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  • Whether embarking on a backyard exploration, a community science project, travelling near or far, or identifying mysterious objects around your house, these cards encourage observation, drawing, writing, and a touch of research. However you use them, we hope they inspire you to always keep an eye out for the little things!

    Specimen Cards by Peg and Awl

    The world is bursting with magic, and for anyone looking, it positively pulses. As a family of life-long learners, we felt compelled to share a few of our favourite activities in one compact notebook of removable cards (coming soon!). We are now in our 4th year of officially homeschooling our boys, which means full time of the stuff we did around the edges of their ‘normal’ education at public school.

    We love the unknown and the ‘around the edges’ stuff like family bike rides, traveling, and art all day, and have always found places like Kahn Academy and Skillshare, to be grounding companions. With so many students of the world currently homeschooling, or hodge-podge schooling via Zoom and Flipgrid (like we are!), we have decided (thanks Silas!) to unearth this Peg and Awl project have turned it into a free downloadable PDF: Specimen Cards! 

    Whether embarking on a backyard exploration, a community science project, travelling near or far, or identifying mysterious objects around your house, these cards encourage observation, drawing, writing, and a touch of research. However you use them, we hope they inspire you to always keep an eye out for the little things!

    Download the Printable PDF

    Specimen Cards by Peg and Awl
    Silas drawing daffodils on a portable desk made by Søren!
    Silas shows me his mushroom specimen!
    Sampling of the coming soon Specimen Card notebook.
    Collection of Specimen Cards by Silas!
    Designing the Specimen Card book – including Silas's original drawings!
    Closeup of updated Specimen Card, nearly finalized!

    Specimen Cards + Homeschooling (Free Printable)

    The world is bursting with magic, and for anyone looking, it positively puls...

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  • Our first Of A Kind Collection of 2022 is bursting with character! Each of these collections allows us to dig around and find treasures within treasures. Every discovery holds a bit of the past, and the story and marks accumulated. They are a joy to put together and harken back to the best part of our origin story – the gathering of old things and the reimagining and reworking of them into once again useful objects.

    Our first Of A Kind Collection of 2022 is bursting with character! Each of these collections allows us to dig around and find treasures within treasures. Every discovery holds a bit of the past, and the story and marks accumulated. They are a joy to put together and harken back to the best part of our origin story – the gathering of old things and the reimagining and reworking of them into once again useful objects.

    recycled vintage fabric for waxed canvas pouches by peg and awl

    Hand Mulled Ghost Green Watercolour Paint!

    We made two small batch sets for painters. The first is the Petite Paint Set, which contains a pan of hand mulled Ghost Green watercolour and a brush rest. The other is a set of 3 Brush Rests for those of you with more than one brush or pen in use!

    Our watercolour is made from Wissahickon Schist that was pulverized when digging the well for our barn. Made from rock, the paint is gritty in texture, and a warm, earthy grey green. This paint is in Bioplastic Pans, made by Poems About You, that fit in our Painter’s Palettes

    handmade watercolor paint by peg and awl
    wissahickon schist used for making paint by peg and awl
    Bioplastic pan of Ghost Green Watercolour
    The Wissahickon Schist was pulverized when digging the well for our barn. 
    wissahickon schist used for making paint by peg and awl
    wissahickon schist used for making paint by peg and awl
    Wissahickon Schist – also known as Trash Stone – makes this gorgeous ghost green colour.
    I transformed the pre-ground pigment into paint, which is part of our Of a Kind Collection!
    paint making journal page with drawings in ink
    A page of my left-handed #100DayProject in my Anselm Sketchbook
    Portrait of my family in Ghost Green.

    Printable: Paint Pan Packaging

    We have made this paint packaging available so that you can package your own handmade paint. As it is, it is designed to wrap around the Bioplastic Pans by Poems About You, although you can adjust and be creative about your uses and sizing!

    Download the Printable PDF

      

    Handmade Brush Rest made from Reclaimed American Chestnut!

