Peg and Awl Barn Restoration Project at the Five Acre Wood in Pennsylvania
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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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?
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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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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.
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 sunriseA 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!
Painting Yosemite National Park
Adventures with the Scout Plein Air Box In the beginning of Sep...
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Happy New Year!
“Turn it and turn it,
for everything is in it.”
–Ben Bag BagGrowing and flourishing are not always analogous.
Join us for a quick wander through 2023, the year we smallened Peg and Awl, and moved out of Philadelphia. Also the year where we found ourselves finding ourselves again. The ‘smallening’, as I’ve been calling it, is a bit vague. I’m an open book when it comes to most things, and would love to engage in conversation on the topic, but mostly, I know neither where to begin, nor how to distill it. The simplest version is this: Peg and Awl was a thriving small business with twenty-five people at our height, reaching sales numbers we’d never imagined nor planned for. But the joy of having a small business, being curious, and exploring this weird world with family and friends, became secondary as our responsibilities to maintain this monster perpetuated. Somehow growing and flourishing are not always analogous.
And here we are in 2024, returning, already, to what matters most! We’ve ventured south for a little warmth and a lot of biking, I went north for a mini retreat in the snow. We’ve been working on new Peg and Awl treasures, building our barn storefront and workshop, and working on the land.
We cannot wait to share our progress – there are so many stories to tell!
Our 14th Anniversary was January 10th!
Søren and Silas made me a bunch of Specimen Cards of the Five Acre Wood for Christmas! I continue to fill sketchbooks and journals, and am designing some new books and journals that will be available soon! 
One of the most thrilling parts of 2023 was finally launching our long-in-the-works Solvitur Ambulando ring – and with much success! We appreciate all of your shared stories. Thanks to Claire of Warwick Furnace Farm for modeling for me!
We opened up our barn shop which we look forward to stocking with Peg and Awl treasures and more. We are heading to New Orleans for the NAMTA show in March! We made new treasures out of Sendak scraps, and small batch colours, a puzzle of a kind! 
We spent a week on a cargo ship during a storm on the North Sea – there were two visible twisters at one point! By the fourth day a calm settled over the sky, and the water, and the few floating birds, and we jumped into the cold sea. (no showers on board!)
So often I wish to jump back in, to return to the cold depths in that utter post-storm quiet. We went from thinking we’d made a big mistake in booking this trip, to longing to do something like this again – such a harrowing and magical adventure!
Here in Whitby England, where we wandered in the glorious and misty rain. Before the storm and the reality of our upcoming adventure, Walter painted and Søren drew. ps: Walter began to work on a larger Scout! 
We discontinued 3/4 of our catalog – both daunting and freeing! Inevitably, once we sell out, the inquiries start pouring in. We still have some Rogues and Weekenders and more available in our Last Chance! section.
(Here, in Amsterdam on gigantic rented bikes!)
Søren, Silas, Pearl, and I moved our studios back into the cozy Springhouse! We opened our barn for the Chester County open studio tour. Come visit us May 18 and 19! 
We traveled! Here we are, on the other side of our wild cargo boat trip after wandering down the coast of England. We spent a quick couple of days in London!
We cold plunged in Virginia when it was 29 degrees outside and were tingling and spectacularly warm when we climbed out onto the previously cold rock to shake off. Walter bringing flowers over to the barn to brighten the wet and wintry gloom. 
Solviture Ambulando (It is solved by walking)! A Christmas Eve post dinner walk and view of the Peg and Awl Barn from the street.
I started 2024 with a retreat with my friend, Deb, in CT during a snowstorm! Making progress of a kind on a project. I share bits on my Substack and @beingmargauxkent We did a few shows – here we are at Wintherthur, which we shall partake in again in 2024! 
One of our last family photographs in our Philadelphia workshop!
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Everywhere, Astonishments!
I was working on this newsletter at Lentil & Co, and this song came on. It comes and goes as songs do, but this one every time, crawls into that place where only certain songs crawl.
No Hard Feelings by The Avett Brothers
When my body won't hold me anymoreAnd it finally lets me freeWill I be ready?When my feet won't walk another mileAnd my lips give their last kiss goodbyeWill my hands be steady when I lay down my fears, my hopes, and my doubts?The rings on my fingers, and the keys to my houseWith no hard feelings.
This paired well with the essay Who Will Mourn Them When They Are Gone? from Margaret Renkl’s new book, The Comfort of Crows.Also reading Planting in a Post-Wild World which is a really hopeful and process heavy take on regeneration!
Planting in a Post-Wild World The Comfort of Crows Our Year (2024) in Photographs and Words!
Happy New Year!“Turn it and turn it,for everything is in it.”–Ben Bag Bag Gr...
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As a family, we tend to go against a lot of currents in our world, and are fortunate to have built our own business, which gives us the freedom to do so. We’ve shared fragments of our recent decision to smallen Peg and Awl and move from a massive city building on an acre of land to our barn in Chester County, but I haven’t yet articulated on paper or screen, the whole of it – if there is a whole of it. My exhaustion of the words efficiency and busy certainly played a role. But here, the new-to-me word salutogenesis comes to mind.
Back to School!“I will draw in class!”
Søren and Silas have always been draw-ers, and that they draw has always felt like a good thing to us. But when they went to public school, (and me before them), the message was different: drawing is distracting, or it shows you aren’t listening, or, just don’t draw because I said so!*
My guys actually had a relatively good public school experience, but this message persisted. When six year old Søren came home one day and told us that he was punished for drawing, we decided to do a little Back to School campaign with our recently launched desk caddies, chalk tablets, pouches, and journals. Søren partook in a magical alternative version of the punishment writing lines with “I will draw in class.”
I still love this.
That was then, this is now. We have been homeschooling for five years, which means that our creatures have a lot of free time to do what they love, as homeschool is very rarely (if at all) all of us at a table with textbooks and lined paper. Søren, 15, is now dual enrolled in our local community college. Dual enrollment is open to most high-schoolers in America and very common for Homeschoolers. His first class is drawing!
As a family, we tend to go against a lot of currents in our world, and are fortunate to have built our own business, which gives us the freedom to do so. We’ve shared fragments of our recent decision to smallen Peg and Awl and move from a massive city building on an acre of land to our barn in Chester County, but I haven’t yet articulated on paper or screen, the whole of it – if there is a whole of it. My exhaustion of the words efficiency and busy certainly played a role. But here, the new-to-me word salutogenesis comes to mind.
Simply put, we smallened Peg and Awl for our mental and physical well being. We started Peg and Awl as a way to adventure and bring objects to life, and we ended up becoming managers of a business much bigger than expected. In smallening, we are gaining our freedom to make and explore once again.
