Renovations and the inhabiting of the nearly abandoned building in Port Richmond, Philadelphia.
...In succession
Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended,
Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place
Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass.
Old stone to new building, old timber to new fires
Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth…
—T.S. Eliot from the Four Quartets, East Coker
We’ve done it! We’ve completely cleared out of our olde building, The Atlas Casket Factory, our home for the last 5 years and into our new space – The Foundlings Building! We’ve hauled every last tool, big and small, and every last maker into our new space – our open, air flowing, beautifully bright new home with parking and sunshine and in Port Richmond, Philadelphia. And it has all happened in less than a year!
Walter, Joe, Chris and Josh, as well as a handful of others, have been transforming the space over the last 9 months and still, we’ve all managed to make and design and send most* orders out without delay. We are incredibly fortunate to have such a wonderfully talented, efficient and productive team as well as our supportive following – you! Our new space will no doubt be an inspiring place to create more treasures, photographs, jobs, and joyful days. And in time – a garden!
In addition to the building and the land, there is an elevated train track that borders one side of the property and the wall has already become the most fantastic backdrop for our new photographs.
We named the building Foundlings, as it is my hope to discover much about this tiny piece of land, both through the locals’ stories, and hopefully (look for me with a metal detector or a privy stick!) underground. Our acre was carved out in the early 1800s, as evidenced by some old maps (PhilaGeoHistories). There were homes built upon it and torn down, and sometime between 1934 and 1942, our building was erected as the new home of The Phoenix Dye Works. In the 1980s it was closed up (maybe even before), and in it grew a darkness, loaded with stuff and years of stories. When Walter tore through the ceiling to put in skylights, the dirt and dust came alive, dancing in a beam of sunlight eager to discover new territories.
It is 2017, and at Peg and Awl, we are ready to begin building our new stories...
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And here we are, another major transition! We are selling our Philadelphia building and moving Peg and Awl to our barn.
We’re Moving Out of Philadelphia
...and it's bittersweet!We are very fortunate – as a family and small business owners – to be able to follow our curiosities to wherever they may lead. Here we find ourselves in another major transition! We – Walter and I, Søren and Silas too, have decided to sell the Peg and Awl building in Port Richmond Philadelphia, and move our business into our Barn here in Chester County, Penna. It felt like a quick decision, but it was the culmination of much quiet consideration. I have always been spontaneous – or so it seems – so much is accomplished in our sleep.
Yesterday was warm and wondrous. As I walked from Port Richmond to Old City for a last minute hair appointment at Barnet Fair, and to treasure hunt at Vagabond Boutique, I felt the weight of nostalgia for what we would soon be leaving, and a lightness too, as I imagined floating, for the first time in a while, into a new unknown.
Lights off – we were about to leave on Saturday but paused for a quick mirror family photograph! Our barn as seen from the woods! Some Things to Look Forward to in the Coming Year!
- New Website! We’ve been working on it for a long time – we don’t have a launch date yet, but soon!
- New Jewellery! If you’ve been following along on Instagram – you may have seen some glimpses of these projects over the past few years.
- New Of A Kind Adventures! (accompanied by more Flea Market adventures, read here!)
- Exciting Pivots!
We will have a smaller space for to make and to store treasures, which is why we are reducing our catalog to our favourites and yours!
The Foundlings (Peg and Awl) Building: Before and After
Read about the Shop Renovation Project, here!
We’ve put a lot of work into our workshop since we bought the dark and closed-up building in 2016 – from opening cinder-blocked windows and tearing down walls, to transforming the gravel and pavement into gardens. We built and set up a storefront (that we never officially opened) just before the pandemic. We poured concrete floors and filled the wide open space with an abundance of tools and machines and worked with our wonderous crew to design, make, and ship all of the treasures that we share around the world.
We look forward to the next adventure for Peg and Awl and, too, for the building! The dream is always for some magic makers to take the reins and re-imagine a better, brighter, greener, and cleaner corner of Philadelphia.
A lot happens through word of mouth — if you know someone who may be interested, please share!
After
Storefront, trees, plants, and windows!
Before
A lightless old space full of stuff.
After
Employee gardens and honey bees~Before
Concrete slab (though locals told us it was a wading pool in the summers and an ice hockey rink in the winters!)
After
A part of the woodshop!
During
Pouring the concrete floor.
During
Knocking down the in-between wall.
Before 
Renovations and the inhabiting of the nearly abandoned building in Port Richmond, Philadelphia.
The Barn: Our New ShopRead On: Our Barn Restoration Project
We will continue to make treasures in Philadelphia over the next few months. In May, we will be opening our new workspace to the public for a Studio Tour in May! There we will share our art, showroom, and the goings on of the new iteration of Peg and Awl.
This space will be a gallery and showroom.
Walter’s cozy loft studio will remain Walter’s cozy loft studio.
Our Barn Restoration ProjectRead On: Our Barn Restoration Project
“...By the time we had finished removing the rotted bits, the trusses, the rafters, and the floors, it was hard to say if we were reclaiming an old barn, or building a new one in its image. The barn shape – the space within the frame – became one of the few parts I could solidly say remained from the historic place. But over the next few weeks, as I observed the delicate skeleton of the old barn standing strong but precarious in the wind and rain – with day now inside and night inside too – I grew suspicious of this boundaryless thing I wanted to keep. What were we preserving, and more, why?”
The Old Barn from the road. 
Original wall that divides the two parts of the barn. Pearl and Søren, my loves. A new view! We’re Moving Out of Philadelphia, and It’s Bittersweet!
We’re Moving Out of Philadelphia...and it's bittersweet! We are very fortu...
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The Scout Plein Air Box was inspired by our endeavor to make art every day. Each one is handmade in our Philadelphia workshop. Watch our video showing how we make the Scout Plein Air Box!
