Spring has been coming in waves here in Philadelphia, warming our winter days and allowing our skin can say hello! to the sun. This is how I love my winters – warm and sunny one day and snowy the next. All of this variety has me daydreaming of road trips and gardening, reading outside and abandoning my (city) hibernation. One day I’ll fill a Hunter with just the necessities, and the next it’ll be a Gatherer, filled to the brim with greater expectations for the day!

We are excited to share with you the next bags in our leather evolution: The Hunter and Gatherer. They are looking better then ever with their new vegetable tanned straps and refreshed branding!

psst. If you’ve been eying up one of these bags with the antique strap, now is the time, as each week finds our stock diminishing ever-quickly. Find them in Of a Kinds.

The Gatherer Bag in Moss	The Small Hunter Satchel in Coal
The Hunter Satchel in Moss	The Gatherer Bag in Rook

Journal lovers, sketchbook keepers, and analog fiends! People of the books! We’ve finally constructed staple journals made from new locally sourced veg tanned leather in both black – The Jackson – and brown – The Harper – that are ready for your stories, musings and sketches. They are lined with antique textiles and of course still boast all of the Peg and Awl journal goodness, but unlike all of the others, these two are here to stay.

As always, we will still be on the hunt for antique and reclaimed leather and will continue to stock our shop with Of a Kinds as we make them. If these are what you are after, then you are in luck! We’ve filled our shop with small batches of French Grey, Bordeaux and some other scrumptious morsels. Unlike dear Jackson and Harper, these are quite limited – all part of the fun!

I, Margaux, have been working in our new studio in our backyard for the last month, enjoying all of the light and solitude the tiny space offers. I’ve kept a journal for much of my life, but only recently have I set aside a time for morning pages just after dropping Søren and Silas off at school. This pause became a necessary and non-negotiable part of my day: a time set aside to clarify and purge and dream. Walter recently brought home a serving tray that we originally made in collaboration with Jersey Ice Cream Co. and Lokal Hotel, and I’ve been using it to haul my coffee or tea and other breakfast goodies out to the new studio. As a result of its usefulness, we’ve decided to add it to our Peg and Awl offerings – The Watson Serving Tray!

The Jackson Journal	The Harper Journal
The Watson Serving Tray
Some of a Kind Journals
Leather Bordeaux Journal	Leather Journal in French Grey

February 13, 2018

21Ninety included our Journey Bag in their article 18 Valentine’s Gifts for Every Stage of Your Relationship!

Peg and Awl The Journey Bag, $256
This waxed canvas bag is great for all those weekend trips you two have been talking about taking but just haven’t gotten around to going yet. With this cute weekender, there’s one less excuse and one more incentive to explore with your Valentine.

August 7, 2014

Back in 2014, WHYY featured us in their Friday Arts video segment. Watch the video below and read the whole article here!

At Peg and Awl, we love what time does to an object: the natural transformation that occurs as it takes on the marks of the life that it has seen – the satisfaction of breaking something in and allowing it to grow with you. Our newly-evolved Tote and Finch Satchel, durably constructed with waxed canvas and locally sourced vegetable tanned leather, are clean slates eagerly awaiting this metamorphosis.

With the introduction of this collection using newly vegetable tanned leather, we are reaffirming the fellowship between ourselves and the materials with which we make, while simultaneously carving a new facet into the cornerstone of Peg and Awl’s mission. By creating beautiful and useful objects out of sustainable and responsibly sourced materials, we strive to change the way that we as individuals make, use, repair and reuse everyday objects. As our new bags leave our Philadelphia workshop and arrive at your doorsteps, what adventures will they see in your hands and how will they transform to become truly yours?

We still have a lot of work to do in our quest of creating a fully traceable source of leather. You can learn more about our progress in that adventure on our blog.

The Finch Satchel in Slate	Waxed Canvas Tote in Coal
Waxed Canvas Tote in Moss	The Finch Satchel in Coal
The Large Finch Satchel in Slate	The Large Waxed Canvas Tote in Truffle

Our current stock pile of Antique Leather is coming to an end, and due to the scarcity, the remaining Totes and Finches finished with these straps can now be found in our Of a Kind section. So if you’ve had your eye on our antique leather bags, now is the time to scoop one up before they’re gone!

When we started Peg and Awl we saw heaps of excess around us, abandoned materials – neglected, discarded and forgotten. Wood from derelict houses being tossed in the dump, old leather shoes, jackets, chair seats and military gun slings shoved to the back corners of buildings and warehouses. The stories that lived in these objects were lost and we wanted to bring them back to life, to resurrect their tales and turn the now discarded objects back into everyday useful things that can take on a new story and build onto the rich history of what once was. This mission has lead us down many paths and adventures and now, as some of the abandon materials we use are becoming more scarce, we are beginning to write a new chapter.

As the military gun slings that adorn our bags become harder to find, we begin to explore the possibilities of change. Our hunt for a new leather source has commenced. We know what we want; leather that is traceable and sustainable, a source of hides that comes from farms that really care about their animals and the land that they call home. And a tanner that considers every process holistically as a sustainable ecosystem. We want leather that embodies a story of challenging the problems with the industry and that, like our antique materials, celebrates the marks of pasture raised cows and the timeless process of vegetable tanned hides.

This search led us to England, where we discovered a 500 year old tannery deep in the countryside, and back again to our home state of Pennsylvania to a tannery not quite as old but just as committed to sustainability – one of only 2 such tanneries in the United States! Both the English and American tanneries see the importance of traceability, and of tracking hides that come from organic farms. They have each developed slow, organic, sustainable systems that allow them to send what water they use back into the local streams and rivers – clean. This quest has taken us a few years, but the adventure was worth it! It has brought us to a new place, it has solidified our mission to not accept what comes easy, but to stand our ground as invigorated and conscious makers.

P.S. We will always still be on the lookout for antique leather, but may not always have those bags in stock due to the scarcity!

The beginning of the Peg and Awl story goes like this: “We used to make things for ourselves, and now we make them for everyone.” So, what began as our own guilty pleasure – our love for All Black and sneaking it into Peg and Awl when possible – has revealed itself as a very wanted part of what we do. Today we are psyched to announce that the All Black Tote and All Black Finch are finally here to stay! Constructed with durable black waxed canvas and finished with black vegetable tanned leather, these new variations are blank slates waiting to be marked with the adventures and stories of use. We have fallen in love with this combination and can’t wait to make every Peg and Awl bag this way!

All Black Finch Satchel

All Black Waxed Canvas Tote

All Black Finch Satchel

All Black Waxed Canvas Tote

January 9, 2018

BuzzFeed included our Zodiac Candleblocks in their Valentine’s Day gift guide: Personalized Valentine’s Day Gifts That Show How Much You Care!

Samantha Dion Baker made an amazing miniature fold-out drawing of our Sendak Artist Roll! Check out her awesome work on Instagram and on her website!

Miniature versions of some of the gifts I received happened on my page today. #miniature #illustration #sketchjournal #illustratedjournal #pegandawl #sdionbakersketchjournal

A post shared by Samantha Dion Baker (@sdionbakerdesign) on Dec 28, 2017 at 4:47pm PST

December 22, 2017

Airows featured our Apothecary Caddy in their article Keep Your Bathroom Organized With This Stylish Apothecary Caddy!

Photo credit: Bespoke Post

A bathroom tells you a lot about someone. A nice candle. Good soap. Clean. Organized. All that stuff goes a long way with guests. Get it tidy (and display some beautifully packaged grooming goods) with this well-crafted apothecary caddy from the husband and wife team at Peg & Awl.