For small business Saturday, we wanted to share a little more about the crew here at Peg and Awl, and our favourite treasures to make and use. Despite our effort to smallen the business, it blooms – our crew is growing again!

We design, make, photograph, and ship nearly everything here at The Five Acre Wood.

When buying from small businesses, we support places where opinions matter, hands make, and people have the freedom to share stories and ideas. Let’s celebrate all of us – and all of you – who continue to make this all possible – thank you!

Arianne

“I started working for Peg and Awl in December of 2012. Learning so many skills and experiencing the magic of making and growing has been the most exciting working environment I’ve ever been in. I’m a leather-smith, seamstress, and bookbinder now, and eager to expand more. The Tote I carry everyday I made with my own hands. My Writer’s Pouch sits in my Tote and holds all my daily knick-knacks. I get to spend all day with my favorite dog companion Pancake and make treasures surrounded by the ever changing Five Acre Wood.”

Ari has been working on a small batch of Nutshells Mini Sendaks that will be available soon!

Niko

“If you’ve emailed us before, we’ve probably talked, so hi again! Recently I’ve been obsessed with board game design – specifically ones that have some strange mechanics or unique packaging, (current favorite is Oath). Outside of Peg & Awl, I design stationery products with a focus on planning and organization, under the name Bonk.”

Kino Coffee Table

Margaux

“I am rambler, dreamer, thing maker, and story gatherer here. And messmaker. I love old things and new things and change. I write and draw and photograph and ungarden and move. I love everything we make and always want to make more…”

Sendak Mini Artist Roll

Walter

“Walter is the co-founder of Peg and Awl, my partner in everything, and my favourite model when I can catch him! He’s kept this business organized and smooth sailing. Since Our Smallening, he spends his new found time doing all manner of things, including dry stack wall building and lots of soccer. He has grand plans for grand projects around the Five Acre Wood that we are all looking forward to. He paints and draws and is currently working on a website to share his magic. ”

The Steinbeck Desk

Oil on Canvas, Painted with his Scout Plein Air Box

Ashley

“I’ve been working for Peg and Awl since 2020, although it doesn’t feel like work, especially since a large part of my job is spending time with Margaux, talking and ‘working’, as every newsletter requires. The Mini Tote fulfills my dreams of the cutest tote ever, and although it took a year of convincing that we needed a smaller, cuter bag, it finally made it into the shop, and I carry mine often.”

The Mini Tote

Natalie

“I’ve enjoyed seeing the of a kinds collections come to life from the inside and really loved the bloom pouches we made this year. I’ve been lucky in bringing a little bit of Peg and Awl home with my very own Sendak(!) and Anselm book binding kits. All loved items! My boys, aged 7 and 9, had so much fun learning how to book bind! You can find me working with the leather and finishing the bags and pouches, and sometimes behind the lens when Margaux steps in front of it with Pearl.”

The Sendak Artist Roll

Victoria

“My journey with Peg and Awl has just begun, and I am grateful to be a part of this wonderful team of artists. The incorporation of upcycled materials here holds a special place in my heart, and I have been learning new skills in bookbinding and leatherwork. My personal artistic practices include puppet fabrication, illustration, and sculpting teeny, life-sized beetles.”

Little Windows Art Prints

Søren

Søren is an enjoyer of Peg and Awl products. He was our summer bookbinder and Sendak finisher at Peg and Awl and has been the inspiration for so much of what we do! He has two Steinbeck desks in his studio space – he is homeschooled and working on animation and video game design this year. He loves to work on paper too, often filling Tomes with drawings of his fantastical worlds and characters. Often filling sketchbooks he’s made, he shares a new morsel each day – you can find his work here.

One of Søren’s many coverless journals made with our tutorials!

Silas

Silas has been a part of Peg and Awl since he was born. He appreciates the craftsmanship and has partaken in the woodworking and jewelry-making with Walter through the years. He chose to return to public school this year for soccer and wrestling, and is having a grand time. The Small Hunter was designed for him and Søren when they were small, and we use them still. Now, his favourite bag is the Rogue Backpack, which we no longer make but all love dearly.

Young Silas with his favorites, the Steinbeck Desk and Joad Chair

Oliver

Oliver has been with us for ten years, but it sure feels like a lifetime... a lifetime of proper formatting and exclamation point elimination. He is the mastermind behind all things computer, from building a database, to making our new website come to life. He was a party pooper (again), and chose accoutrements and add-ons for his favorite products, so for the first year, we are honoring his choices.

Canvas Swatch Books

Pancake and Pearl

Leaders of Human Resources

Cultivating Place: Natural History & Our Gardens

Scout Plein Air Box Review

Scout Plein Air Box Review

The Sendak Artist Roll Review

More Leslie Stroz Videos Featuring Peg and Awl!