The Scout Plein Air Box was inspired by our endeavor to make art every day. Each one is handmade in our Philadelphia 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. Watch our video showing how we make the Scout Plein Air Box!
Original Plein Air Oil Paintings by Walter Kent
“It has been nearly three years since I returned from a painting workshop in Italy, taught by Jeremy Mann and Nadezda, hosted by Art Escape Italy. This was my first experience plein air painting and once I returned home I immediately made my own pochade box, the Scout. During the last three years I have gone out on many painting adventures, both alone and with my family, with the Scout over my shoulder.
When I wander out into the world to paint, there is a game of tug of war twisting knots in my stomach, with my hopes and fears digging their heals in on either side. After the first few strokes of paint, the excitement of possibility takes over. These attempts at capturing the fleeting moments of the world around me line the windowsills of our studio.I’ve selected some of my favorite Plein Air oil paintings, breadcrumbs of my path as an artist, and we are excited to share them with the everyone. Each painting has been varnished for protection and is signed and marked with its location and date and is fitted with a ready-to-hang frame made of reclaimed blackened walnut.” –Walter
Indian Lake, New York 2022 Shaw’s Bridge, Pennsylvania 2021 
Delaware Water Gap No. 3, Pennsylvania 2021
Barnegat Bay, New Jersey 2020 Starr Farm, Pennsylvania 2021 
Kaaterskill Falls, New York 2022
Lake Superior, Wisconsin 2020 Kerhonkson, New York 2022 
Ready-to-Hang frames are made of reclaimed blackened walnut.
How We Make the Scout Plein Air Box and Original Paintings by Walter Kent
The Scout Plein Air Box was inspired by our endeavor to make art every day....
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After many prototypes, countless customer requests, and an endless search for sustainable leather, The Franklin Makers Apron is finally here! Our Apron champions the virtues of hard work, curiosity, ingenuity, and industriousness, and it has quickly become one of our favorite companions while working in the studio or at home.
After many prototypes, countless customer requests, and an endless search for sustainable leather, The Franklin Makers Apron is finally here!
On our first trip to England together, Margaux and I discovered a magical art supply shop on a small cobblestone street. Like something pulled out of Diagon Alley, it was lined with dark oak, floor-to-ceiling shelves overflowing with pigments of all kinds: oil paints, pastels, watercolors, and more. Ladders and spiral staircases led to stacks of dusty boxes each holding the possibilities of masterpieces yet to be made. We spent hours exploring the nooks and crannies, and amongst all the treasures, we discovered two artist aprons, the last from a company no longer in existence. They looked like relics of a bygone era, plucked from the studio of Sargent or Klimt. We left the shop, each with an apron, and though Peg and Awl hadn’t yet begun, the seed to someday make our own version, had been planted.
Our Apron champions the virtues of hard work, curiosity, ingenuity, and industriousness, and has quickly become one of our favorite companions while working in the studio or at home. Its durable canvas armor protects against dirt, paint, liquids and debris, and with multiple waist and chest pockets it provides ample storage so tools are secure and conveniently accessible. The Franklin is available in two sizes, and the suspender-style vegetable tanned leather straps and belt have multiple settings to comfortably fit a variety of statures. Once on, The Franklin Maker’s Apron becomes a part of you, bringing the perfect mix of order, utility, and aesthetics to the creative chaos of a maker’s daily routine!
The Franklin Maker’s Apron
After many prototypes, countless customer requests, and an endless search fo...
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Have a wander through our collection of bags and pouches made with homespun linen, a delightful variety of quilt blocks — these are much older and remind me of my childhood. There are also 1960s hardware store aprons, feedsacks, and 1930s dressmakers cotton, along with some of our favourite scraps of scraps, with which we made a variety of littles. Some of the bags are made with our classic waxed canvas colours, and others with our limited Autumn canvas colours – so many hoorahs!
Each new Of a Kind collection allows us to dig around and find treasures within treasures. Every discovery holds a bit of the past, and the story and marks accumulated. They are a joy to put together and harken back to the best part of our origin story – the gathering of old things and the reimagining and reworking of them into once again useful objects.
We have a handful of journals covered with Antique Leather Postcards! We have a selection of crossbody bags made with our limited canvas colors and vintage textiles!
Our Springy 2023 Of a Kind Collection!Happy Spring! We are getting outside, digging in the dirt, and being surprised again at the bounty of colour, texture, and wonder of the season.
This Spring collection has a different color palette than we are used to here – a Spring of the past, which is familiar, but also a palette of Peg and Awl’s past. As we are working through the layers of the shop, we are finding so many good treasures once buried, like the beloved Antique Leather postcards. We have an abundance of small treasures, as well as some particularly special bags and colour arrangements!
Have a wander through our collection of bags and pouches made with homespun linen, a delightful variety of quilt blocks – these are much older and remind me of my childhood. There are also 1960s hardware store aprons, feedsacks, and 1930s dressmakers cotton, along with some of our favourite scraps of scraps, with which we made a variety of littles. Some of the bags are made with our classic waxed canvas colours, and others with our limited Autumn canvas colours – so many hoorahs!
Alt Sketchbook: International Dial Co.
View in our ShopWe have a few blue Watch Part tins in stock – they are nearly 100 years old and have varying degrees of rust and marks of past lives. Each tin comes with 100 sheets of Fabriano Watercolor Paper, cut to size!
My Non-Dominant Hand 100 Day Project from Last Year
We don’t have many of these tins, and we are always looking for more, but in the meantime – grab your favourite tin, cut your favourite paper and voilà! Here is our short video on cutting your own paper.
Crossbody Bags made with Vintage Textiles!
View in Our ShopThe more I return to the same flea market, the more I know where to look and find treasures in overlooked corners. These feed and sugar sacks, tool belts, and homespun make magical fun of our classic bags!