Let us remember The Lorax:
“I went right on biggering… selling more Thneeds. And I biggered my money, which everyone needs.”
–Dr. Seuss
If you have any questions, I’d love to try to answer them. Perhaps here is where I open a Q+A. I think our story is an interesting one, unfamiliar, but also the kind of story that is gaining confusing and wondrous commonality these days, so I’d love to share!
*after sharing this on IG, some delightful souls came forth telling their stories of how they encouraged drawing in their classes. Absolutely not to be missed – there are always exceptions!Shop Our Shop!
I will draw in class. I will too. 
Our Pouch Collection
A Poem by 7 year old Søren. Anselm Bookbinding Kits 
Our Desk Caddies
The Sendak Artist Roll
Everywhere, Astonishments!99% Invisible Podcast: Roman talks with Brian Merchant, author of Blood in the Machine, about the Luddites – a story that I, along with so much of the world – have misunderstood! PS: I first learned about them a little over a decade ago at a museum in Philadelphia that also had the story all wrong. I am on a wildly swinging pendulum around the conversation of AI, and this was the most compelling connection for me yet.
The Doctor’s Farmacy Podcast about Function Health: the other side of the efficiency conundrum! What is wrong with our healthcare system, and how we cannot seem to abandon the stuck channels for costs and fear of the unknown, and how Function Health is aiming to redirect our understanding of ourselves as impacted by the common standards of living, eating, &c. into a healthier future!
Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones: We all enjoyed the first episode, as Dan Beuttner, a familiar name in our house, visited Okinawa and some of their many centenarian inhabitants.As always, if you have any questions, just comment below!–Margaux“I Will Draw in Class!” Back to School | Biggering and Smallening!
Back to School! “I will draw in class!”Søren and Silas have always been dra...
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Time moves. Spring has begun its magical decent into the five-acre wood. This is our sixth spring here, and I’ve been enjoying digging in the dirt nearly daily throughout the year, slowly moving through every inch of the land. Most of my work has been ungardening, which allows me to sweat and think and grow stronger. It is the gardening that I am afraid of — what to put where and how! I do not envision (I may not have this skill at all), I just move. But the land no longer wears its thorny drapery and untraversable barbed bushes, and when Pearl steps outside, she doesn’t return with dozens of ticks and sometimes she returns with none — a remarkable transformation!
Last winter, Amy, a gardener friend, shared some insight which has made the land this spring, not just an undoing project, but a transformative one for me, the pollinators, and the passers-by. Small spring ephemerals are blooming all around, though the deer and geese are munching them at an irritating pace.I remain anxiously aware of the summer explosion which will inevitably hide trees with height and abundance of both good and not so good plants. The burst leads to a dispiriting hiding of what I’ve begun. We have a long way to go here, but magic is alive! Earth day is every day, truly, but it is important to remember to celebrate, so here is my wishing you Happy Earth Day(s)!
May Apple Rhizome May Apple Plant! 
Søren’s May Apple Specimen Card Søren’s Jack-in-the-Pulpit Specimen Card! 
Jack-in-the-Pulpit Corm Jack-in-the-Pulpit Plant Plant Pirate! Flower Bandit!
I discovered an acre of Snowdrops and Winter Aconite when trees were cut down for another Wawa in the area, and filled my truck with plants. When I went back and tried 'the right" way, (I asked), the plants were destroyed within a week.
I know better than to ask. Why did I falter?Snowdrops and Winter Aconite at a new Wawa site.
Toots and Yedda have been returning to Pond Island for 6 years! We’ve seen them thrive and struggle year after year. So far, their 5 goslings are thriving — no catastrophes, but there is a coyote on the loose!
Søren’s Toots + Yedda Specimen Card Yedda and her Goslings 
Pearl, my love! She ran out into the darkness (was it the coyote?) with fervor — straight into the new wheelbarrow we left in the path. She is recovering, but I do wonder if the wheelbarrow saved her from a worse encounter.
My nursery, Bluebells and my studio, deer munched Dutch tulips, scented daffodils and the Peg and Awl barn in the background, and wood poppy!
Slow Transformations – A Rambling On about the Five Acre Wood
Time moves. Spring has begun its magical decent into the five-acre wood. Thi...
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Specimen Cards and a Closer Look Around
Specimen Cards
I look forward to the coming weeks here, the hopeful explosion of plants! Until then, here are some Specimen Cards that Søren (15) and Silas (13) made for me for Christmas, which include a variety of plant friends and creature friends who share the land with us!See more of their work on Instagram: @sorenscoutkent and @koshooniart
We have Garter and Northern Water Snakes here... And a variety and abundance of frogs and toads! 
We also have a family of Painted Turtles! All of these creatures live by and in the untended to ponds. 
Our Pearl! Piplup is the last of our many chickens and guineas. She has somehow survived the many attacks of foxes, &c.At Home Exploration
We’ve returned home from Florida, where winter’s end, hormones, lawn talk, and chain stores wreaked havoc on my mood the first day. Fortunately, for myself and everyone around me, a walk around Wakodahatchee Wetlands quickly settled my inner chaos. Florida, like anywhere, can be so many things at once!
Back home, at the Five Acre Wood, Pearl and I awoke early to sunshine and went outside to visit all the plants’ changes during our weekend away. The three small Witch Hazel transplants survived: their tiny yellow flowers small and sparkly in the woodland. A few Squill, Hellebores, and Crocuses have flowered. Snowdrops have bloomed by the thousands, the snow drop math proving successful here though when I step back, the little clumps have a lot of multiplying to do before they change this comparatively expansive landscape! Even more Daffodils are about to burst, whilst Hepatica, Foam Flower, Geraniums, and other greenies have sent their distinct tops out of the soil and into the sun! A few years ago, I couldn’t have identified these plants by their flowers, and here I am, calling them by their names so soon. It feels magical, this ever-learning.
I’ve planted thousands of plants since we moved here five years ago. Some will take five years to bloom; others have already started on their journey, only to be destroyed by my rambunctious Pearl or over-eager deer families, hopping the fence when Pearl is elsewhere.
Snowdops by Silas Jack-in-the-Pulpit by Søren 
May Apple by Søren Daffodils (most abundant) by Silas 
Bamboo by Silas Virginia Bluebell by Søren* * *
Our Specimen Card Notebook! Story on the back! 
Some of the boys’ early drawings on the end pages! It fits inside our Sendaks!Our Boys Document Creatures and Plants with their Specimen Card Notebooks!
Specimen Cards I look forward to the coming weeks here, the hopeful explosio...