I love making journals and all kinds of books to fill up. To be clear, I make them to fill them. I am not a blank book collector. My books get dirty and bent and filled to the brim. They are meant for ideas, drawings, journaling, and more. (I may share in a future post!)

To start, we decided to share some unconventional journal making processes. Here, I filmed myself making my most recent journal from old book covers, antique textiles, an old painty escutcheon, a tetra pak print and other treasures. This is the second book* that I made like this with no plans. You can hear my wheels turning in this video from start to finish — enthusiastic, doubtful, and joyous throughout the process

My sister-in-law Ashley, one of the Peg and Awl crew, edited it — bloopers and all! We hope you enjoy it!

Do let us know what you think. Please ask questions and share your books made with our instructions. We’d love to see them and share some here!

 

Things you will need

1. Paper
2. Glue
3. Scissors
4. Thread
5. Needle
6. Ruler
7. Fabric
8. Pencil
9. Vintage book or something for your cover
10. Doodads if you’d like
11. Heavy books for a press

 

If you’ve just discovered us and our tutorials, go to Bookbinding at Home, Part 2: How to Stitch a Coverless Journal to learn how to stitch the inside of the book. If you have a cover you want to use, prepare your pages to fit! But don’t take your first one (or any) so seriously. You must play to learn:)

 

Adventures with the Scout Plein Air Box

In the beginning of September, I (Walter) felt the call of adventure, packed my Scout Plein Air Box and art supplies, a few changes of clothes and set out – this time a little further from home. An early morning Uber drive, two plane rides across the country, and a 4-hour van trip later, I found myself in the high country of Yosemite National Park, with a 50 lb pack on my back accompanied by three fellow adventurers and our guide. We were on a 5-day hike into the wilderness to escape the crowds of people and the endless demands of our busy lives, to camp under millions of stars that illuminated the night sky, to swim in the refreshingly freezing lakes fed by melting snow, to climb Vogelsang Peak, and for me to plein air paint.

Finding a nice spot to paint

Vogelsang is the one on the left

Painting by Fletcher Lake

The sunrise

 

A journal entry during the trip

I saw a bear yesterday! We were sitting drinking coffee and in the distant clearing a bear was moseying up the hill towards the lake. I burst out, “There’s a bear, there’s a bear!” We all jumped up and followed him. For a moment we lost him in the brush and when we got to the lake, he had somehow crossed from the left side of us to the right and he was super close! Preoccupied with breakfast, his head was down in the water. Occasionally he popped up with a mouthful of small fish. Chomping away, he looked around slowly then got back to snacking. When the water hole no longer proved satisfactory to his appetite, he turned away from us and went further into the reeds. We could see the tops of the tall grass shaking and hear the water splashing. He seemed to be having a grand time!

After breakfast we packed our day bags. With a few snacks, a rain jacket, and my paint box, I was ready. We set out through the meadow over a creek and began to climb a winding trail up to Vogelsang Lake. After a quick swim, we continued the trek to Vogelsang Summit. The going was steady but gradually slowed as the path steepened. When we reached the pass, we transitioned into rock scrambling. Loose gravel made for unsteady steps, and I stuck to boulder hopping, avoiding the gravely path as much as possible. On the final ascent we trail blazed through thick low piney brush. We bushwhacked our way up, intermittently discovering a patch of bare rock only to lose it again under the gnarly needled thicket.

The last few feet we had to hoist ourselves up onto rock ledges using the cracks as holds. As we scrambled up the final rock the world opened around us. Below lay a vast array of granite peaks dotted with ice melt lakes. The pine trees stitched each mountain together and the range went on as far as our eyes could see, disappearing into the hazy horizon. We could see Half Dome jutting up from the rest, completely bald, a formidable hunk of granite! We sat up on that razor edge ridge for a while and I attempted to capture the land below with my paints, brushes and canvas. During the descent we stopped at Vogelsang Lake for a late lunch and an invigorating swim before heading back to camp. What a day! How amazing life can be!

Rock scrambling

Painting atop Vogelsang

Leaving Vogelsang Summit

The Bear!

Vogelsang Lake in the distance

First painting of the trip

Right outside my tent

Goodnight!

Coming Soon: Postcards and Prints of the Yosemite National Park Plein Air Paintings!

Toulomne Meadows

Vogelsang Summit

Fletcher Lake

The view from my tent

The Scout Plein Air Box: A Backstory

The Scout Plein Air Box was inspired by our endeavor to make art every day. Each one is handmade in our West Chester, Pennsylvania workshop. It compactly secures all of your essential art supplies for painting outdoors. Fill your box with your favorite colors, paintbrushes, and sketchbook. Find your spot and quickly transform the box into a mini studio. Set it on a flat surface or mount it on a tripod, snap the liquid jars, brush holder, and easel in place, clip on your canvas and you are ready to paint. Read our earlier blog post for more of the Scout's story, or dig into its features and uses with our video walkthrough!