Mini Tote with Vintage Homespun German Pillow Sham: Francis Standard Tote with Vintage Feedsack: Laurel 
Mini Tote with Vintage Hardware Store Canvas Half Apron: Moose Heavy homespun German pillow sham transformed into a Classic Tote lined with Fog. 
Classic Tote with Vintage Feedsack: Heidi For those city dwellers, travelers and others wanting more security, the Totes have a separating zipper that tucks neatly in the bag when not needed. 
Mini Tote with Vintage Sugar Sack: Sugar No. 2 Mini Tote with Vintage Sugar Sack: Sugar No. 1 Pouches made with Vintage Textiles!
View in Our ShopWe’ve been finding so many gorgeous textiles at Flea Markets lately that we must tame the scale of each collection. We’ve transformed the gathering of patchwork and scrap into useful pouches, giving them new life.
These pouches are perfect for littles that need organizing. As for me, I recently used mine to gather some Persimmon seeds from the wild! They’re hard to be without and you can never have too many!
These patchwork quilts appear to have been made by two, now three, sets of hands. The small squares were first hand-stitched – they were next put together with a machine, then waiting for me to scoop them up and have Tori make them into pouches with waxed canvas lining and backing.
*Custom Pouch Sizes in this Collection: We have 7 pouch sizes in our Peg and Awl catalog, but when we find a quilt block or scrap that is perfect as is, we make the pouch match its size!
Custom Pouch with Vintage Quilt Blocks: Peecha Custom Pouch with Antique Hand-Stitched Quilt Block: Cass 
Custom Pouch with Antique Hand-Stitched Quilt Block: Maeve The greens are lined with our Fog waxed canvas! 
Custom Pouch with Antique Hand-Stitched Quilt Block: Morley Custom Pouch with Antique Hand-Stitched Quilt Block: Lucia 
Custom Pouch with Vintage Quilt Blocks: Elke Spender Pouch with Vintage Feedsack: Maude Alternative Sketchbook: Chartreuse Watch Parts Tin!
View in Our ShopI couldn’t resist this colour and the mini size. Tuck it in your Sendak and come what may! The smallness makes painting ever-accessible, and the shape makes a good painting feel complete!
Antique Postcard Journals!
View in Our ShopOne of a kind Antique Postcard mini journals are back! The cover is made simply, from antique leather postcards which bear incredible old handwriting, postmarks, and on some, a stamp! The insides, as always, are made of hand-stitched Strathmore drawing paper and work wonderfully with a variety of drawing and writing materials.
Antique Postcard Journal: No. 4 Antique Postcard Journal: No. 16 
These postcards are covered in handwriting, markings, and sometimes stamps! As with all our journals, these are hand-stitched! 
These minis are each one of a kind, covered with a unique postcard! These are made with Strathmore drawing paper and work wonderfully with a variety of drawing and writing materials.
The Secret to a Good Flea (Market) Day is a Good Friend!
Sneak Peak into our Springy 2023 Of a Kind Collection
Each new Of a Kind collection allows us to dig around and find treasures wit...
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This Of a Kind launch was meant for last year, in Winter, but we got tangled in the decision we shared in our last newsletter (if you missed it, you can read here!) And so here we are, ending winter with an abundance of scrumptious old blacks and blues!
Excitingly, in the time between meant-to and are, we’ve added some fun extras, including gorgeous Handmade Ink by A Rural Pen, Tintype Journals, and Alternative Sketchbook Tins!
Each new Of a Kind collection allows us to dig around and find treasures within treasures. Every discovery holds a bit of the past, and the story and marks accumulated. They are a joy to put together and harken back to the best part of our origin story – the gathering of old things and the reimagining and reworking of them into once again useful objects.
We have a handful of One of a Kind Custom* Pouch Sizes – this one is made with an 1800s Quilt Block! We have a selection of Hand-Bound Tintype Journals in this collection – read more below!*Custom Pouch Size: We have 7 pouch sizes in our Peg and Awl catalog, but when we find a quilt block or scrap that is perfect as is, we make the pouch match its size!
Our Wintery 2023 Of a Kind Collection!This Of a Kind launch was meant for last year, in Winter, but we got tangled in the decision we shared in our last newsletter (if you missed it, you can read here!) And so here we are, ending winter with an abundance of scrumptious old blacks and blues!
Excitingly, in the time between meant-to and are, we’ve added some fun extras, including gorgeous Handmade Ink by A Rural Pen, Tintype Journals, and Alternative Sketchbook Tins!
Have a wander through our collection of bags and pouches made with homespun linen, quilt blocks, prints from the 1800s, feedsacks, and 1930s dressmakers cotton, along with some of our favourite scraps of scraps, with which we made a variety of littles. Some of the bags are made with our classic waxed canvas colours, and others with our Autumn colours — so many hoorahs!
Here we are, ending winter with an abundance of wintry blues when all I feel is colour!
A Rural Pen Handmade Ink!
View in our ShopThis ink is handmade, bottled, labeled, and waxed by alchemist Thos. Little of A Rural Pen. I was so enamored with the ink, and when I learned I couldn’t purchase a bottle directly, I decided to order some for all of us! The ink is made using a historic formula of extracting and dissolving the iron from guns with Sumac, instead of Galls. The ink goes on as a pale, smoky, cool grey, and quickly oxidizes on the page; the shade and depth varies depending on the paper used.
This ink is for dip pens only – it cannot be used in fountain pens.
Note: The ink is hand bottled, labeled, and waxed. Some bottles have a little leakage through the wax. When you use the ink, it will also get on the label so please accept this possibility, as we do not consider it a defect.
Handmade Ink by A Rural Pen Playing with the ink for the first time! 
Testing this magical ink – drawing paper (Left) and watercolor paper (Right)! Inky left-handed Witch Hazel – watch my drawing video, here! Crossbody Bags made with Vintage Textiles!