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The pileup is usually an effective way of moving us into high speed. We will open our barn doors tomorrow, for the first time, as a Peg and Awl storefront! It will also be filled with our art, which is most often squirreled away under our rounded bodies as we scribble, cut, or swish with whatever materials are at hand upon our pages.
Smudge and Other Pandemic Pages“If you like to write or draw or dance or sing, do it because it’s great: as long as we’re playing around like that, we don’t feel lonely, and our hearts warm up.”
–from The Woman Who Killed the Fish by Clarice LispectorI’ve been making books and filling them for as long as I can remember. The books pile up – a slow and steady drip of ink on paper that may someday push us out of our home. One of the gifts of the pandemic is a clear time frame. I’ve decided to go back into my journals – specifically, into the pandemic pages, to see what I could find. I found the patterns of our lives on repeat, everything obsessively documented as if we wouldn’t live without record of it. I found Pearl, and plants, grief and illness, disappearance and disappointment, homeschooling, camping, movement, and details so small I needed the quiet of a pandemic to experience them. It is a strange vocation, to be this kind of capturer of the quotidian.
“What is the conversation?” asks Claire, a few times. Conversation? I don’t know how to answer that. The conversation is on the pages, extracted from life, fragments rearranged, stories imagined, reimagined. Patterns, tatters. Is there ever an actual anything, or is everything imagined? There isn’t a conversation – there are infinite conversations and there are no conversations. It depends on who stands in front of what, and where. It depends on who is next to them. How engaged they are. How curious. It depends on what I say here, if anything, and whether you read it. Will you?
Just before the pandemic, I chose a word for the year, for 2020: The word was lightness. I wrote:
“My word for the year is lightness. I love this idea of finding a word to live alongside. So far, (so early but so far), it has freed me from the fear of not making the right marks. It has led me to say yes to a wintry adventure at the seashore where with wet knees and raisoned fingers, we searched for Cape May diamonds with the enthusiasm of children whilst the actual children played with drones, dipped their feet (and pants) into the frigid water, gathered a few specimens, and made their way back to the warm car. These are things that I love, but the weight of obligation and difference and the world’s expectations make it difficult to be so light. The more I forget this, the longer I sit. The longer I sit, the heavier I get – the weight of the dust settling upon me. Lightness. The word, my companion, reminds me to hover and to float – to move and to keep moving.”
It was the right choice, this word, and it came just in time.
From A Tear and A Seed A sneaky peek! 
The Things That I remember Are Not in These Photographs SMUDGE! Left-handed (non-dominant) hand drawings. 
A Tear and A Seed... drawings from a book I didn’t illustrate. A stack of my smudge journals! Our First Storefront!
“...the impeded stream is the one that sings.”
–from Our Real Work by Wendell BerryThe pileup is usually an effective way of moving us into high speed. We will open our barn doors tomorrow, for the first time, as a Peg and Awl storefront! It will also be filled with our art, which is most often squirreled away under our rounded bodies as we scribble, cut, or swish with whatever materials are at hand upon our pages.
We are still scrambling, but hope you come by and say hey! Email us for the address or find it at the Chester County Studio Tour website. Parking is limited – if ours is filled, park in the nearby neighborhood! If I have time, I’ll mow some roadside invasives for side-of-the-road parking.
Pouches! We have a new batch of A Rural Pen ink! 
Seaside Tote, Caddies, &c. Some of our Last Chance waxed canvas bags are in the storefront! 
New Prints from A Tear and A Seed (coming soon to our website, maybe...) We will stock our jewelry in this old treasure! Walter, Søren, and Silas!
We are still working and will share updates on Instagram!
Søren has been working on this gigantic map for months! Come see it in progress or on Instagram @sorenscoutkent
Silas has been working with Copic markers and recently has been drawing cars, an interest he shares with his Pop – his grandfather! Walter will be sharing portraits and landscapes in oil and pencil. He is still navigating his space! @pegandawlbuilt and @pegandawl
Everywhere, Astonishments!
The Chester County Studio Tour features 200 artists including one of my very favourite humans – Claire Rosen, at her home, Warwick Furnace Farm. Heidi, whom I trust I’ll meet in person someday, is another wondrous being whom I am grateful to know. This book is gorgeous. Her language, exploration, and connection to the earth has inspired me for years. Now, in book form, tis utter magic! County Studio Tour 2023 | Peg and Awl
Smudge and Other Pandemic Pages “If you like to write or draw or dance or s...
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Happy New Year!
“Turn it and turn it,
for everything is in it.”
–Ben Bag BagGrowing and flourishing are not always analogous.
Join us for a quick wander through 2023, the year we smallened Peg and Awl, and moved out of Philadelphia. Also the year where we found ourselves finding ourselves again. The ‘smallening’, as I’ve been calling it, is a bit vague. I’m an open book when it comes to most things, and would love to engage in conversation on the topic, but mostly, I know neither where to begin, nor how to distill it. The simplest version is this: Peg and Awl was a thriving small business with twenty-five people at our height, reaching sales numbers we’d never imagined nor planned for. But the joy of having a small business, being curious, and exploring this weird world with family and friends, became secondary as our responsibilities to maintain this monster perpetuated. Somehow growing and flourishing are not always analogous.
And here we are in 2024, returning, already, to what matters most! We’ve ventured south for a little warmth and a lot of biking, I went north for a mini retreat in the snow. We’ve been working on new Peg and Awl treasures, building our barn storefront and workshop, and working on the land.
We cannot wait to share our progress – there are so many stories to tell!
Our 14th Anniversary was January 10th!
Søren and Silas made me a bunch of Specimen Cards of the Five Acre Wood for Christmas! I continue to fill sketchbooks and journals, and am designing some new books and journals that will be available soon!
One of the most thrilling parts of 2023 was finally launching our long-in-the-works Solvitur Ambulando ring – and with much success! We appreciate all of your shared stories. Thanks to Claire of Warwick Furnace Farm for modeling for me!We opened up our barn shop which we look forward to stocking with Peg and Awl treasures and more. We are heading to New Orleans for the NAMTA show in March! We made new treasures out of Sendak scraps, and small batch colours, a puzzle of a kind! We spent a week on a cargo ship during a storm on the North Sea – there were two visible twisters at one point! By the fourth day a calm settled over the sky, and the water, and the few floating birds, and we jumped into the cold sea. (no showers on board!)
So often I wish to jump back in, to return to the cold depths in that utter post-storm quiet. We went from thinking we’d made a big mistake in booking this trip, to longing to do something like this again – such a harrowing and magical adventure!Here in Whitby England, where we wandered in the glorious and misty rain. Before the storm and the reality of our upcoming adventure, Walter painted and Søren drew. ps: Walter began to work on a larger Scout! We discontinued 3/4 of our catalog – both daunting and freeing! Inevitably, once we sell out, the inquiries start pouring in. We still have some Rogues and Weekenders and more available in our Last Chance! section.