    The Brush Rests (here in a trio) are made from extinct* American Chestnut beams that – for nearly 200 years – held up our barn (read about our barn restoration here). Walter turned them into barn studio doors and made these delicious little brush rests with the scrap – they fit perfectly in the Sendak pocket and may just make clean up a touch easier next time!

    *Read more about the blight on the American Chestnut here.

    handmade wooden paint palette, watercolour paint, and brush rest
    wooden brush rest made from reclaimed american chestnut
    Our Brush Rest, Hand Mulled Paint, and Tilda Painter’s Palette together!
    I’ve been using my brush rest also as a rest for my vintage dip pens, so we're also offering a Trio of Brush Rests!
    The barn – before restoration!
    These American Chestnut Tree beams, born in the 1700s, held up our barn for nearly 200 years.
    Walter used his Alaskan Saw Mill to mill down the beams.
    We’re excited to share a portion of this beautiful reclaimed wood in the form of brush rests!

     

    Mystery Boxes!

    They are back! We’ve sifted through our misfits: merry mishaps, prototypes, and items riddled with character – imperfect but fully functional. We’ve have grouped them together into themed mystery boxes at nearly half price! Though not for the faint-hearted, each set is useful and nearly half price. Enjoy the mystery and the gifting potential: one for you, one for me, one for you...

    These boxes are perfect for the indecisive (who love Peg and Awl) or for those who just love a good mystery.⁠ The Desk Caddies more character, knots, holes and markings – more evidence of the wood’s prior life.

    Each box contains an assortment of related and similar-valued items – the photographs illustrate the theme and sample items within each box, but not necessarily the particular grouping.

    This set of Desk Caddies are part of the Desk Organization Mystery Box – these will vary in wood characteristic, engraving, wood type, etc.
    Here you can see examples of the variation in the wood – these particular caddies are so special and filled with character!
    An old favourite! This is our "Tabletop Caddy," an old iteration of our current Beatrix Artist Caddy
    The Kitchen Mystery Box includes a variety of products, including decoupaged candleblocks – one of our first products!

     

    Vintage Textile Pouches and Vintage Bag!

    We've transformed two favourite antique quilts (one is well-worn, soft, and frayed and the other, unfinished and crisp!) into useful pouches lined with waxed canvas. These are often one-of-a-kinds – the textile patterns and designs used within one patchwork square are unique from another!⁠

    We've done our best to divide the pouches by similar qualities so you may have an idea of the one that will arrive on your doorstep, but if you love mystery, the green quilt especially will peak your interest. ⁠

    The 1800s quilt, well-loved, and in the colors of Pearl (our puppy!).
    The assortment of vintage textiles, including our two favourite antique quilts.
    Each pouch is lined with waxed canvas to reinforce and protect the textile from the tools and supplies that will fill the pouch. These pouches are also finished with vintage zippers.
    It can be sad to cut into a vintage quilt, but wonderful to give it new life!
    This quilt was started in the 1930s and never finished – we transformed it into pouches lined with waxed canvas!
    This collection also contains one repurposed canvas tote that was originally designed with a drawstring closure – we’ve adapted it with vegetable-tanned leather straps and a waxed canvas pocket!

    Spring 2022 Of A Kind Collection

    Our first Of A Kind Collection of 2022 is bursting with character! Each of t...

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  • One of the key steps to speed up the breaking in process of leather is to simply twist and roll the leather in your fingers. As you use your bag the leather will naturally soften and become much easier to maneuver. Whether you help it out, or simply use your bag, the breaking in process does not take long!!

    *What is Vegetable Tanned Leather? Vegetable tanning is a slow, natural, and sustainable process of tanning raw hides with natural, biodegradable extracts derived entirely from vegetable sources such as tree bark.

    Our bags are made with full-grain vegetable-tanned leather*, which is a durable leather that develops a lovely patina over time with continued use. It is thicker than conventional, chrome-tanned leather, which also lends it to be more stiff in the beginning. This video shows how to quickly soften the leather, as well as the proper steps for detaching and attaching the leather shoulder strap and front closure on our Peg and Awl bags.