View in Our Shop
Standard Tote with Feedsack: Wylie Mini Tote with 1800s Homespun: Edward 
Small Hunter with 1800s Quilt Block: Astrid Heavy homespun linen blanket transformed into a Hunter Satchel lined with Truffle. 
I found two full bolts of this textile from the 1800s long ago. The width was 36" which was the width of the looms then. I've been savouring it, and we may have some small bits for bookbinding linens, but mostly, this is its last hoorah! Hunter Satchels are my favourite hiking and flea market bag — carry only what you need!
Pouches made with Vintage Textiles!
View in Our ShopWe’ve been finding so many gorgeous textiles at Flea Markets lately and have to tame the scale of each collection. We’ve transformed the gathering of patchwork and scrap into useful pouches, giving them new life.
These pouches are perfect for art supplies, make-up, and anything else that needs organizing in your bag or on your desk — they’re hard to be without and you can never have too many!
This feedsack was washed again and again until its printing faded to just a subtle reminder of days past. 
Custom Pouch with 1800s Quilt Block: Mackenzie Essentials Pouch with 1800s Dressmaker’s Fabric: Dolly 
We reserved some Elderberry before it sold out for this collection! Scribbler Pouch with 1800s Antique Cotton: Sinclair 
Keeper Pouch with 1930s Dressmaker’s Fabric: Delia Spender Pouch with Early 1900s Scrap Bundle: William 
Hand Stitched Custom Quilt Block – perfect for small things, fits inside our bags’ pockets! Saver Pouch with Early 1900s Scrap Bundle: Joanna Edgeworth Tin: Alternative Sketchbook!
View in Our ShopWe have 6 blue tins in stock – they are nearly 100 years old and have varying degrees of rust and marks of past lives. Each tin comes with 100 sheets of Strathmore drawing paper in celebration of the upcoming 100 Day Project, which begins on February 22.
My Non-Dominant Hand 100 Day Project from Last Year
We don’t have many of these tins, and we are always looking for more, but in the meantime – grab your favourite tin, cut your favourite paper and voila! Here is our short video on cutting your own paper.
Tintype Journals!
View in Our ShopRead More About Tin Types!
One of a kind tintype journals are back! The cover is black vegetable-tanned leather, and is paired with some of our favourite antique black and white textiles from the 1800s. Beneath oval frames we’ve set enduring portraits of nameless faces newly christened. The insides, as always, are made of hand-stitched Strathmore drawing paper and work wonderfully with a variety of drawing and writing materials.
Standard Tintype Journal: Noam Standard Tintype Journal: Gertrude 
Companion Tintype Journal: Shirley + Jasper Companion Tintype Journal: Ethel + Timmy
The Secret to a Good Flea (Market) Day is a Good Friend!Sneak Peak into our Wintery 2023 Of a Kind Collection
Each new Of a Kind collection allows us to dig around and find treasures wit...
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This morning, in my journal, I was contemplating the complexities of the fine point of balance when running a small business. These last few years – before the pandemic, through the thick of it, and this lingering now — have given us so much variety, forcing that fine point to dance like phosphorescence beneath a moving boat at night, engaging us to consider potential nexts.
Small Hunter Satchel incorporating an antique bank bag! Patching old holes in well-worn canvas gives celebrated emphasis on the lives old things have lived.
Scroll Down to Preview the Collection!
This morning, in my journal, I was contemplating the complexities of the fine point of balance when running a small business. These last few years – before the pandemic, through the thick of it, and this lingering now — have given us so much variety, forcing that fine point to dance like phosphorescence beneath a moving boat at night, engaging us to consider potential nexts. I move my journal to the floor — there being no more space on the crowded, trash-picked table, in a window filled with plants and the morning’s light pushing through the trees. The table is piled high with projects that I am longing to get to. Our actual kitchen table – a big farmhouse table a few feet away, is full as well, as I’ve decided to photograph our Of a Kind collection upon it, despite my family's grumbling. We push piles to the side so we can squeeze onto a small end of the long table for dinner.Are you, too, feeling a multitude of dreamings leftover from the time-abundant early pandemic days?
Books still longing to be read? (on the table)
Sketchbooks and journals begging for a scribbling in, a finishing up? (on the table)
Trails wanting walked and biked upon daily? (bits from them, on the table)
I am breathless, dreaming of the possibilities that crowd my living space.
I merge the dreaming with the practical(ish) when I can. I was able to lure my family into the woods for a walk with Pearl, and a simultaneous photo shoot of some of the One of a Kind bags. We danced and high-beamed around the ruins of a mill along the path. The autumn air and the freedom to wander, feels like an absolute luxury — and is! But it is only one part of the long process of bringing our Of a Kind collections to life and running a small business in general.
Fortunately, Pearl loves partaking in the weird things we do!
Had a hearty laugh as I tried to keep Pearl happy, bat mosquitos away, block the streak of sunlight following the bags, and was photobombed by this crew in the ruins! Søren, caught off guard in photographs, often channels Captain Jack Sparrow!
The Secret to a Good Flea (Market) Day is a Good Friend!Treasures found at a Flea Market! (These pens may find their way into a collection soon!) Some of the antique textiles I found that day have been transformed for this upcoming collection!
Our Autumn Of a Kind Collection!
Our third Of A Kind Collection of 2022 is a celebration of the afterlife of already long-loved objects. It contains One of a Kind bags made with antique, well-worn re-constructed seed, feed, and bank bags, Antique Tin alternative sketchbooks (and re-fill packs for a past favourite due to many inquiries!), and some pouches, which are always a favourite. Every discovery holds a bit of the past, and the story and marks accumulated. They are a joy to put together and harken back to the best part of our origin story – the gathering of old things and the reimagining and reworking of them into once again useful objects.
