a single thread cordonet. I will again try to make a pattern diagram. I really like how the petals of the centre flower pop up. The 3d effects were one of the things that made me fall in love with Irish crochet lace to begin with. See you all in the next post!

[aqueerinafield]

So after playing around with new motives I kinda got the idea of making a collar. It is a staple of Irish crochet lace after all and it will be smaller than the shirt I still haven't finished after several years working on it in my spare time. So I kinda just started thinking on how to start and I think I will make the top edge from one of the motives I recently made. I'll need 8 to go around my whole neck and I have 6 so far. Here is hoping I won't lose interest and drop this all together. However the next update will be about a work that I am planning to submit to an open call. But more on that then!

[aqueerinafield]

So while I am still waiting for a chance to get some more white yarn to finish the lace shirt I could not help myself but make more motives. So here are a few more I made a spiral, which was from me just playing around and then 2 circular motives I found on the Internet. The pattern was difficult to decipher as the picture was made with the camera of a Nintendo WII. But I might recreate (and improve as the patterns had some mistakes) them and release them once I get the hang of the pattern making software on my laptop. Enjoy!

[aqueerinafield]

Hey everyone I finally got around to making some more motives. This time I found two circular flower(esque) motives on the Internet and the spiral I came up with myself. I am just waiting till I have another opportunity to get myself my white crochet lace yarn from vibes and scribes in Cork city. Hope you all enjoy!

[aqueerinafield]

I made this handkerchief a week or so ago in response to the fuel protests and the disgusting violence of the gardaí and Irish government in response to the protests. It really solidified my disdain and anger for gardaí whom I already did not trust but now they are just nuremburg excusing their way out of it. I posted this earlier to my pattern but I just forgot to also post it here. I hope everyone from the protests is doing OK and I am happy that you can protest as I am not in a financial situation to do so unfortunately. That is why I find other ways like this to express myself. Anyway hope you are all doing well.

[aqueerinafield]

So I have been experimenting some more with the washers (cause I had more of those lying around). I am really liking these experiments and am thinking and sketching on how to incorporate these into a project. Hope you guys enjoy.

[aqueerinafield]

So I have been experimenting a bit with irish lace crochet and incorporating different materials into it like nuts and washers that I had lying around the house. The motive I used was an adapted traditional rose motive. It is a bit of mixed results. My fiancee said she liked the nut more than the washer but I think the opposite. What do you guys think?

[aqueerinafield]

So I have been messing around with the composition for the back of the irish crochet lace shirt and I settled on this. I think I might actually prefer this to the front.

Also fixed the glare on the camera cause it was god awful on the last photo. A lot of these motives are more free form and not from any book or pattern.

[aqueerinafield]

update Irish crochet lace shirt

I just wanted to post an update and keep regular interaction. I have been busy trying to finish the mesh of the lace shirt. It took a lot longer than I thought it would as they are just chain and slip stitches but I managed and I learned even more again and slowly got the hang of making chain stitches while the work is pinned down instead of held in my hand.

[aqueerinafield]

Update on the Irish crochet lace shirt

I have attached all the motives and am busy filling in the rest of the shirt with a mesh. The mesh is taking a lot longer than I expected even though it is just a bunch of slip and chain stitches. I am quite curious how many crochet stitches have gone into this project so far. I am excited to finish this half and move on to the back which will be a lot more simple as it is the back and I want to get the shirt finished and I won't see the back and most people won't look too much at the back.

[aqueerinafield]

Update WIP Irish crochet lace shirt

This is a Irish crochet lace shirt that I started a while back. I am just connecting all the different motives together and then making the surrounding mesh with chain stitches

[aqueerinafield]

Welcome

Hey this is just an introductory post. My name is Leo (he/they) and I am an artist living in Ireland. I have a BA in fine art and a MA in art in the contemporary world both from the NCAD in Dublin. This blog will record in progress work and a few thoughts and streams of consciousness. I work in a variety of media but stone and lace/textile art are at the moment the main ones. Hope you enjoy my art!

I also have a patreon if you want to support me financially, but no obligation of course.

Patreon: https://patreon.com/LeoVerstappen?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink

insta: https://www.instagram.com/artist_leo_lace_n_stone/