(Here, in Amsterdam on gigantic rented bikes!)Søren, Silas, Pearl, and I moved our studios back into the cozy Springhouse! We opened our barn for the Chester County open studio tour. Come visit us May 18 and 19!
We traveled! Here we are, on the other side of our wild cargo boat trip after wandering down the coast of England. We spent a quick couple of days in London!We cold plunged in Virginia when it was 29 degrees outside and were tingling and spectacularly warm when we climbed out onto the previously cold rock to shake off. Walter bringing flowers over to the barn to brighten the wet and wintry gloom. Solviture Ambulando (It is solved by walking)! A Christmas Eve post dinner walk and view of the Peg and Awl Barn from the street.
I started 2024 with a retreat with my friend, Deb, in CT during a snowstorm! Making progress of a kind on a project. I share bits on my Substack and @beingmargauxkent We did a few shows – here we are at Wintherthur, which we shall partake in again in 2024! One of our last family photographs in our Philadelphia workshop!
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Everywhere, Astonishments!
I was working on this newsletter at Lentil & Co, and this song came on. It comes and goes as songs do, but this one every time, crawls into that place where only certain songs crawl.
No Hard Feelings by The Avett Brothers
When my body won't hold me anymoreAnd it finally lets me freeWill I be ready?When my feet won't walk another mileAnd my lips give their last kiss goodbyeWill my hands be steady when I lay down my fears, my hopes, and my doubts?The rings on my fingers, and the keys to my houseWith no hard feelings.
This paired well with the essay Who Will Mourn Them When They Are Gone? from Margaret Renkl’s new book, The Comfort of Crows.Also reading Planting in a Post-Wild World which is a really hopeful and process heavy take on regeneration!Planting in a Post-Wild World The Comfort of Crows Our Year (2024) in Photographs and Words!
Happy New Year!“Turn it and turn it,for everything is in it.”–Ben Bag Bag Gr...
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HOME, AGAIN.
HOME, AGAIN.
A joyous new-place photograph that you’ve seen if you’ve been with us for any amount of time. Every year we promise ourselves a new family portrait, but the year ends and I find myself reaching for this one again.This shall be a kind of public self-nudge!14th Anniversary Pondering, a Power Outage,and a Coffee Shop Pause
Walter and I started Peg and Awl on the 10th of January, 2010. My journal – which was blank – suggests nothing miraculous. Last night’s power outage from yesterday’s deluge means a coffee shop in-between which rouses the unexpected, always. As I walked and wrote in my new journal*, the in-between felt grounding, as each footfall, each letter, and the sun warming despite the cold, settled me.I was thinking that we should share a timeline of Peg and Awl successes, but it occurred to me as I walked, to share bits of the in-between days instead.
Thank you for being here!
As we do our best to plan for this coming year (I am notoriously spontaneous, but appreciate the need for a weaving), I look forward to so much. So here, a little looking forward to 2024:-
Our Shop! We recently opened it up to visitors for a few days with great success – we met so many wonderful people, which reinforces how lucky we are to connect, through Peg and Awl, to such humans. 2024 will see our shop filled with new treasures from us along with treasures made by others. We are heading to NAMTA in New Orleans in March, on the hunt for art materials.
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Journals and Kits and Tutorials! We’ve been working on some unusual new designs and look forward to sharing them.
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Of A Kind Collections (accompanied by more Flea Market adventures)
- New Collaborations, New Colours, and New Found Treasures!
Time Traveling Through the In-Betweens...
2009Before starting Peg and Awl, I had a little slow and steady business called The Black Spot Books. I made journals and jewelry and a gathering of my favourite scraps lead me to make the tiniest books, which I eventually strung together into the Library necklace. Boing Boing featured it, making it my first experience with spiraling, viraling.2010We started out making treasures for our Philadelphia Row Home, including our Tub Caddy out of reclaimed wood and materials gathered from nearby construction sites. At that point, people were thrilled that we were rescuing the materials from them or the deconstruction sites, saving them time and money with trips to the dump.
2011Now with two boys and a business, and needing a diaper bag that wasn’t paislied, flowered, or pre-gendered, we decided to make a bag that would suit all of us. Thus, the first Peg and Awl bag – The Tote – came to life! This may be when we realised we could keep making things first for ourselves, and then for others.
2014The Black Spot Books and the early days of Peg and Awl treasures were mostly comprised of reclaimed and found materials. As our business evolved, we started using new materials for a variety of reasons, primarily as a shortage of reclaimed materials arose. In our first couple years, we decided to officially launch our Of a Kind collections which harkened back to those early days.
2016I went to Spain for Picture Camp, a picture book workshop with my art supplies in various pouches and bags. On the way home, realizing i needed something more conducive to traveling, I started to design an artist roll unlike any artist rolls I could find at the time — one that would hold a variety of art materials, could hold small necessities in a zip pouch, as well as small notebooks. Thus, our most popular treasure to date — The Sendak — was born!
2019Walter, feeling compelled to find his way back to making art as well, went to a painting workshop lead by Jeremy Mann and Nadezda in Tuscany, Italy. On the supply list was a plein air box. Not knowing what this was, Walter ignored it and found himself taping his canvas to his hand to paint. Thus began his developing of the Peg and Awl Scout Plein Air Box!
2023Growing weary of Philadelphia and the business success story of growinggrowinggrowing, we sold our Philadelphia workshop and moved everything to our land in West Chester, rebuilt the dilapidated barn, set up shop, and are now enjoying our new adventure!
2024Journals! I am always eager for change and currently working on new journals*, tutorials, and kits for Peg and Awl. If you’ve been following along, I started this unusual creature a few years ago, and they are nearly ready for take off! This one I made for my friend Deb, using her Pinocchio illustrations on the cover.
Just Yesterday
When the power went out, we found a box of unused Hannukah candles, sunk them into decade old organic black rice and farro, and lit our way through a few rounds of one of our favourite games, reminiscent of The New York Times’ Connections, Code Names! Søren and I started out strong with Roadtrips for 5.
Workspace:
I moved around a lot in 2023 and started this year the same! We’ve already found our way to Savannah, GA and I meandered up to snowy Canaan, CT.
I’ve been moving around The 5 Acre Wood looking for spot that is just right.
Sophie Blackall’s, Milkwood in New York, Photograph by Sophie. Our Cabin in CT, photograph by Deborah Stein. 
A salvaged flat file turned standing desk! A beloved new corner of my studio.
Everywhere, Astonishments!The Flynn Effect and “kids these days...”