Photograph by Søren of me with an Of a Kind mini tote made from a vintage Timothy Grass Seed Bag.
Søren, Pearl, and I went out for a walk on a trail we normally bike on. Slower, we noticed new things.
Mini Totes made with Vintage Textiles!
We’ve transformed vintage seed and feed sacks found at a Flea Market this past summer! So many scrumptious textures, fadings, holes, and repairs are evident in this collection!
We’ve cleaned and cut and paired the vintage bags with waxed and vegetable tanned leather, making our classic and loved bags into One of a Kind treasures!
Journal Excerpt – I lingered at Leonard’s flea market table, unfolding and refolding seed and feed bags used over and over until disposable bags replaced them in the 1960s. The textiles on Leonard’s table were washed and faded and soft. He couldn’t hear very well so I had to get extra close or raise my voice to communicate. He smiled a gentle smile with each shout. I left with arms filled with vintage bags, eager to imagine them anew.
Mini Tote made from Vintage Canvas, with waxed canvas details, and vegetable-tanned leather. Details of the print – 45 lbs. 
The colour of the Timothy bag is robust! A lovely burst of the unexpected. A daily, or every-now-and-then bag? 
Our Minis are delightful for everyday carry – bring only what you need! This Alfalfa bag has glorious texture and colour! 
I didn't know about this sneaky kitty until I got home, my favourite? Codes abound. 
These are all lined with waxed canvas. Ranger! 
The textures and fading of this printing is delicious. How many of these treasures are still hiding in the world? Are houses still coming down with attics full of lives past? Standard Totes made with Vintage Textiles!
I just love Søren in the background here, unintentional mimicry! Pigeon Feed! Tell me more, please. 
Details on the Vintage Textile of the Pigeon Tote. Standard Tote with Vintage Canvas: Pigeon 
Standard Tote with Vintage Canvas: Salt The vintage textile is on the front pocket – the rest is our Truffle waxed canvas. 
These chickens might be my favourite! Standard Tote with Vintage Canvas: Chicken 
Standard Tote with Vintage Canvas: Fulton No. 1 Inside the tote! 
A view of the inside pockets, showing the lightweight spice waxed canvas! I love the repairs and added character! Vintage Textile Pouches!
It is hard to resist old printed cottons and feedsacks from the early 1900s on flea market tables. We’ve transformed the gathering of patchwork and scrap into useful pouches, giving them new life.
We’ve constructed pouches in shades of feuille morte! Russets and Rosies, Goldenrods and Evergreen, still vibrant, though the textiles are nearly a century old! 
Essentials Pouch with 1930s Textile: Adlai Spender Pouch with 1930s Feedsack: Tamar 
Keeper Pouch with 1940s Textile: Orah Keeper Pouch with 1930s Textile: Ariel Alternative Sketchbooks!
Ginger Tin!
This vintage Ginger Tin makes a great alternative sketchbook for small projects. We’ve filled them with 100 sheets of laser cut Strathmore Drawing paper. Put the tin in the outside pocket of a Sendak, or a pouch, and head out to draw! The portability makes sketching ever-accessible, and the shape makes a good drawing feel complete!
I've been using my Ginger Tin for paint for years, but a new project lead to another idea... Tear or Seed? Read the story on Substack! Cloverine Alternative Sketchbooks!
We are excited to offer a handful of vintage Cloverine Alternative Sketchbooks in this Collection! Each tin comes with 200 sheets of Fabriano hot press watercolour paper. These morsels fit inside the Sendak, making sure you always have some of the finest paper on hand! Additional packs of pre-cut paper can be ordered separately or as an add-on.
Cloverine Alt Sketchbook We will have some packs of water colour paper that fit the Cloverine Alt Sketchbook! Sneak Peek into Our Autumn 2022 Of a Kind Collection!
Small Hunter Satchel incorporating an antique bank bag! Patchi...
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And here we are, another major transition! We are selling our Philadelphia building and moving Peg and Awl to our barn.
We’re Moving Out of Philadelphia
...and it's bittersweet!
We are very fortunate – as a family and small business owners – to be able to follow our curiosities to wherever they may lead. Here we find ourselves in another major transition! We – Walter and I, Søren and Silas too, have decided to sell the Peg and Awl building in Port Richmond Philadelphia, and move our business into our Barn here in Chester County, Penna. It felt like a quick decision, but it was the culmination of much quiet consideration. I have always been spontaneous – or so it seems – so much is accomplished in our sleep.
Yesterday was warm and wondrous. As I walked from Port Richmond to Old City for a last minute hair appointment at Barnet Fair, and to treasure hunt at Vagabond Boutique, I felt the weight of nostalgia for what we would soon be leaving, and a lightness too, as I imagined floating, for the first time in a while, into a new unknown.
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Some Things to Look Forward to in the Coming Year!
- New Website! We’ve been working on it for a long time – we don’t have a launch date yet, but soon!
- New Jewellery! If you’ve been following along on Instagram – you may have seen some glimpses of these projects over the past few years.
- New Of A Kind Adventures! (accompanied by more Flea Market adventures, read here!)
- Exciting Pivots!
The Foundlings (Peg and Awl) Building: Before and After
Read about the Shop Renovation Project, here!
We’ve put a lot of work into our workshop since we bought the dark and closed-up building in 2016 – from opening cinder-blocked windows and tearing down walls, to transforming the gravel and pavement into gardens. We built and set up a storefront (that we never officially opened) just before the pandemic. We poured concrete floors and filled the wide open space with an abundance of tools and machines and worked with our wonderous crew to design, make, and ship all of the treasures that we share around the world.
We look forward to the next adventure for Peg and Awl and, too, for the building! The dream is always for some magic makers to take the reins and re-imagine a better, brighter, greener, and cleaner corner of Philadelphia.