    One of the key steps to speed up the breaking in process of leather is to simply twist and roll the leather in your fingers. As you use your bag the leather will naturally soften and become much easier to maneuver. Whether you help it out, or simply use your bag, the breaking in process does not take long!!

    *What is Vegetable Tanned Leather? Vegetable tanning is a slow, natural, and sustainable process of tanning raw hides with natural, biodegradable extracts derived entirely from vegetable sources such as tree bark.

    Step 1: Detaching the Strap
    *The leather is the most stiff when it is new. As you use it and work with it, it will soften.
    • Hold the button stud and pull the leather strap to bring the button stud into the leather slot.
    • Firmly and slowly work the leather over the button stud. Take your time working with the leather as it softens.

    Step 2: Attaching the Shoulder Strap
    • Twist and roll the strap to soften the leather. It does not take long to break in.
    • Press the leather slot over the button stud. Hold the stud and pull the leather strap to bring the stud into the hole.

    Our Leather!

    Our first bag – The Waxed Canvas Tote – which we finished with reclaimed military leather slings found at a flea market. Dusty and dull with years of neglect, the leather was unassuming. But with some hot soapy water, perseverance, and beeswax balm, we removed the layers to find stories told through the markings of days past. We were delighted! The usefulness of the leather sent us on a mission to scour flea markets and military shows for as many old slings as we could find. For years we used these relics to finish our bags – until there were no more to be found.

    And so, a new mission was soon underway: the search for the right new leather. We began in the UK driving along long and winding roads through the English countryside to visit J&FJ Baker, a 500-year-old tannery. This experience and many subsequent conversations enriched our understanding of a leather world we had known nothing about.

    While shipping leather from the UK turned out to be impractical, we left enlightened with the knowledge that there do exist a few companies who produce leather in a sustainable and responsible way. When we returned to America we found Wickett & Craig – only a stone’s throw from our shop in Philadelphia. Their vegetable tanning process is a slow, natural, and eco-friendly process of tanning raw hides with natural, biodegradable extracts derived entirely from vegetable sources such as tree bark. This durable leather breaks in and gathers a gorgeous patina, bearing the marks of the users’ (and makers’) adventures – the very thing we’ve always celebrated! We’ve been using this leather for three years now and love it!

    With the transition from using reclaimed WWII era gun straps for our leather handles to using locally-sourced vegetable-tanned leather, we are reaffirming the fellowship between ourselves and the materials with which we make. 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?

    Vegetable tanned leather is made with a slow, natural, and sustainable process of tanning raw hides with natural, biodegradable extracts derived entirely from vegetable sources such as tree bark.
    The more you use your bags and journals, the softer the leather will become.
    This durable leather breaks in and gathers a gorgeous patina, bearing the marks of the users’ (and makers’) adventures! Here, you can see the leather on Walter's Tote and Scout.
    As you use your bag the leather will naturally soften and become much easier to maneuver.
    We took out Hunter's out on an Amethyst dig! they got pretty dirty, so we turned the bags inside out, tapped out the dirt and wiped the inside with a sponge and put them in the sun to dry.
    Our Finch is my favourite bag - I carry mine nearly everyday. It holds my books, journal, water bottle, and other bits comfortably. 

    Adjusting the Leather Straps on our Waxed Canvas Bags

    Our bags are made with full-grain vegetable-tanned leather*, which is a dura...

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  • We receive a lot of questions about the things we make - one of the most common is what art supplies can be used in our handmade Sketchbooks and leather Journals! We decided to make a little video to respond to this question and share some of my favorite supplies.

    We receive a lot of questions about the things we make - one of the most common is what art supplies can be used in our Journals and Sketchbooks! We decided to make a little video to respond to this question and share some of my favorite supplies.

