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!

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!

The Listing for Our Building

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.

Read Here!

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?”

The Old Barn from the road.	We hired Precise Buildings to rebuild the barn!

Original wall that divides the two parts of the barn. Pearl and Søren, my loves.	A new view!

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.

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!

After years of working with local jewelers who cast, finished, and sized our jewels, which was after years of my finishing the jewelry in our dining room, we finally set up our own jewelry shop at the Peg and Awl building! In addition to designing the jewelry and packaging, we now do the entire lost wax casting process in house – making molds, waxes, casting, and finishing!

Jewelry remains a Peg and Awl outlier (we all need outliers!) as it is not useful like our other objects are useful. It is symbolic, representative, adorning, and meant to be part of an ongoing narrative. I am drawn to making jewelry as objects that continually flow through human hands, like objects at a flea market – all symbolism and storytelling and marks of use from imagined pasts and futures.

We love digging into history and happenstance for our collections, and have been working on a few tricky ideas which we hope to be able to share with you soon! Until then, peak inside our workshop and collections.

Rubber molds.	Waxes of Foundlings Earrings!

Flasks for plaster molds.	Nitrogen regulator to keep the casting operator oxygen-free!

Getting ready to cast!	Our first in-house silver tree!

Liver of Sulfer to blacken the details. How to (re)oxidize your jewelry below.*	Ready for finishing and polishing. The details will hold onto the black/oxidized finish.

Polishing the insides of the rings.	Stamping the Peg and Awl mark in our rings!

Finished pendants from our Botanical Collection.	Epic Desk Caddy atop my first and still-used jeweler’s bench — a gift from my dad after receiving a high school scholarship for a summer art program at Moore!

Foundlings Collection

Foundlings is a collection that has come to life through the layering of hands that make. 

One end-of-winter morning, we ventured out into the last grey of the season-leaving, amongst sagging time-worn tables that house trash and magic. Flea markets are often secret repositories of history, and we were about to dive backwards some 200 years, as sparkly creatures, patiently waiting out their decades of idleness, nearly rose up from their tattered box to greet us. Farm animals, imagined animals, flowers, and other wonders of the natural world – painted by unknown hands in an unknown time, fairly pulsed with scintillating energy upon nests of scritchy, scratchy handwritten ledgers, lessons, and language, impeccably penned by generations past.

Our discovery of these mischievous old fellows has led to yet another transformation. A select few have been carved and cast to retain their child-like style and to celebrate the expressional whimsy of each nurtured creature.

Terran Necklace, a tulip!	The original flower ledger art that we discovered at a flea market.

Adding details to the cat creature Ash from clay for molds.	Sculpted cat face models of Foundlings Earrings.

The original tapir that we named Fern.	Fern Earrings cast from the found artwork.

I love working on the packaging for jewelry, ‘tis where we add the layers of story!	Sketching the design for the Foundlings booklet.

Foundlings packaging in the works.	Dip pen on this lavish paper, a little bleedy, a lot magic!

Foundlings, boxed! The perfect addition of the little jewelry boxes that Walter made from our scrap pile.	Final Foundlings packaging, printed locally by Fireball Printing.

All the Names Collection

All the Names incorporates small brass frames from mid-1800s Daguerreotype and Ambrotype hinge cases that once framed faces whose names are forever lost. 

In 1847, preservers or brass frames, were added to hinge photograph cases. They wrapped the glass, mat and image to protect the delicate photograph from oxygen. We have taken the cases apart and transformed them into jewelry. 

The hinge photograph case that became Eulalie.	Silicon mold from brass frames. First step of transformation.

Silver frame pieces, next rounded and recast into a variety of sizes.	Finished! Here is Eulalie, named for Edgar Allan Poe's poem.

All of the names, with the exception of Beatrice, after my grandmother, have come from characters in books.	Creating the faces for the packaging!

This packaging happened while and because of a class I was taking at the time – a children's book illustration class by Make Art That Sells.	A stack of Dorian rings, named for Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray – the first book Walter shared with me when we met!

Poison for Breakfast Collection

I have been lost in a magical world that I can barely believe isn't all in my head. Black and white with lots of exploration and learning. And eggs on repeat. Tis a place I can go when the sun goes down—scribbling, scribbling...⁠⁠

These pieces were made to accompany Poison for Breakfast, written by Lemony Snicket and illustrated by me, Margaux. Pretty sure this was one of the most extraordinary projects I partook in…the reality is coming in and out of focus. 

Inspired to continue on, we decided to move the marks on paper into metal pieces for this small collection, which pertains to this enormous philosophical question, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"⁠⁠ 

I love this photograph of Søren. He was so pleased with the final version. Seeing his face made it real-er to me!

My model, Ragnar as a chick, perched on my journal on the kitchen table, where chicks belong.	My original drawing.

Lasered stencils from procreate tracings of my drawings.	Shaping clay minis after pulling them out of the stencil!

Our first in shop mold!	Waxes to be built into a tree and cast in silver, gold, and bronze!

Wax tree prepared for mold making.	Chicken + Egg Necklace in our Walnut Jewelry Box.