A lot happens through word of mouth — if you know someone who may be interested, please share!
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Storefront, trees, plants, and windows! |
A lightless old space full of stuff. |
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Employee gardens and honey bees~ |
Concrete slab (though locals told us it was a wading pool in the summers and an ice hockey rink in the winters!) |
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A part of the woodshop! |
Pouring the concrete floor. |
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Knocking down the in-between wall. |
Renovations and the inhabiting of the nearly abandoned building in Port Richmond, Philadelphia.
The Barn: Our New Shop
Read On: Our Barn Restoration Project
We will continue to make treasures in Philadelphia over the next few months. In May, we will be opening our new workspace to the public for a Studio Tour in May! There we will share our art, showroom, and the goings on of the new iteration of Peg and Awl.
This space will be a gallery and showroom.
Walter’s cozy loft studio will remain Walter’s cozy loft studio.
Our Barn Restoration Project
Read On: Our Barn Restoration Project
“...By the time we had finished removing the rotted bits, the trusses, the rafters, and the floors, it was hard to say if we were reclaiming an old barn, or building a new one in its image. The barn shape – the space within the frame – became one of the few parts I could solidly say remained from the historic place. But over the next few weeks, as I observed the delicate skeleton of the old barn standing strong but precarious in the wind and rain – with day now inside and night inside too – I grew suspicious of this boundaryless thing I wanted to keep. What were we preserving, and more, why?”
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We’re Moving Out of Philadelphia, and It’s Bittersweet!
We’re Moving Out of Philadelphia...and it's bittersweet! We are very fortu...
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The Scout Plein Air Box was inspired by our endeavor to make art every day. Each one is handmade in our Philadelphia workshop. Watch our video showing how we make the Scout Plein Air Box!
The Scout Plein Air Box was inspired by our endeavor to make art every day. Each one is handmade in our Philadelphia 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. Watch our video showing how we make the Scout Plein Air Box!
Original Plein Air Oil Paintings by Walter Kent
“It has been nearly three years since I returned from a painting workshop in Italy, taught by Jeremy Mann and Nadezda, hosted by Art Escape Italy. This was my first experience plein air painting and once I returned home I immediately made my own pochade box, the Scout. During the last three years I have gone out on many painting adventures, both alone and with my family, with the Scout over my shoulder.
When I wander out into the world to paint, there is a game of tug of war twisting knots in my stomach, with my hopes and fears digging their heals in on either side. After the first few strokes of paint, the excitement of possibility takes over. These attempts at capturing the fleeting moments of the world around me line the windowsills of our studio.
I’ve selected some of my favorite Plein Air oil paintings, breadcrumbs of my path as an artist, and we are excited to share them with the everyone. Each painting has been varnished for protection and is signed and marked with its location and date and is fitted with a ready-to-hang frame made of reclaimed blackened walnut.” –Walter
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Delaware Water Gap No. 3, Pennsylvania 2021
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Kaaterskill Falls, New York 2022
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Ready-to-Hang frames are made of reclaimed blackened walnut.
How We Make the Scout Plein Air Box and Original Paintings by Walter Kent
The Scout Plein Air Box was inspired by our endeavor to make art every day....
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After many prototypes, countless customer requests, and an endless search for sustainable leather, The Franklin Makers Apron is finally here! Our Apron champions the virtues of hard work, curiosity, ingenuity, and industriousness, and it has quickly become one of our favorite companions while working in the studio or at home.
After many prototypes, countless customer requests, and an endless search for sustainable leather, The Franklin Makers Apron is finally here!
On our first trip to England together, Margaux and I discovered a magical art supply shop on a small cobblestone street. Like something pulled out of Diagon Alley, it was lined with dark oak, floor-to-ceiling shelves overflowing with pigments of all kinds: oil paints, pastels, watercolors, and more. Ladders and spiral staircases led to stacks of dusty boxes each holding the possibilities of masterpieces yet to be made. We spent hours exploring the nooks and crannies, and amongst all the treasures, we discovered two artist aprons, the last from a company no longer in existence. They looked like relics of a bygone era, plucked from the studio of Sargent or Klimt. We left the shop, each with an apron, and though Peg and Awl hadn’t yet begun, the seed to someday make our own version, had been planted.
Our Apron champions the virtues of hard work, curiosity, ingenuity, and industriousness, and has quickly become one of our favorite companions while working in the studio or at home. Its durable canvas armor protects against dirt, paint, liquids and debris, and with multiple waist and chest pockets it provides ample storage so tools are secure and conveniently accessible. The Franklin is available in two sizes, and the suspender-style vegetable tanned leather straps and belt have multiple settings to comfortably fit a variety of statures. Once on, The Franklin Maker’s Apron becomes a part of you, bringing the perfect mix of order, utility, and aesthetics to the creative chaos of a maker’s daily routine!
The Franklin Maker’s Apron
After many prototypes, countless customer requests, and an endless search fo...
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Have a wander through our collection of bags and pouches made with homespun linen, a delightful variety of quilt blocks — these are much older and remind me of my childhood. There are also 1960s hardware store aprons, feedsacks, and 1930s dressmakers cotton, along with some of our favourite scraps of scraps, with which we made a variety of littles. Some of the bags are made with our classic waxed canvas colours, and others with our limited Autumn canvas colours – so many hoorahs!
Each new Of a Kind collection allows us to dig around and find treasures within treasures. Every discovery holds a bit of the past, and the story and marks accumulated. They are a joy to put together and harken back to the best part of our origin story – the gathering of old things and the reimagining and reworking of them into once again useful objects.
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We have a selection of crossbody bags made with our limited canvas colors and vintage textiles!
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Our Springy 2023 Of a Kind Collection!
Happy Spring! We are getting outside, digging in the dirt, and being surprised again at the bounty of colour, texture, and wonder of the season.