I don’t know about you, but I hear a lot of mischief about kids these days and see a lot of memes that don’t make a whole lot of sense to me.
This morning in Turk’s Head Coffee Shop in West Chester, Penna, there was a young person – he must have been 5 – who sat near us and lit up upon seeing a gigantic book of maps on the table and immediately asked “Where is Israel? Where is Japan?” as he navigated the book’s systems. “Mommy, I want to go to Japan.” She considers then realizes he means Japan in the book. Pages turn. “Where is Taiwan. What is this island? Georgian Bay, Ontario. Lake Superior. Where is Minnesota?”
He reads and pronounces places I am still learning, and goes on to explain what makes 75 an interstate.
I could have sat and listened all day, but I had to go fetch my own two creatures, full of wonder, curiosity, and magic. I wanted to leave my name and number, to connect this 5 year old map lover to my 13 and 15 year old map lovers. But maybe they aren’t unusual, these curious young people. Maybe they are everywhere.
Leave us a comment!
–Margaux✨ This Year, We Celebrate 14 Years of Peg and Awl!
HOME, AGAIN. A joyous new-place photograph that you’ve seen if you’ve been w...
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Our Shop! We recently opened it up to visitors for a few days with great success – we met so many wonderful people, which reinforces how lucky we are to connect, through Peg and Awl, to such humans. 2024 will see our shop filled with new treasures from us along with treasures made by others. We are heading to NAMTA in New Orleans in March, on the hunt for art materials.
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Our Barn Shop is Open, Now by Appointment!
Come Visit Our Shop!
Come say hey and pick up a treasure if you are in the area. Email us to make an appointment.
Morning Light! Cozy Corner and Our Bags! 
Vignettes of our Actual Messies!
Walter Hanging Photographs Silas Setting Up Track Lighting 
Walter’s Original Oil Paintings
Scout Pochade Box Handmade Ink! 
Our Bookbinding Kits
Vintage Pencils and Dip Pens! Bioplastic Pans from Poems About You that fit our palettes! 
Of a Kind Book Necklaces Along with Our Classics.
Everywhere, Astonishments!Søren, Silas, and I went to Philosophical Hall in Philadelphia with Katie to hear Catherine McNeur talk about her new book Mischievous Creatures. The title was enough to draw back to the city – and my homeschoolers are up for most adventures. Catherine, Margaretta, and Elizabeth’s stories were full of magic and wonder, local history and mischievous creatures! The erasure of these two women scientists came undone through Catherine's excavation, as one unexpected finding after another revealed their story.
Mischievous Creatures by Catherine McNeur on my desk! Catherine’s Desk Caddy from Peg and Awl, which she’s had for a decade(!), on her desk. Come Visit Our Barn Shop!
Come Visit Our Shop!Come say hey and pick up a treasure if you are in the ar...
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Suggested Blog Posts
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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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.
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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.
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Finding a nice spot to paint |
Vogelsang is the one on the left |
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Painting by Fletcher Lake
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The sunrise
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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!
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Rock scrambling |
Painting atop Vogelsang |
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Leaving Vogelsang Summit |
The Bear! |
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Vogelsang Lake in the distance |
First painting of the trip |
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Right outside my tent |
Goodnight! |
Coming Soon: Postcards and Prints of the Yosemite National Park Plein Air Paintings!
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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!
Painting Yosemite National Park
Adventures with the Scout Plein Air Box In the beginning of Sep...
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Happy New Year!
“Turn it and turn it,
for everything is in it.”
–Ben Bag Bag
Growing and flourishing are not always analogous.
Join us for a quick wander through 2023, the year we smallened Peg and Awl, and moved out of Philadelphia. Also the year where we found ourselves finding ourselves again. The ‘smallening’, as I’ve been calling it, is a bit vague. I’m an open book when it comes to most things, and would love to engage in conversation on the topic, but mostly, I know neither where to begin, nor how to distill it. The simplest version is this: Peg and Awl was a thriving small business with twenty-five people at our height, reaching sales numbers we’d never imagined nor planned for. But the joy of having a small business, being curious, and exploring this weird world with family and friends, became secondary as our responsibilities to maintain this monster perpetuated. Somehow growing and flourishing are not always analogous.
And here we are in 2024, returning, already, to what matters most! We’ve ventured south for a little warmth and a lot of biking, I went north for a mini retreat in the snow. We’ve been working on new Peg and Awl treasures, building our barn storefront and workshop, and working on the land.
We cannot wait to share our progress – there are so many stories to tell!
Our 14th Anniversary was January 10th!
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One of the most thrilling parts of 2023 was finally launching our long-in-the-works Solvitur Ambulando ring – and with much success! We appreciate all of your shared stories. Thanks to Claire of Warwick Furnace Farm for modeling for me!
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We spent a week on a cargo ship during a storm on the North Sea – there were two visible twisters at one point! By the fourth day a calm settled over the sky, and the water, and the few floating birds, and we jumped into the cold sea. (no showers on board!)
So often I wish to jump back in, to return to the cold depths in that utter post-storm quiet. We went from thinking we’d made a big mistake in booking this trip, to longing to do something like this again – such a harrowing and magical adventure!
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We discontinued 3/4 of our catalog – both daunting and freeing! Inevitably, once we sell out, the inquiries start pouring in. We still have some Rogues and Weekenders and more available in our Last Chance! section.
(Here, in Amsterdam on gigantic rented bikes!)
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We traveled! Here we are, on the other side of our wild cargo boat trip after wandering down the coast of England. We spent a quick couple of days in London!
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Solviture Ambulando (It is solved by walking)! A Christmas Eve post dinner walk and view of the Peg and Awl Barn from the street.
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One of our last family photographs in our Philadelphia workshop!
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Everywhere, Astonishments!
I was working on this newsletter at Lentil & Co, and this song came on. It comes and goes as songs do, but this one every time, crawls into that place where only certain songs crawl.
No Hard Feelings by The Avett Brothers
This paired well with the essay Who Will Mourn Them When They Are Gone? from Margaret Renkl’s new book, The Comfort of Crows.
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Our Year (2024) in Photographs and Words!
Happy New Year!“Turn it and turn it,for everything is in it.”–Ben Bag Bag Gr...
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As a family, we tend to go against a lot of currents in our world, and are fortunate to have built our own business, which gives us the freedom to do so. We’ve shared fragments of our recent decision to smallen Peg and Awl and move from a massive city building on an acre of land to our barn in Chester County, but I haven’t yet articulated on paper or screen, the whole of it – if there is a whole of it. My exhaustion of the words efficiency and busy certainly played a role. But here, the new-to-me word salutogenesis comes to mind.