    In this video, I am using our Orra Portrait Sketchbook (which fits nicely into our Sendak!). ⁠We use Strathmore Drawing Paper in all of our journals and sketchbooks, which we find to be very versatile.⁠

    Here are some of my favourite drawing and painting supplies to make marks with... ⁠

    1. Koh-I-Noor Pencils
    2. Pentel Mechanical Pencil⁠
    3. Sennelier Oil Pastels⁠
    4. Sennelier Water Soluble Pastels⁠
    5. Prismacolor Coloured Pencils
    6. Handmade Watercolors 
    7. Caran d'Ache Neocolour⁠
    8. Vintage Dip Pen⁠ (on www.etsy.com)
    9. Vintage Rapidograph Pen⁠ (on www.etsy.com)
    10. Noodler's Ink
    11. Princeton Artist Brush Co.

    Our Orra Sketchbooks!

    Our Orra Sketchbooks are thin handbound books that are ideal companions for small projects and daily excursions. They are named for Orra White Hitchcock, a 19th century botanical, geologic, and zoological artist, an illustrator to whom no detail was too small to be recorded in her art. These versatile sketchbooks are made from high quality Strathmore drawing paper, Legion cover stock, and handstitched with linen.

    Sampling some of my favourite Art Supplies in our Orra Portrait Notebook.
    My Tilda Painter’s Palette made from leather and wood, filled with handmade watercolours from pigments I found!
    Sketching in my Landscape Orra Notebook!
    Our Orras come in three colours — grey, white, and black — and are stitched with green thread!
    The Portrait Orra fits into the back pockets of the Classic Sendak.
    Our Orra Notebooks come in 3 sizes — Landscape, Portrait, and Large Portrait.
    Our Orra Landscape Notebook fits in the Mini and Classic Sendaks (as do our paint palettes)!

    Experimenting with Art Supplies in Handmade Journals and Sketchbooks

    We receive a lot of questions about the things we make - one of the most comm...

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  • A collection of massive handbound and filled tomes by Margaux Kent of Peg and Awl

    I am sure my right arm* is stronger for all of the writing and stitching and hauling of pages in journals for so many years of my life. So many miles we’ve traveled together, me and my books. I wonder how many miles of words I’ve written if strung end to end? The first journal that I made was stolen in a café in Amsterdam. What the journal thief couldn’t possibly know was that his actions would set me upon a path.

    Massive Handbound Journals covered with antique leather and handmade details

    Massive Handbound Journals covered with antique leather and handmade details

     “Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace, and power in it.”   
    Johann Wolfgang Goethe

    I am sure my right arm* is stronger for all of the writing and stitching and hauling of pages in journals for so many years of my life. So many miles we’ve traveled together, me and my books. I wonder how many miles of words I’ve written if strung end to end? I've always made books (I have one from when I was 6!), but I began to keep a journal regularly when I was 12 years old, and started making my journals when I was 25. I won’t do the math, but there are a lot of years of books and a lot of years of scribbling between now and then. I was always stitching a book or filling one up.

    The well-worn pages of a collection handbound journals by Peg and Awl

    Hunter S. Thompson invited me into his limo one day, outside of The Strand in NYC. Actually, it wasn’t me he invited in, but my journal—I was holding it. I didn’t know anything about Hunter beyond Fear and Loathing, but I climbed in and sat next to him—shoulder to shoulder. When he asked if he could see the journal, I handed it over. Then he asked if he could write in it. I said yes, of course. He wrote a message in Latin and I don’t remember what else. I never did get to translate it because I went to Amsterdam shortly after the encounter and my bag—with my journal in it—was stolen.

    That was the first proper journal I had built. I’ve made hundreds since then. But the first one was stolen in a café in Amsterdam. What the journal thief couldn’t possibly know was that his actions would set me upon a path, for despite my initial despair, I struck out in search of a book bindery. After a day of walking and asking nearly every stranger I could make eye contact with about the shop, I’d finally found it. And what a magical place it was! I stocked up on supplies I’d never known existed then went to an upholstery shop up the street, where I discovered antique leather in a dusty floor corner removed from a chair made in the 1800s! With tools and material from the bindery, I set to work making my second journal, using my thighs as a book press. The result, with its battered old leather, looked like it had travelled through time many hundreds of years, and its pages begged for stories like that of The Journal Thief.