This Spring collection has a different color palette than we are used to here – a Spring of the past, which is familiar, but also a palette of Peg and Awl’s past. As we are working through the layers of the shop, we are finding so many good treasures once buried, like the beloved Antique Leather postcards. We have an abundance of small treasures, as well as some particularly special bags and colour arrangements!
Have a wander through our collection of bags and pouches made with homespun linen, a delightful variety of quilt blocks – these are much older and remind me of my childhood. There are also 1960s hardware store aprons, feedsacks, and 1930s dressmakers cotton, along with some of our favourite scraps of scraps, with which we made a variety of littles. Some of the bags are made with our classic waxed canvas colours, and others with our limited Autumn canvas colours – so many hoorahs!
Alt Sketchbook: International Dial Co.
View in our Shop
We have a few blue Watch Part tins in stock – they are nearly 100 years old and have varying degrees of rust and marks of past lives. Each tin comes with 100 sheets of Fabriano Watercolor Paper, cut to size!
My Non-Dominant Hand 100 Day Project from Last Year
We don’t have many of these tins, and we are always looking for more, but in the meantime – grab your favourite tin, cut your favourite paper and voilà! Here is our short video on cutting your own paper.
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Crossbody Bags made with Vintage Textiles!
View in Our Shop
The more I return to the same flea market, the more I know where to look and find treasures in overlooked corners. These feed and sugar sacks, tool belts, and homespun make magical fun of our classic bags!
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Pouches made with Vintage Textiles!
View in Our Shop
We’ve been finding so many gorgeous textiles at Flea Markets lately that we must tame the scale of each collection. We’ve transformed the gathering of patchwork and scrap into useful pouches, giving them new life.
These pouches are perfect for littles that need organizing. As for me, I recently used mine to gather some Persimmon seeds from the wild! They’re hard to be without and you can never have too many!
These patchwork quilts appear to have been made by two, now three, sets of hands. The small squares were first hand-stitched – they were next put together with a machine, then waiting for me to scoop them up and have Tori make them into pouches with waxed canvas lining and backing.
*Custom Pouch Sizes in this Collection: We have 7 pouch sizes in our Peg and Awl catalog, but when we find a quilt block or scrap that is perfect as is, we make the pouch match its size!
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Alternative Sketchbook: Chartreuse Watch Parts Tin!
View in Our Shop
I couldn’t resist this colour and the mini size. Tuck it in your Sendak and come what may! The smallness makes painting ever-accessible, and the shape makes a good painting feel complete!
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Antique Postcard Journals!
View in Our Shop
One of a kind Antique Postcard mini journals are back! The cover is made simply, from antique leather postcards which bear incredible old handwriting, postmarks, and on some, a stamp! The insides, as always, are made of hand-stitched Strathmore drawing paper and work wonderfully with a variety of drawing and writing materials.
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The Secret to a Good Flea (Market) Day is a Good Friend!
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Sneak Peak into our Springy 2023 Of a Kind Collection
Each new Of a Kind collection allows us to dig around and find treasures wit...
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This Of a Kind launch was meant for last year, in Winter, but we got tangled in the decision we shared in our last newsletter (if you missed it, you can read here!) And so here we are, ending winter with an abundance of scrumptious old blacks and blues!
Excitingly, in the time between meant-to and are, we’ve added some fun extras, including gorgeous Handmade Ink by A Rural Pen, Tintype Journals, and Alternative Sketchbook Tins!
Each new Of a Kind collection allows us to dig around and find treasures within treasures. Every discovery holds a bit of the past, and the story and marks accumulated. They are a joy to put together and harken back to the best part of our origin story – the gathering of old things and the reimagining and reworking of them into once again useful objects.
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We have a selection of Hand-Bound Tintype Journals in this collection – read more below!
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*Custom Pouch Size: We have 7 pouch sizes in our Peg and Awl catalog, but when we find a quilt block or scrap that is perfect as is, we make the pouch match its size!
Our Wintery 2023 Of a Kind Collection!
This Of a Kind launch was meant for last year, in Winter, but we got tangled in the decision we shared in our last newsletter (if you missed it, you can read here!) And so here we are, ending winter with an abundance of scrumptious old blacks and blues!
Excitingly, in the time between meant-to and are, we’ve added some fun extras, including gorgeous Handmade Ink by A Rural Pen, Tintype Journals, and Alternative Sketchbook Tins!
Have a wander through our collection of bags and pouches made with homespun linen, quilt blocks, prints from the 1800s, feedsacks, and 1930s dressmakers cotton, along with some of our favourite scraps of scraps, with which we made a variety of littles. Some of the bags are made with our classic waxed canvas colours, and others with our Autumn colours — so many hoorahs!
Here we are, ending winter with an abundance of wintry blues when all I feel is colour!
A Rural Pen Handmade Ink!
View in our Shop
This ink is handmade, bottled, labeled, and waxed by alchemist Thos. Little of A Rural Pen. I was so enamored with the ink, and when I learned I couldn’t purchase a bottle directly, I decided to order some for all of us! The ink is made using a historic formula of extracting and dissolving the iron from guns with Sumac, instead of Galls. The ink goes on as a pale, smoky, cool grey, and quickly oxidizes on the page; the shade and depth varies depending on the paper used.
This ink is for dip pens only – it cannot be used in fountain pens.
Note: The ink is hand bottled, labeled, and waxed. Some bottles have a little leakage through the wax. When you use the ink, it will also get on the label so please accept this possibility, as we do not consider it a defect.
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Crossbody Bags made with Vintage Textiles!
View in Our Shop
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Pouches made with Vintage Textiles!
View in Our Shop
We’ve been finding so many gorgeous textiles at Flea Markets lately and have to tame the scale of each collection. We’ve transformed the gathering of patchwork and scrap into useful pouches, giving them new life.