Back to School!
“I will draw in class!”
Søren and Silas have always been draw-ers, and that they draw has always felt like a good thing to us. But when they went to public school, (and me before them), the message was different: drawing is distracting, or it shows you aren’t listening, or, just don’t draw because I said so!*
My guys actually had a relatively good public school experience, but this message persisted. When six year old Søren came home one day and told us that he was punished for drawing, we decided to do a little Back to School campaign with our recently launched desk caddies, chalk tablets, pouches, and journals. Søren partook in a magical alternative version of the punishment writing lines with “I will draw in class.”
I still love this.
That was then, this is now. We have been homeschooling for five years, which means that our creatures have a lot of free time to do what they love, as homeschool is very rarely (if at all) all of us at a table with textbooks and lined paper. Søren, 15, is now dual enrolled in our local community college. Dual enrollment is open to most high-schoolers in America and very common for Homeschoolers. His first class is drawing!
As a family, we tend to go against a lot of currents in our world, and are fortunate to have built our own business, which gives us the freedom to do so. We’ve shared fragments of our recent decision to smallen Peg and Awl and move from a massive city building on an acre of land to our barn in Chester County, but I haven’t yet articulated on paper or screen, the whole of it – if there is a whole of it. My exhaustion of the words efficiency and busy certainly played a role. But here, the new-to-me word salutogenesis comes to mind.
Simply put, we smallened Peg and Awl for our mental and physical well being. We started Peg and Awl as a way to adventure and bring objects to life, and we ended up becoming managers of a business much bigger than expected. In smallening, we are gaining our freedom to make and explore once again.
Let us remember The Lorax:
“I went right on biggering… selling more Thneeds. And I biggered my money, which everyone needs.”
–Dr. Seuss
If you have any questions, I’d love to try to answer them. Perhaps here is where I open a Q+A. I think our story is an interesting one, unfamiliar, but also the kind of story that is gaining confusing and wondrous commonality these days, so I’d love to share!
*after sharing this on IG, some delightful souls came forth telling their stories of how they encouraged drawing in their classes. Absolutely not to be missed – there are always exceptions!
Shop Our Shop!
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Our Pouch Collection
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Our Desk Caddies
The Sendak Artist Roll
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Everywhere, Astonishments!
99% Invisible Podcast: Roman talks with Brian Merchant, author of Blood in the Machine, about the Luddites – a story that I, along with so much of the world – have misunderstood! PS: I first learned about them a little over a decade ago at a museum in Philadelphia that also had the story all wrong. I am on a wildly swinging pendulum around the conversation of AI, and this was the most compelling connection for me yet.
The Doctor’s Farmacy Podcast about Function Health: the other side of the efficiency conundrum! What is wrong with our healthcare system, and how we cannot seem to abandon the stuck channels for costs and fear of the unknown, and how Function Health is aiming to redirect our understanding of ourselves as impacted by the common standards of living, eating, &c. into a healthier future!
Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones: We all enjoyed the first episode, as Dan Beuttner, a familiar name in our house, visited Okinawa and some of their many centenarian inhabitants.
“I Will Draw in Class!” Back to School | Biggering and Smallening!
Back to School! “I will draw in class!”Søren and Silas have always been dra...
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Time moves. Spring has begun its magical decent into the five-acre wood. This is our sixth spring here, and I’ve been enjoying digging in the dirt nearly daily throughout the year, slowly moving through every inch of the land. Most of my work has been ungardening, which allows me to sweat and think and grow stronger. It is the gardening that I am afraid of — what to put where and how! I do not envision (I may not have this skill at all), I just move. But the land no longer wears its thorny drapery and untraversable barbed bushes, and when Pearl steps outside, she doesn’t return with dozens of ticks and sometimes she returns with none — a remarkable transformation!Last winter, Amy, a gardener friend, shared some insight which has made the land this spring, not just an undoing project, but a transformative one for me, the pollinators, and the passers-by. Small spring ephemerals are blooming all around, though the deer and geese are munching them at an irritating pace.
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May Apple Rhizome |
May Apple Plant! |
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Plant Pirate! Flower Bandit!
I discovered an acre of Snowdrops and Winter Aconite when trees were cut down for another Wawa in the area, and filled my truck with plants. When I went back and tried 'the right" way, (I asked), the plants were destroyed within a week.
I know better than to ask. Why did I falter?
Snowdrops and Winter Aconite at a new Wawa site.
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Toots and Yedda have been returning to Pond Island for 6 years! We’ve seen them thrive and struggle year after year. So far, their 5 goslings are thriving — no catastrophes, but there is a coyote on the loose!
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Pearl, my love! She ran out into the darkness (was it the coyote?) with fervor — straight into the new wheelbarrow we left in the path. She is recovering, but I do wonder if the wheelbarrow saved her from a worse encounter.
My nursery, Bluebells and my studio, deer munched Dutch tulips, scented daffodils and the Peg and Awl barn in the background, and wood poppy!
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Slow Transformations – A Rambling On about the Five Acre Wood
Time moves. Spring has begun its magical decent into the five-acre wood. Thi...
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Specimen Cards
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Our Pearl! |
Piplup is the last of our many chickens and guineas. She has somehow survived the many attacks of foxes, &c.
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At Home Exploration
We’ve returned home from Florida, where winter’s end, hormones, lawn talk, and chain stores wreaked havoc on my mood the first day. Fortunately, for myself and everyone around me, a walk around Wakodahatchee Wetlands quickly settled my inner chaos. Florida, like anywhere, can be so many things at once!
Back home, at the Five Acre Wood, Pearl and I awoke early to sunshine and went outside to visit all the plants’ changes during our weekend away. The three small Witch Hazel transplants survived: their tiny yellow flowers small and sparkly in the woodland. A few Squill, Hellebores, and Crocuses have flowered. Snowdrops have bloomed by the thousands, the snow drop math proving successful here though when I step back, the little clumps have a lot of multiplying to do before they change this comparatively expansive landscape! Even more Daffodils are about to burst, whilst Hepatica, Foam Flower, Geraniums, and other greenies have sent their distinct tops out of the soil and into the sun! A few years ago, I couldn’t have identified these plants by their flowers, and here I am, calling them by their names so soon. It feels magical, this ever-learning.
I’ve planted thousands of plants since we moved here five years ago. Some will take five years to bloom; others have already started on their journey, only to be destroyed by my rambunctious Pearl or over-eager deer families, hopping the fence when Pearl is elsewhere.
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Bamboo by Silas |
Virginia Bluebell by Søren
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It fits inside our Sendaks!
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Our Boys Document Creatures and Plants with their Specimen Card Notebooks!