Botanical Collection

Often times our most wonderful discoveries are merely the recognition of what is before us – and in this case under foot! Our botanical jewelry collection was inspired by our unearthing of the usefulness of weeds and pays homage to its winged cultivator.

*How to (re)oxidize your jewelry! If you are drawn towards the fully oxidized silver variation on the left, it is easy to do yourself (as we no longer offer this version in our shop) – start with smashing a hard boiled egg in a container. Next put the ring into the container with the egg. Close it and let it sit in the fridge for several hours. Take it out when the darkness suits your fancy — the longer it stays in the sulfur, the more oxidized it will become.  Then polish with a cloth or the ankle part of your jeans — no one will notice the black spot down there...

Seed packet packaging!	My journal page from April 2014...

Dandelion – the entire plant is edible! How many ways can you prepare Dandelion?	Botanical rings, pickled after casting.

The first abandoned house I remember exploring was across from the grocery store my mom and I skipped to, arm in arm, when I was in 7th grade. We had seen its decaying Victorian turrets peeking above the abundance of neglected foliage many times before braving its withered threshold. Early one Spring, we ventured into that liminal space and I don't believe I ever completely left. Inside reeked of piss and mildew. Broken bottles and yellowed newspapers made a foul floor for weekend teenagers. But in the center – beneath a makeshift skylight and its funnel of wintry, warm, yellow sun – grew a single white tulip. Discovering this unexpected beauty with my mom so long ago, was surely a heavy pour in the cocktail of experiences from my youth that helped determine who I was to become.⁠

Three years ago, just one year after officially beginning our homeschool adventure with Søren and Silas, we decided to move out of Philadelphia in search of a new home amongst the trees. We quickly stumbled upon the patch of land that we’ve come to call The Five Acre Wood – consisting of a ton of invasive growth, some lawn, woods, ponds, animals, two creeks, our house (built in the late 1700s or early 1800s), a spring house (formerly our studio) and – just across the road – a dilapidated barn. Truly, our timing was perfect.

The Old Barn from the road.	We hired Precise Buildings to rebuild the barn!

In the listing Walter had spied a corner of the barn – a cautious partial revealing of this daunting danger for most, we reckoned, and possibly the reason the house had been on the market for so long. But we dreamed of transforming the barn into a studio for art, homeschooling, woodworking, and yoga. Two years after our move, with the sale of our Philadelphia home (previously serving as an Airbnb), we were able to embark on this new adventure.

The project began with the removal of decades – centuries even – of junk that had been accumulating. We briefly considered hauling the stuff to a flea market to help fund the barn restoration, but after moving some of it out (there was so much!) we ordered a dumpster, and set everything curious in rows in the grass for the taking. There were chairs, well-loved ice skates, wooden sleds, tons of old bottles and antique toys – and then came the people – making it a strange theatre. The conversations that arose during the treasure-dispersal resulted in many journal pages of quotidian conversations which reveal people to be anything but the perceived everyday.

Most of these strange treasures found homes...	The telephone operator thing went to a musician who plans to turn it into something musical.

After the emptying, came the digging of an incredibly deep well which resulted in the grinding and unexpected excavating of Wissahickon Schist – also known as trash stone – from which our house was built. I collected a salad container full and transformed some of the pre-ground pigment into paint for my Iris Painter’s Palette.

Look for Bioplastic Pans of this handmade watercolor paint in our First Of a Kind Collection of the Year!	Wissahickon Schist — also known as Trash Stone — makes a gorgeous ghost green colour.

We then removed the lead-free wood siding, the tin roof, the old doors, the flooring, and some beams, with the intention of re-using as much of this as possible in different places both inside of the barn and out. When the township inspector came and saw the rotted state of the exposed bits that were revealed, we had to embark upon a plan b, which brings to mind The Ship of Theseus.

By the time we finished removing the rotted bits, the trusses, the rafters, 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 of 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?

Putting on a new roof before taking it off to remove more of the old.	Delicate skeleton of the old barn.

After getting over the long pause whilst figuring out plan b...	A new view!

Most of the structure is new now, but within it is a tapestry of old materials. Walter transformed the old extinct-ish American Chestnut tree trunk beams into two glorious sets of double doors. An old second floor door, which led to an unsurvivable drop, is now part of the bathroom. The old floorboards were flipped and trimmed and woven with old floorsboards from other barns, and together have been sanded and oiled. The crooked skeleton of hand-hewn wood with its mortise and tenon joints, trunnels, and roman numeral marriage marks, lingers charmingly in the middle of the new open space. The white-washed wall, that once held tobaggons, hockey sticks, and fishing poles still divides the two main spaces. The stone-walled basement, where the barn’s last farm animal – a calf – lived in the 1960s, will soon be a woodshop and ceramic studio. We put windows and skylights throughout the building, replacing the vertical cracks that let only slivers of light in for the past 200 or so years.

The shape within the frame remains, but the air that flowed through it like water through a river, has surely been fully turned over. Already, the newly brightened space has illuminated a life unimagined by the original builders, including family yoga, the beginning of a writing and drawing workshop, the penciling of portraits, the playing of boardgames, the making of maps, a happy Pearl and a sleepy Pearl, and the curiosity of two families embarking on new adventures. The barn is made of pieces that were and are and will be. Are we so different?