    The very objects that started this adventure are a foundational piece of our shop. Putting these Tomes into production was no easy task and after much planning, many trials and many years, we’ve got the process down and have been able to explore with variations in headband, textiles, and leather! I appreciate everyone’s questions and interest in these Monsters!

    Hand-stitched headbands adorn each Tome.
    I use all kinds of medium and make all kinds of marks within my journals!
    Working on sketches for Poison for Breakfast by Lemony Snicket!
    Harper and Jackson Tome Stack!

    Handbound Leather Journals by Peg and Awl

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    *since writing this, I've been using my left hand for drawing - beginning with the #100dayproject 2021! I'm still at it, so my left hand is catching up a little.

    Handbound Leather Tomes

     “Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has ...

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  • I am drawn to making jewelry as objects that continually flow through human hands – all symbolism and storytelling and marks of use from imagined pasts and futures. Explore the inspiration behind each of our jewelry collections and the lost wax casting process...

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

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

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

    Rubber molds.
    Waxes of Foundlings Earrings!
    Flasks for plaster molds.
    Nitrogen regulator to keep the casting operator oxygen-free!
    Getting ready to cast!
    Our first in-house silver tree!
    Liver of Sulfer to blacken the details. How to (re)oxidize your jewelry below.*
    Ready for finishing and polishing. The details will hold onto the black/oxidized finish.
    Polishing the insides of the rings. 
    Stamping the Peg and Awl mark in our rings!
    Finished pendants from our Botanical Collection.
    Epic Desk Caddy atop my first and still-used jeweler’s bench — a gift from my dad after receiving a high school scholarship for a summer art program at Moore!

    Foundlings Collection

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

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

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

    Terran Necklace, a tulip!
    The original flower ledger art that we discovered at a flea market.
    Adding details to the cat creature Ash from clay for molds.
    Sculpted cat face models of Foundlings Earrings.
    The original tapir that we named Fern.
    Fern Earrings cast from the found artwork.
    I love working on the packaging for jewelry, ‘tis where we add the layers of story!
    Sketching the design for the Foundlings booklet.
    Foundlings packaging in the works.
    Dip pen on this lavish paper, a little bleedy, a lot magic!
    Foundlings, boxed! The perfect addition of the little jewelry boxes that Walter made from our scrap pile.
    Final Foundlings packaging, printed locally by Fireball Printing.

    All the Names Collection

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

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

    The hinge photograph case that became Eulalie.
    Silicon mold from brass frames. First step of transformation.
    Silver frame pieces, next rounded and recast into a variety of sizes.
    Finished! Here is Eulalie, named for Edgar Allan Poe's poem.
    All of the names, with the exception of Beatrice, after my grandmother, have come from characters in books.
    Creating the faces for the packaging!
    This packaging happened while and because of a class I was taking at the time – a children's book illustration class by Make Art That Sells.
    A stack of Dorian rings, named for Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray – the first book Walter shared with me when we met!

    Poison for Breakfast Collection

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

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

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

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

    My model, Ragnar as a chick, perched on my journal on the kitchen table, where chicks belong. 
    My original drawing.
    Lasered stencils from procreate tracings of my drawings.
    Shaping clay minis after pulling them out of the stencil!
    Our first in shop mold!
    Waxes to be built into a tree and cast in silver, gold, and bronze!
    Wax tree prepared for mold making.
    Chicken + Egg Necklace in our Walnut Jewelry Box.

    Botanical Collection

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

    *How to (re)oxidize your jewelry!