Specimen Cards I look forward to the coming weeks here, the hopeful explosio...
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The pileup is usually an effective way of moving us into high speed. We will open our barn doors tomorrow, for the first time, as a Peg and Awl storefront! It will also be filled with our art, which is most often squirreled away under our rounded bodies as we scribble, cut, or swish with whatever materials are at hand upon our pages.
Smudge and Other Pandemic Pages
“If you like to write or draw or dance or sing, do it because it’s great: as long as we’re playing around like that, we don’t feel lonely, and our hearts warm up.”
–from The Woman Who Killed the Fish by Clarice Lispector
I’ve been making books and filling them for as long as I can remember. The books pile up – a slow and steady drip of ink on paper that may someday push us out of our home. One of the gifts of the pandemic is a clear time frame. I’ve decided to go back into my journals – specifically, into the pandemic pages, to see what I could find. I found the patterns of our lives on repeat, everything obsessively documented as if we wouldn’t live without record of it. I found Pearl, and plants, grief and illness, disappearance and disappointment, homeschooling, camping, movement, and details so small I needed the quiet of a pandemic to experience them. It is a strange vocation, to be this kind of capturer of the quotidian.
“What is the conversation?” asks Claire, a few times. Conversation? I don’t know how to answer that. The conversation is on the pages, extracted from life, fragments rearranged, stories imagined, reimagined. Patterns, tatters. Is there ever an actual anything, or is everything imagined? There isn’t a conversation – there are infinite conversations and there are no conversations. It depends on who stands in front of what, and where. It depends on who is next to them. How engaged they are. How curious. It depends on what I say here, if anything, and whether you read it. Will you?
Just before the pandemic, I chose a word for the year, for 2020: The word was lightness. I wrote:
“My word for the year is lightness. I love this idea of finding a word to live alongside. So far, (so early but so far), it has freed me from the fear of not making the right marks. It has led me to say yes to a wintry adventure at the seashore where with wet knees and raisoned fingers, we searched for Cape May diamonds with the enthusiasm of children whilst the actual children played with drones, dipped their feet (and pants) into the frigid water, gathered a few specimens, and made their way back to the warm car. These are things that I love, but the weight of obligation and difference and the world’s expectations make it difficult to be so light. The more I forget this, the longer I sit. The longer I sit, the heavier I get – the weight of the dust settling upon me. Lightness. The word, my companion, reminds me to hover and to float – to move and to keep moving.”
It was the right choice, this word, and it came just in time.
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Our First Storefront!
“...the impeded stream is the one that sings.”
–from Our Real Work by Wendell Berry
The pileup is usually an effective way of moving us into high speed. We will open our barn doors tomorrow, for the first time, as a Peg and Awl storefront! It will also be filled with our art, which is most often squirreled away under our rounded bodies as we scribble, cut, or swish with whatever materials are at hand upon our pages.
We are still scrambling, but hope you come by and say hey! Email us for the address or find it at the Chester County Studio Tour website. Parking is limited – if ours is filled, park in the nearby neighborhood! If I have time, I’ll mow some roadside invasives for side-of-the-road parking.
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Walter, Søren, and Silas!
We are still working and will share updates on Instagram!
Søren has been working on this gigantic map for months! Come see it in progress or on Instagram @sorenscoutkent
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Everywhere, Astonishments!
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County Studio Tour 2023 | Peg and Awl
Smudge and Other Pandemic Pages “If you like to write or draw or dance or s...
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Happy New Year!
“Turn it and turn it,
for everything is in it.”
–Ben Bag Bag
Growing and flourishing are not always analogous.
Join us for a quick wander through 2023, the year we smallened Peg and Awl, and moved out of Philadelphia. Also the year where we found ourselves finding ourselves again. The ‘smallening’, as I’ve been calling it, is a bit vague. I’m an open book when it comes to most things, and would love to engage in conversation on the topic, but mostly, I know neither where to begin, nor how to distill it. The simplest version is this: Peg and Awl was a thriving small business with twenty-five people at our height, reaching sales numbers we’d never imagined nor planned for. But the joy of having a small business, being curious, and exploring this weird world with family and friends, became secondary as our responsibilities to maintain this monster perpetuated. Somehow growing and flourishing are not always analogous.
And here we are in 2024, returning, already, to what matters most! We’ve ventured south for a little warmth and a lot of biking, I went north for a mini retreat in the snow. We’ve been working on new Peg and Awl treasures, building our barn storefront and workshop, and working on the land.
We cannot wait to share our progress – there are so many stories to tell!
Our 14th Anniversary was January 10th!
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One of the most thrilling parts of 2023 was finally launching our long-in-the-works Solvitur Ambulando ring – and with much success! We appreciate all of your shared stories. Thanks to Claire of Warwick Furnace Farm for modeling for me!
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We spent a week on a cargo ship during a storm on the North Sea – there were two visible twisters at one point! By the fourth day a calm settled over the sky, and the water, and the few floating birds, and we jumped into the cold sea. (no showers on board!)
So often I wish to jump back in, to return to the cold depths in that utter post-storm quiet. We went from thinking we’d made a big mistake in booking this trip, to longing to do something like this again – such a harrowing and magical adventure!
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We discontinued 3/4 of our catalog – both daunting and freeing! Inevitably, once we sell out, the inquiries start pouring in. We still have some Rogues and Weekenders and more available in our Last Chance! section.
(Here, in Amsterdam on gigantic rented bikes!)
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We traveled! Here we are, on the other side of our wild cargo boat trip after wandering down the coast of England. We spent a quick couple of days in London!
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Solviture Ambulando (It is solved by walking)! A Christmas Eve post dinner walk and view of the Peg and Awl Barn from the street.
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One of our last family photographs in our Philadelphia workshop!
* * *
Everywhere, Astonishments!
I was working on this newsletter at Lentil & Co, and this song came on. It comes and goes as songs do, but this one every time, crawls into that place where only certain songs crawl.
No Hard Feelings by The Avett Brothers
This paired well with the essay Who Will Mourn Them When They Are Gone? from Margaret Renkl’s new book, The Comfort of Crows.
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Our Year (2024) in Photographs and Words!
Happy New Year!“Turn it and turn it,for everything is in it.”–Ben Bag Bag Gr...
Read The Post
HOME, AGAIN.
HOME, AGAIN.
Walter and I started Peg and Awl on the 10th of January, 2010. My journal – which was blank – suggests nothing miraculous. Last night’s power outage from yesterday’s deluge means a coffee shop in-between which rouses the unexpected, always. As I walked and wrote in my new journal*, the in-between felt grounding, as each footfall, each letter, and the sun warming despite the cold, settled me.
