what's going on here?
hi! i'm tracey fletcher, your friendly queer + nonbinary fiber artist friend! i am the hands behind the crafting - mostly woven art.
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woven crafts often require purchasing new fibers, but i source used/thrifted frames and vessels. yarn tails and scraps are 100% used - weftovers feature the longer pieces of yarn i end up with after a weaving, and whatever fluff and fuzz i trim off of those pieces is used to stuff catnip toys!
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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 interesting and 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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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 texture and color. and of course, the cat toys are 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!
my cats: sea hag is a tabby and cryptid is a void. (bones showed up after the rebrand)
"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 fiber art practice.
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 don't teach movement currently, but i still believe in 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 began weaving thanks to an instagram post in 2022 - as soon as i tried it, I realized this was the medium i had not known but needed my entire life. it scratches the itch of wanting to create textured, lumpy paintings and also the itch to sculpt.​
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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what's your process?
my weaving process is minimally planned, overall.
all of my frames are secondhand, and they guide the color palette of what will be inside. the way i weave uses a lot of different yarns, but it doesn't use a lot of each yarn, so i have a lot of options available. from those options i build a palette - a small weaving uses up to 30 fibers, larger weavings are at least 60-70 fibers.
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i drill little holes in the backs of the frames to turn them into looms and then warp them, which creates the vertical framework to weave on within the frame. then i weave! gravity exists, so weavings are built from the bottom up, kind of like a tetris.
(for contrast - you can paint anywhere on a canvas at any time)
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weaving is just a lot of decision making of what color/texture should come next as it builds up from the bottom. it takes time! and part of that time is stepping back to see the forest (instead of leaves) and figure out if it's working or what to change. smaller weavings take 8-20 hours, larger weavings can take much longer. the largest weavings i've made yet took 80-100 hours.
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then there's the matter of securing the tail ends and trimming excess off the back (those become weftovers!). unlike knitting or crochet, weaving requires pre-cutting sections of yarn to work with so there can be some excess on the backside. i also cover the backs of the frames with sturdy paper to protect the piece from snags - i don't use any glue on the weaving itself, it holds itself together!
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i often get asked if i teach weaving and i am working on figuring that out! i do have a "presentation" method that seems interesting to ages 10-14, currently.
have any brags?
it's weird to toot my own horn, but who else will if i don't?
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awards
award of merit - santa fe college spring arts festival 2024
award of merit - ridge art association 2024
award of merit - fine arts ocala 2024
judges' choice - chain of parks tallahassee 2025
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publications
tallahassee democrat 2024 (not the most accurate, but still an honor)
tallahassee magazine 2025
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