    If you are drawn towards the fully oxidized silver variation on the left, it is easy to do yourself (as we no longer offer this version in our shop) – start with smashing a hard boiled egg in a container. Next put the ring into the container with the egg. Close it and let it sit in the fridge for several hours. Take it out when the darkness suits your fancy — the longer it stays in the sulfur, the more oxidized it will become. 

    Then polish with a cloth or the ankle part of your jeans — no one will notice the black spot down there...

    Seed packet packaging!
    My journal page from April 2014...
    Dandelion – the entire plant is edible! How many ways can you prepare Dandelion?
    Botanical rings, pickled after casting.

    Our Handcrafted Jewelry Process and Collections in our Philadelphia Shop!

    After years of working with local jewelers who cast, finished, and sized our...

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  • 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.⁠

    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.

    Peg and Awl Old Barn Before Restoration
    Peg and Awl Old Barn Before Restoration
    The Old Barn from the road.
    We hired Precise Buildings to rebuild the barn!

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

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

    Old Things found inside old barn
    Old things found inside old barn
    Most of these strange treasures found homes... 
    The telephone operator thing went to a musician who plans to turn it into something musical. 

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

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

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

    By the time we finished removing the rotted bits, the trusses, the rafters, the floors, it was hard to say if we were reclaiming an old barn or building a new one in its image. The barn shape– the space within the frame – became one of the few parts I could solidly say remained of the historic place. But over the next few weeks – as I observed the delicate skeleton of the old barn standing strong but precarious in the wind and rain, with day now inside and night inside too – I grew suspicious of this boundaryless thing I wanted to keep. What were we preserving, and more, why?

    Removing Wooden Rafters During Barn Restoration
    Timber Frame exposed during Barn Restoration
    Putting on a new roof before taking it off to remove more of the old.
    Delicate skeleton of the old barn.
    Interior view of wooden beams
    After getting over the long pause whilst figuring out plan b...
    A new view!

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

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

    tree nail from original barn house structure
    roman numeral marriage marks in timber frame
    A Trunnel – one of many Tree Nails securing the original structure.
    Roman Numeral Marriage Marks to help builders determine what went where!
    Exterior Barn door before restoration
    Reclaimed Barn Door used for Bathroom
    An exterior door that led to the unsurvivable drop, (that looks rather survivable from here...)
    ...is now our bathroom door!
    the floor sanders
    The Floor Sanders – Søren, Silas, and I — unintentionally recreating The Floor Scrapers by Gustave Caillebotte.
    The Floor Scrapers by Gustave Caillebotte
    Barn floor before and after sanding
    finishing the barn floor
    A satisfying before and after! We first rented this Drum Floor Sander and used 60 grit sandpaper, then used this Orbital Sander with 80 and 100 grit.
    Finishing the new floor with Citrus Solvent and Tung Oil from The Real Milk Paint Company. We use this natural finish on Peg and Awl treasures too!
    barn floor finished with furnishings and puppy
    painting the barn floor white
    Pearl enjoying the new space from her favourite rug – a flea market find!
    We painted the floor white! Søren tries out the new staircase that he helped install,
    reclaimed original wall from abandoned barn
    alaskan saw mill for american chestnut tree trunks
    Original wall that divides the two parts of the barn. Pearl and Søren, my loves. 
    Walter used the saw mill to make doors out of the American Chestnut trunks!
    chestnut beams from the 1700s barn
    double doors made from american chestnut beams
    American Chestnut Tree beams born in the 1700s leave their lowly position of being walked upon + now usher in light, people, and animals!
    Walter’s gorgeous first go at door building!

    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 s...

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  • Folktale Week 2021, an Instagram Art Challenge, is here!

    Grab your crystal ball – the official @folktaleweek prompts are ready! This year we’re guided by the natural and supernatural world of folktales, and as always, let the prompts inspire you to interpret and create in any way you want! Folktale Week is open to creators from all skill levels and disciplines, from artist-illustrators and quilters to poets and puppeteers!