A Trunnel – one of many Tree Nails securing the original structure.	Roman Numeral Marriage Marks to help builders determine what went where!

An exterior door that led to the unsurvivable drop, (that looks rather survivable from here...)	...is now our bathroom door!

The Floor Sanders – Søren, Silas, and I — unintentionally recreating The Floor Scrapers by Gustave Caillebotte.	The Floor Scrapers by Gustave Caillebotte

A satisfying before and after! We first rented this Drum Floor Sander and used 60 grit sandpaper, then used this Orbital Sander with 80 and 100 grit.	Finishing the new floor with Citrus Solvent and Tung Oil from The Real Milk Paint Company. We use this natural finish on Peg and Awl treasures too!

Pearl enjoying the new space from her favourite rug – a flea market find!	We painted the floor white! Søren tries out the new staircase that he helped install,

Original wall that divides the two parts of the barn. Pearl and Søren, my loves.	Walter used the saw mill to make doors out of the American Chestnut trunks!

American Chestnut Tree beams born in the 1700s leave their lowly position of being walked upon + now usher in light, people, and animals!	Walter’s gorgeous first go at door building!

Our Autumn collection is full of Violets, Reds, and Grays, just in time to join an adventure amongst the first changing of the leaves! Their stories evolve as they pivot to new lives in our hands then yours. Journals lined with antique textiles breathe subtle change into our classic collections. Waxed canvas pouches covered with antique textiles explode with colour amongst our earth tones. Alternative Sketchbooks and Original Foundlings Art transform adventures and walls.⁠
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These collections go fast - we will send out an email announcement 3 hours before they are available – you will be able to look through each item in the collection at that time.⁠ Join our newsletter to receive the preview and launch announcements! ⁠⁠

Due to COVID-19 we have closed our shop to the public for the near future, but our online shop remains open, and we are shipping orders on Tuesdays and Fridays! We will be shipping and disinfecting and are around to answer any questions that you may have.

Though we are all affected by this situation in many different ways, let us make the best of a tough time by learning something new, or catching up on something old. Whether you’re making more food at home, cleaning the darkest corners around the house, or maybe even checking some long delayed home and gardening projects off of your list, we hope that you are able to use this curious time to enjoy the small things as well!

This past weekend, the Peg and Awl team traveled back in time with @gilesclement and his partner Kendra, witnessing and partaking in many tintype and ambrotype sessions at the Peg and Awl workshop. The smell of collodion was intoxicating, as Giles expertly poured it onto the plates and gently tilted each one until fully coated, finally tipping one corner into the well-used bottle to collect the excess. The tiny makeshift darkroom housing developer was like a time machine. In the age of digital photography, we snap-snap-snap, hoping 1 in million will be good enough for a quick digital edit and a push to Instagram. For me, seeing Giles set up each portrait with care and shoot at the precise right moment, yanked me back into my olden days, where I had 12 shots per roll of film and a week to wait for the results. Patience, time, care, seem nearly lost to me now, but I suppose our new way is just a different path to the same point. We don’t have to head into a studio, wash behind our ears, and make sure our Sunday best is spotless. We get to snap-snap-snapping in the midst of the action, dirt and all.

Here is to the old and the new, and how lucky we are to be at the crossroads.

We've been so psyched to be welcoming guests to the Peg and Awl House in our beloved city of Philadelphia since The House’s launch in July. In addition to receiving travelers, we’ve also been hosting small businesses that have used the space for photographing and filming their stories. It is so lovely to see new visions in our old home!

We were thrilled when Rikumo reached out to us to shoot their Holiday Gift Guide in our home – we LOVE their shop! 

Have a look at their beautiful photographs and the shop here!

Some Peg and Awl Updates

We have been working away on a lot of different projects here at the Peg and Awl workshop, and we are excited to share a few of them with you…

We now offer FREE shipping on all U.S. orders!

Enjoy shopping our site without the stress and mystery of shipping costs!

Refreshed Marlowe Lunch Bags

Just in time for back to school, we did a little update on the Marlowe Lunch Bag – now all vegan with a fabric tag! Perfect for work, school, and day trips, fill ’em up with lunch, snacks and a little note for your love!

The Peg and Awl House

After months of transformation, the Peg and Awl House is now open and awaiting your next visit to Philadelphia. A living showroom of all things Peg and Awl, the house is full of furniture, home goods, books and adventure. Check out the Peg and Awl House on Airbnb and book your stay at the place where it all started! And if you have no plans to visit Philadelphia, we hope you will find inspiration – and sneak peeks of our upcoming furniture – in the photographs!

NEW Furniture Collection Coming Soon!

It’s been a long time coming, but there are only a few more weeks before we launch the very first line of Peg and Awl furniture! We are bursting with excitement to share…

Other Things in the Works

Tomes (large journals that Margaux always uses!), sketchbooks, wooden painter’s palette, new waxed canvas colour, and one of a kinds! We have been working tirelessly on these to make them perfect and they will be launching soon – stay tuned!