These pouches are perfect for art supplies, make-up, and anything else that needs organizing in your bag or on your desk — they’re hard to be without and you can never have too many!
This feedsack was washed again and again until its printing faded to just a subtle reminder of days past.
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Edgeworth Tin: Alternative Sketchbook!
View in Our Shop
We have 6 blue tins in stock – they are nearly 100 years old and have varying degrees of rust and marks of past lives. Each tin comes with 100 sheets of Strathmore drawing paper in celebration of the upcoming 100 Day Project, which begins on February 22.
My Non-Dominant Hand 100 Day Project from Last Year
We don’t have many of these tins, and we are always looking for more, but in the meantime – grab your favourite tin, cut your favourite paper and voila! Here is our short video on cutting your own paper.
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Tintype Journals!
View in Our Shop
Read More About Tin Types!
One of a kind tintype journals are back! The cover is black vegetable-tanned leather, and is paired with some of our favourite antique black and white textiles from the 1800s. Beneath oval frames we’ve set enduring portraits of nameless faces newly christened. The insides, as always, are made of hand-stitched Strathmore drawing paper and work wonderfully with a variety of drawing and writing materials.
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The Secret to a Good Flea (Market) Day is a Good Friend!
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Sneak Peak into our Wintery 2023 Of a Kind Collection
Each new Of a Kind collection allows us to dig around and find treasures wit...
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This morning, in my journal, I was contemplating the complexities of the fine point of balance when running a small business. These last few years – before the pandemic, through the thick of it, and this lingering now — have given us so much variety, forcing that fine point to dance like phosphorescence beneath a moving boat at night, engaging us to consider potential nexts.
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Scroll Down to Preview the Collection!
This morning, in my journal, I was contemplating the complexities of the fine point of balance when running a small business. These last few years – before the pandemic, through the thick of it, and this lingering now — have given us so much variety, forcing that fine point to dance like phosphorescence beneath a moving boat at night, engaging us to consider potential nexts. I move my journal to the floor — there being no more space on the crowded, trash-picked table, in a window filled with plants and the morning’s light pushing through the trees. The table is piled high with projects that I am longing to get to. Our actual kitchen table – a big farmhouse table a few feet away, is full as well, as I’ve decided to photograph our Of a Kind collection upon it, despite my family's grumbling. We push piles to the side so we can squeeze onto a small end of the long table for dinner.
Are you, too, feeling a multitude of dreamings leftover from the time-abundant early pandemic days?
Books still longing to be read? (on the table)
Sketchbooks and journals begging for a scribbling in, a finishing up? (on the table)
Trails wanting walked and biked upon daily? (bits from them, on the table)
I am breathless, dreaming of the possibilities that crowd my living space.
I merge the dreaming with the practical(ish) when I can. I was able to lure my family into the woods for a walk with Pearl, and a simultaneous photo shoot of some of the One of a Kind bags. We danced and high-beamed around the ruins of a mill along the path. The autumn air and the freedom to wander, feels like an absolute luxury — and is! But it is only one part of the long process of bringing our Of a Kind collections to life and running a small business in general.
Fortunately, Pearl loves partaking in the weird things we do!
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The Secret to a Good Flea (Market) Day is a Good Friend!
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Our Autumn Of a Kind Collection!
Our third Of A Kind Collection of 2022 is a celebration of the afterlife of already long-loved objects. It contains One of a Kind bags made with antique, well-worn re-constructed seed, feed, and bank bags, Antique Tin alternative sketchbooks (and re-fill packs for a past favourite due to many inquiries!), and some pouches, which are always a favourite. Every discovery holds a bit of the past, and the story and marks accumulated. They are a joy to put together and harken back to the best part of our origin story – the gathering of old things and the reimagining and reworking of them into once again useful objects.
Photograph by Søren of me with an Of a Kind mini tote made from a vintage Timothy Grass Seed Bag.
Søren, Pearl, and I went out for a walk on a trail we normally bike on. Slower, we noticed new things.
Mini Totes made with Vintage Textiles!
We’ve transformed vintage seed and feed sacks found at a Flea Market this past summer! So many scrumptious textures, fadings, holes, and repairs are evident in this collection!
We’ve cleaned and cut and paired the vintage bags with waxed and vegetable tanned leather, making our classic and loved bags into One of a Kind treasures!
Journal Excerpt – I lingered at Leonard’s flea market table, unfolding and refolding seed and feed bags used over and over until disposable bags replaced them in the 1960s. The textiles on Leonard’s table were washed and faded and soft. He couldn’t hear very well so I had to get extra close or raise my voice to communicate. He smiled a gentle smile with each shout. I left with arms filled with vintage bags, eager to imagine them anew.
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Standard Totes made with Vintage Textiles!
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Vintage Textile Pouches!
It is hard to resist old printed cottons and feedsacks from the early 1900s on flea market tables. We’ve transformed the gathering of patchwork and scrap into useful pouches, giving them new life.
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Alternative Sketchbooks!
Ginger Tin!
This vintage Ginger Tin makes a great alternative sketchbook for small projects. We’ve filled them with 100 sheets of laser cut Strathmore Drawing paper. Put the tin in the outside pocket of a Sendak, or a pouch, and head out to draw! The portability makes sketching ever-accessible, and the shape makes a good drawing feel complete!
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Cloverine Alternative Sketchbooks!
We are excited to offer a handful of vintage Cloverine Alternative Sketchbooks in this Collection! Each tin comes with 200 sheets of Fabriano hot press watercolour paper. These morsels fit inside the Sendak, making sure you always have some of the finest paper on hand! Additional packs of pre-cut paper can be ordered separately or as an add-on.
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Sneak Peek into Our Autumn 2022 Of a Kind Collection!
Small Hunter Satchel incorporating an antique bank bag! Patchi...
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