    How to join: Follow the prompts, one per day, for each day of Folktale Week, November 15–21, 2021. Use hashtags #folktaleweek and #folktaleweek2021 to show your work. During Folktale Week, hosts will pull work from the hashtag to promote in our stories and in the official @folktaleweek account!

    Art by @deborah.j.stein
    Art by @kalyquarles

    Folktale Week 2021, an Instagram Art Challenge, is here!

    Grab your crystal ball – the official @folktaleweek prompts are ready! This year we’re guided by the natural and supernatural world of folktales, and as always, let the prompts inspire you to interpret and create in any way you want! Folktale Week is open to creators from all skill levels and disciplines, from artist-illustrators and quilters to poets and puppeteers!

    How to join: Follow the prompts, one per day, for each day of Folktale Week, November 15–21, 2021. Use hashtags #folktaleweek and #folktaleweek2021 to show your work. During Folktale Week, hosts will pull work from the hashtag to promote in our stories and in the official @folktaleweek account!

    Art by @deborah.j.stein
    Art by @kalyquarles

    As for me, I was going to sit this year out, but was inspired by an old house I’ve had my eye on in the neighborhood. And too, taking the pressure off always seems to make a thing happen. I shall see where it takes me…

    Prompt Art
    Ghost child feet and licorice.

    I walked without Pearl this time, to see the house Pearl and I often see on our walk. The house that has been nestled betwixt creek and trees for nearly 300 years. An unexpected snowball of a woman fell out of a car, and proceeded to tell me details about the family, the land, and added frivolity to my morning. “People don’t understand old houses,” she said. “That’s why I’m here.”

    Who was this woman? Someone who spent 15 Christmases in a very brown room with what she called a ‘walk in’ fireplace which, though big, could not fit one of my ghost children sitting down with a mask on.

    People try to sell you their memories. Their misunderstandings. I am reminded of the endowment effect. Emotional biases.

    “Over here,” she said, “You can build a building for animals. But you can’t build a building for people.” Smiling, she begins to share the story of her last horse and the moldy hay her mom had fed him…

    But that isn’t a story from this house. This house that housed the same family (not hers) since 1962. My mom was 12 then. My dad, 19. Memom was 51 already. More than half of her life had been lived. Sometimes time feels like a trick. Memom, 51 ever? Wasn’t she always just my grandmother?

    This house, perpetually lived in for so long, is now too caverness, too dark, and too small to be lived in by most modern folk. I sift through dot matrix printouts of the home’s history – for something. Through the Silas’s and the Amos’s and the John’s that lived here. And the women – wives only – with first names anyway: Estella, Sarah, Gladys, Emma, Marion, and Viola.

    Some of us will always be inspired by what remains, but Folktale Week especially inspires a backwards glance!

    Detail from #folktaleweek2020
    #folktaleweek spread in Orra Portrait journal 2020

    Folktale Week and Abandoned House Inspiration

    Folktale Week 2021, an Instagram Art Challenge, is here! Grab your crystal ba...

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  • “Little by little, a little becomes a lot.”
    —A Tanzanian Proverb

    This project started from the #100dayproject challenge on Instagram. I’ve participated in this for the last few years, and it encourages me to make marks daily. I think often of a conversation with a yoga teacher from long ago:

    “Do you practice everyday?” I asked her.
    “I commit to 5 minutes a day,” she said. “Some days it will turn into hours, other days, merely 5 minutes.”

    A weight was lifted when she told me this, and I’ve been doing yoga daily, since. I’ve moved the 5 minute theory into other parts of my life, too – like drawing. Some of the drawings in these sketchbooks took 5 minutes, others took hours. It doesn't matter how long I spend with each drawing, just that I sat down to make some marks. 

    “Little by little, a little becomes a lot.”
    —A Tanzanian Proverb

    This project started from the #100dayproject challenge on Instagram. I’ve participated in this for the last few years, and it encourages me to make marks daily. I think often of a conversation with a yoga teacher from long ago:

    “Do you practice everyday?” I asked her.
    “I commit to 5 minutes a day,” she said. “Some days it will turn into hours, other days, merely 5 minutes.”

