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.

I’ve been keeping a journal on and off since I was 12. Because of this, I thought it would be a simple and obvious thing to add this to my boys’ homeschool days, but neither Søren nor Silas shared my compulsion.

Søren’s journals were mostly uninspired lists of what we had done each day, but somewhere along the way, during camping trips and road trips – somewhere deep in the pandemic, Søren began to transform his task of journaling into something he was excited to do. Using Procreate on his iPad, he now creates his own alternative journal cards with personality-filled drawings, descriptions, and photographs!

It has been heartening to watch the evolution of his journaling practice, from bland journal pages to documented expeditions – completely Søren-ed and so shareable. We’ve simplified his card design into a free downloadable PDF! Søren tested the new card (on the spot!) with a local hiking adventure to Harmony Hill. We are loving this new alternative journal format, and hope you do as well!

As Søren flipped through his cards for my camera, he said, “It feels like I’m reliving all of this – even just glancing at each one." If the purpose of a journal is to create a ritual, to reflect and document, to build writing and observation skills, and to have a place to go, then Søren has fulfilled these expectations, and I am overjoyed with his finding his own way!

Download the Printable PDF

Søren’s Original Expedition Cards!

Photograph of Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park.	Revisiting our "Mexican Food" experience in the Ozarks with giggles.

Our messy table in Missouri - this is how we know magic is being made!	Søren sketching in his small Tome – okay, not everything is uninspired!

My birthday treat! We visited Mark Twain’s boyhood home in Hannibal, MO and the cave that inspired some his work and childhood!	How I love the re-reading!

Walter is painting Mark Twain’s boyhood home with his Pochade Box— as always, attracting the curious!	Søren, Silas, and Shep, matching(ish) Sendaks, shirts, and drinks!

A brief telling of our trip to Chicago!	Exploring Chicago, dreaming of being elsewhere...

Always on the go with make-shift picnic table studios.	Intuit Museum in Chicago featuring Henry Darger’s home studio and other outsider art!

Our second 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.

Mini Tote with Vintage Textile!

Walter and I went on our first road trip together in 2008 and stopped at flea markets along the way. We found two old wooden cots (that I had to have) with these magical stripy textiles. It took more then a decade for them to find their place - and the result is well worth the wait!

P.S. We've decided the stripe is neither orange nor red, but rather, vermillion! Thank you @sarahdyer and everyone else for suggestions!

Watch the video showing the behind the scenes of these Mini Totes, including the waxing process, here!

Mini Tote made from Vintage Canvas, with waxed canvas details, and vegetable-tanned leather.	The Minis have a detachable zipper!

We love the marks and character of the material's past!	This well-loved canvas has some perfect patching inside!

Our Minis are delightful for everyday carry – bring only what you need!	The canvas is from a vintage wooden cot.

Vintage Textile Pouches!

We use a variety of materials and objects gathered from flea markets, abandoned buildings, and wherever else we can find them. The soft and worn oranges, reds, and sea green combined with the repairs and stitching, made this vintage kantha an irresistible edition to our summer collection!

Watch the process video, here!

Scholar Pouch with Vintage Repaired Kantha: Gabriella	Details of these soft and worn oranges!

These are all lined with waxed canvas.	Maker Pouch with Vintage Repaired Kantha: Ophelia

Maker Pouch with Vintage Repaired Kantha: Lolita	We love seeing the repairs and stitching from hands past!

Vintage zippers on the essentials pouches accompany the vintage textile!	Essentials Pouch with Vintage Feedsack: Enid

Indigo Hunters!

We unearthed these Hunters from a collection from the past. They were boxed when we moved – and forgotten! We made them with a gorgeous striped African Mudcloth paired with truffle waxed canvas. The straps are made from vintage WWII era leather!

Large Hunter with African Indigo Mudcloth front!	You can see the repairs and stitching from past hands!

This textile was hand-dyed with fermented mud into these beautiful indigo stripes.	Vintage WWII era leather strap!

A view of the back, showing the truffle waxed canvas!	The finishing detail on the interior pocket!

Foundlings Originals!

The Foundlings. One of our most beloved and delicious flea market discoveries of creatures drawn and painted upon nests of scritchy-scratchy hand-written ledgers and lessons by unknown hands. We poured over the drawings — the originals — and selected a few to set free to adorn homes and feed curious souls!

Foundlings Original Art: Antigonon	Foundlings Original Art: Bergamot

Foundlings Original Art: Gladwyn	Foundlings Original Art: Pomelo

Foundlings Original Art: Figwort	Foundlings Original Art: Briar

Watch the instructions on how to adjust and secure the leather straps on The Franklin Maker’s Apron. 

The Franklin is available in two sizes, and the suspender-style vegetable tanned leather straps and belt have multiple settings to comfortably fit a variety of statures. Once on, The Franklin Maker’s Apron becomes a part of you, bringing the perfect mix of order, utility, and aesthetics to the creative chaos of a maker’s daily routine!

After 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 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

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!

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.

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. 

Bioplastic pan of Ghost Green Watercolour.	The Wissahickon Schist was pulverized when digging the well for our barn.

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!

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.

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!

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.

• 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.

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)!

 “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.

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!

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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.