I was thinking that we should share a timeline of Peg and Awl successes, but it occurred to me as I walked, to share bits of the in-between days instead.
Thank you for being here!
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Our Shop! We recently opened it up to visitors for a few days with great success – we met so many wonderful people, which reinforces how lucky we are to connect, through Peg and Awl, to such humans. 2024 will see our shop filled with new treasures from us along with treasures made by others. We are heading to NAMTA in New Orleans in March, on the hunt for art materials.
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Journals and Kits and Tutorials! We’ve been working on some unusual new designs and look forward to sharing them.
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Of A Kind Collections (accompanied by more Flea Market adventures)
- New Collaborations, New Colours, and New Found Treasures!
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2010
We started out making treasures for our Philadelphia Row Home, including our Tub Caddy out of reclaimed wood and materials gathered from nearby construction sites. At that point, people were thrilled that we were rescuing the materials from them or the deconstruction sites, saving them time and money with trips to the dump.
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2011
Now with two boys and a business, and needing a diaper bag that wasn’t paislied, flowered, or pre-gendered, we decided to make a bag that would suit all of us. Thus, the first Peg and Awl bag – The Tote – came to life! This may be when we realised we could keep making things first for ourselves, and then for others. |
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2016
I went to Spain for Picture Camp, a picture book workshop with my art supplies in various pouches and bags. On the way home, realizing i needed something more conducive to traveling, I started to design an artist roll unlike any artist rolls I could find at the time — one that would hold a variety of art materials, could hold small necessities in a zip pouch, as well as small notebooks. Thus, our most popular treasure to date — The Sendak — was born! |
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2023
Growing weary of Philadelphia and the business success story of growinggrowinggrowing, we sold our Philadelphia workshop and moved everything to our land in West Chester, rebuilt the dilapidated barn, set up shop, and are now enjoying our new adventure! |
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2024
Journals! I am always eager for change and currently working on new journals*, tutorials, and kits for Peg and Awl. If you’ve been following along, I started this unusual creature a few years ago, and they are nearly ready for take off! This one I made for my friend Deb, using her Pinocchio illustrations on the cover.
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Just Yesterday
When the power went out, we found a box of unused Hannukah candles, sunk them into decade old organic black rice and farro, and lit our way through a few rounds of one of our favourite games, reminiscent of The New York Times’ Connections, Code Names! Søren and I started out strong with Roadtrips for 5.
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Workspace:
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A salvaged flat file turned standing desk! A beloved new corner of my studio.
Everywhere, Astonishments!
The Flynn Effect and “kids these days...”
I don’t know about you, but I hear a lot of mischief about kids these days and see a lot of memes that don’t make a whole lot of sense to me.
This morning in Turk’s Head Coffee Shop in West Chester, Penna, there was a young person – he must have been 5 – who sat near us and lit up upon seeing a gigantic book of maps on the table and immediately asked “Where is Israel? Where is Japan?” as he navigated the book’s systems. “Mommy, I want to go to Japan.” She considers then realizes he means Japan in the book. Pages turn. “Where is Taiwan. What is this island? Georgian Bay, Ontario. Lake Superior. Where is Minnesota?”
He reads and pronounces places I am still learning, and goes on to explain what makes 75 an interstate.
I could have sat and listened all day, but I had to go fetch my own two creatures, full of wonder, curiosity, and magic. I wanted to leave my name and number, to connect this 5 year old map lover to my 13 and 15 year old map lovers. But maybe they aren’t unusual, these curious young people. Maybe they are everywhere.
Leave us a comment!
–Margaux
✨ This Year, We Celebrate 14 Years of Peg and Awl!
HOME, AGAIN. A joyous new-place photograph that you’ve seen if you’ve been w...
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Our Barn Shop is Open, Now by Appointment!
Come Visit Our Shop!
Come say hey and pick up a treasure if you are in the area. Email us to make an appointment.
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Vignettes of our Actual Messies!
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Walter’s Original Oil Paintings
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Our Bookbinding Kits
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Of a Kind Book Necklaces Along with Our Classics.
Everywhere, Astonishments!
Søren, Silas, and I went to Philosophical Hall in Philadelphia with Katie to hear Catherine McNeur talk about her new book Mischievous Creatures. The title was enough to draw back to the city – and my homeschoolers are up for most adventures. Catherine, Margaretta, and Elizabeth’s stories were full of magic and wonder, local history and mischievous creatures! The erasure of these two women scientists came undone through Catherine's excavation, as one unexpected finding after another revealed their story.
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Come Visit Our Barn Shop!
Come Visit Our Shop!Come say hey and pick up a treasure if you are in the ar...
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Comments
Susanhemann
March 25, 2023what a work of love! it is stunning
When I was in high school my parents restored a century home on 11 acres with a barn, outhouse, and chicken coop. I loved that house. Such a wonderful porch too. Walking those acres with the dogs fostered my love for nature and the simple life
Jill Brooks
January 21, 2022So worth it to document the barn’s journey – the technical stuff is fascinating, the photos are beautifully observed (the Floor Scrapers is the only art postcard I bought after seeing the original in The Museé d’Orsay in Paris) and it feels a privilege to see a family’s vision come to fruition. Thank you.
Bev LoPinto
January 18, 2022Such an inspiring project executed so organically and thoughtfully with the whole family involved. I can imagine it will be a treasured space for years to come. Wishing you all many years of creative play and exploration in your old/new magical barn.
Anna
January 17, 2022What a beautiful story, told with such thoughtful words, this was a delightful read! The Barn turned out amazing! Congratulations!
Brett Torrey Haynes
January 17, 2022Thank you for sharing this inspiring journey. What a wonderful model of reuse; true to your mission and ethos.
Jenny
January 16, 2022Truly a labor of love! Magnificent accomplishment! Oh happy day!
Amy N
January 15, 2022So nice to read the story of the barn! Such a beautiful space. And I loved the Floor Sanders vs. Floor Scrapers!
SrDorcee Clarey
January 15, 2022So wonderful to hear the full story! I love this place.
Darlene Williams
January 15, 2022What a great space! An artist dream. With the work you and your family put in, the satisfaction and enjoyment will last for many years to come. Enjoy.
Susan Smail
January 15, 2022What a massive but worthy project! My husband and I are weeks from finalizing the sale and move to a property in the Wisconsin woods that includes a little rickety barn with stone foundation. So many similar features noted between the two! We are hoping to give it some love and restoration to last another 100 years. Your studio makeover is an artists dream!!….and well done. So heart warming to see the evidence of hard work from the whole family and the satisfaction of completion. It will surely serve as a creative powerhouse for many years to come for all of you! Congratulations!