    A weight was lifted when she told me this, and I’ve been doing yoga daily, since. I’ve moved the 5 minute theory into other parts of my life, too – like drawing. Some of the drawings in these sketchbooks took 5 minutes, others took hours. It doesn't matter how long I spend with each drawing, just that I sat down to make some marks. 

     

    Here are some scraps of my 2021 Non-Dominant Hand project in my 6″ Anselm Bookbinding Kit Sketchbooks – I am currently on day 231!

    30 March 2021, Day 59: It all happens more slowly on the Other Side (the left, for me) and more deliberate. And, it being so unfamiliar, I let it be, I let it move as it wishes to move. I am not judgmental or upset with its way of going about making marks. Of saying things. It isn’t the rightest, but what is? I thank this Other Side, which strangely, is still me.

    Trio of Anselms – filled and filling with left-handed scribblings
    Day 79: My mom’s house, and an old photograph strip I found in the basement. Previously unseen by me

    16 October 2021, Day 225: As the days progress I am feeling so satisfied with the pages in these books. Being pleased with my work doesn’t come often or easy. There is something about using my left hand, my Other, which feels more like being in the presence of a friend’s work – it is easy to see what is good overwhat is bad. Why this brutal treatment of the self which so many of us ease into unquestioningly?

    13 + 14 March 2021, Days 43 + 44: Pandemic Birthday Camping Trip in snowy Pennsylvania
    15 + 16 March 2021, Days 44 + 45: Emmaus Wildlands Conservancy, Emmaus Pennsylvania

    9 October 2021: I’ve been drawing with my left hand nearly daily this year. When I pick up a paintbrush or dip pen, I unconsciously use this Other. Of course, it isn’t as agile as my right, but this Otherness is what gives me the quirks I’ve longed for. And the three of us, my brains and both hands, are settling in and all getting along quite nicely.

    I am also now consciously breathing through my nose. I’ve discovered James Nestor’s book Breath, which had me spontaneously taping my mouth shut whilst sleeping – and Walter’s too.

    Result: I slept through the night. This rarely happens.

    17 October 2021, Day 226: Detail of Clouds from a pre-storm walk with Pearl
    Same day, date, another detail

    So here I am today – a little clearer and more at ease. This has been a rough year, (Not without beauty and bright spots, but with a weight that I cannot seem to shake.) I often discover that I am holding my breath. Finding this book will hopefully lead me to some Lightness.

    There is something similar in the nose/mouth exchange and the left/right hand exchange. There is so much in each of us, I imagine, that we hold tight, stifle even, without knowing.

    So begins a simultaneous journey.

    Non-Dominant Hand Anselm Sketchbook, A Daily Journal.

    “Little by little, a little becomes a lot.”—A Tanzanian Proverb This project ...

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  • Our Autumn collection is full of Violets, Reds, and Grays, just in time to join an adventure amongst the first changing of the leaves! Their stories evolve as they pivot to new lives in our hands then yours. 

    These collections go fast - we will send out an email announcement 3 hours before they are available – you will be able to look through each item in the collection at that time.⁠ Join our newsletter to receive the preview and launch announcements!

    Our Autumn collection is full of Violets, Reds, and Grays, just in time to join an adventure amongst the first changing of the leaves! Their stories evolve as they pivot to new lives in our hands then yours. Journals lined with antique textiles breathe subtle change into our classic collections. Waxed canvas pouches covered with antique textiles explode with colour amongst our earth tones. Alternative Sketchbooks and Original Foundlings Art transform adventures and walls.⁠

    These collections go fast - we will send out an email announcement 3 hours before they are available – you will be able to look through each item in the collection at that time.⁠ Join our newsletter to receive the preview and launch announcements! ⁠⁠

     

    Autumn 2021 Of a Kind Collection

    Our Autumn collection is full of Violets, Reds, and Grays, just in time to jo...

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