what's going on here?
hi! i'm tracey, your friendly queer + nonbinary fiber artist friend! i am the hands behind the crafting - mostly dyed fabrics and woven art.
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i enjoy experimenting with a range of dyeing styles including ice dye, capillary action, and dye painting. each method requires different levels of effort and time and produces interestingly different results! whatever method i choose, i try to be as sustainable and frugal as possible - i even use rinse water to flush my toilet! seriously, my bathroom is constantly full of buckets of water.
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woven crafts often require purchasing new fibers, but the vessels and attachments i do try to source used/thrifted. yarn tails and scraps get 100% used, too - weftovers feature the longer pieces of yarn i end up with after a weaving, and whatever fluff and fuzz i trim off of these pieces gets saved to use as stuffing for catnip toys!
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nearly every element for tabby+void is hand crafted. i carve my own stamps and make my own screens for printing. i stamp, cut, and sew labels into shirts by hand. hang tags are hand traced, cut, stamped, and individually written for each piece, then hung with the scrap thread from sewing labels in. paper scraps get saved and turned into handmade paper (still haven't found a use for it yet, but it's a stack!). and of course, clothes are mended by hand if needed, and dyed, rinsed and washed by hand. all yarn crafts are hours of work of manipulating the fibers to be a soft combination of sculpture and image. and of course, the cat toys are stamped, cut, sewed, and stuffed by hand!
i believe in finding a use for every thing until it is all used up, and that even applies to my tools. a lot of the frameworks i use for dyeing are side-of-the-road finds. and i must acknowledge the community support i've received - donations of craft supplies, market furniture, clothes, yarns, ideas, assistance, and friendship.​
what's with the name?
this name has a fun double meaning: cats and weaving!
sea hag is a tabby and cryptid is a void.
"tabby" is also the basic "over under over under etc" stitch that is maybe the most used stitch in weaving. i'm not sure if "void" is a stitch per se, but that's what i call it when i skip a row. if you want to get really poetic with it, maybe the loom is the void the weaving fills in.... any wayyyyy
the cats add a little love to everything i make - if you're very allergic please send your washable items straight to the washer upon arrival; cat hair is inevitable. i think the cats think i actually started a cat bed company more than a clothing company.
if your weaving has any extra fuzz to it, a gentle dab with painters tape or a lint roller should do the trick!
what's your backstory?
my best friend and i started painting shirts in high school. we were bored, we loved to create, and we had fun ideas. we drew, hand painted by stencil and light table, and sold shirts to our friends. we stuck mostly to white tshirts and simplified designs.
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we moved apart for college, and while she began creating under different names and with different media, tshirt painting stuck for me. it was a creative outlet that i could share with others that fit my personality. i ventured into more freehand designs and dipped my toe into screen printing too. i didn’t want my loved hobby to turn into a drain on me, though, and eventually went on hiatus again when life got busy.
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in the creative hiatus i started my own house cleaning business and began teaching yoga - both of which i still do, just in different formats! i love cleaning for the same reason i love creating - instant visual gratification. so i offer one-time-big-cleanings in the tallahassee area. i still teach movement, too - it's all about learning how your body moves and how to make that work for you.
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in 2020, i suddenly had more free time than i had had in eight years, and i got creative again. i’ve acquired and developed painting, fabric dying, embroidery, screen printing, knitting, weaving, cross stitch, sculpture, and design skills over these years, and i’m really excited to share them again.
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i am always open to questions, feel free to email me at tabbyandvoid@gmail.com or reach out on facebook or instagram!
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