I am getting many inquiries about my Iris Painter’s Palette and the paints that are in it. I shall get to that, but first I have a little story to tell.

I remember getting my first list of vocabulary words in elementary school. That week the words seemed to show up everywhere: in conversation, in books I read, wherever I went. I walked into the classroom, gobsmacked, and shared the news with my teacher. Each week brought new lists and new coincidences. Decades later, my life is still filled with this magic. The synchronous deluge doesn’t just happen with words – it happens with so many things, including our falling into the world of geology and paint. 

One cold winter, Peg and Awl was set up at the Chelsea Holiday Market in New York City for a week. After so long in our makeshift shop, I was set free to stretch my legs in the cold, wet, snowy streets of Manhattan. I typed ‘art store’ into Maps and found Kremer Pigments. When I opened the door, it felt like I had traveled back in time. As I stared at the bags of pigments, the connection between them and the paints I so loved hit me like a thunderbolt. I muttered some incomprehensible thing to the shelves and shelves of coloured dust. The pigments that made the paint came from the earth under my feet: malachite, azurite, epidote, garnet. I had fallen into a world of pure magic!

Fast forward to so-called ‘adulthood,’ and like the vocabulary words that were everywhere, the Family Kent were suddenly, literally, swimming in natural history relics that could be transformed into paint! In a river in Vermont, we found rocks embedded with garnet. In Pennsylvania we met a retired science teacher who bought a cabin precisely because of its location atop ochre mines (he gave us red and yellow ochre in a variety of forms). We sifted through the sand at Calvert Cliffs (whilst swimming in the Chesapeake Bay) and found shark teeth, biominerals, and ancient coral. Gobsmacked, over and over again. 

At Peg and Awl, we have bags of treasures to crush and mix and play. 

I feel our jumping into this world is not complete without that story, because understanding where these colours come from was what brought this epic journey into the realm of magic.

There are invisible things all over, and it’s not until we’re able to focus (through direction or discovery) on what has been heretofore concealed, can we see the words and the materials we use every day.

So now, the colours in my palette:

• Magnetite 
• Noir Mineral*
• Azurite
• Celadonite
• Malachite
• Epidote
• Iron Oxide Red
• Burnt Iron Oxide
• Ombre Nature*
• Cote de Azur Violet
• Ocre Havane*
• Ocre Jaune*

*these are from France, from 40+ years ago, via Belgium. This entire paint adventure includes in insane number of rabbit holes, just look at this: Ochre Quarry in France, via Atlas Obscura.

If you are up for the challenge of making your own paints, you need some tools to begin. If you wish to circumnavigate the making, I will provide a list below with some glorious paint makers! Like most “that looks easy enough!” processes it is rather complex and expensive to begin. But if you are up for the challenge, it is oh so fun! 

 

Tools

I started with the following tools: 

1. a muller
2. palette knives
3. tempered glass palette
4. mortar and pestle (I have loads from flea markets)
5. dropper
6. kremer’s premade medium
7. palette (our Iris!)
8. pigments
9. glass jars (I bought some from Kremer and also use saved spice jars!)

Paintmakers

• Kremer, obviously, in NYC and Germany.
• Case for Making – CFM paints are creamy and delicious and their website is full of beautiful accessories from other makers whose goods they stock. Alexis and crew also introduce the world to artists and workshops and just so. much. magic.
• Greenleaf & Blueberry – G+B paints are unbelievably prepared. If you try to make paints, you will see the challenge in putting paint into a palette neatly, and without cracks. These guys are the masters at this! Their paint, too, is glorious. And Jess’s newsletters are of the few that I read from beginning to end. 
• Beam Paints – Anong is the daughter of paint makers and artists in Canada. Her stories, process and ingenuity are ever-so inspiring. Anong makes countless sustainable palettes and presentations for her paints. She shared with me the ancient Egyptian Paint Palette that inspired our Iris!
• Early Futures (pigment shop) – I found Heidi via instagram and following her journeys is another epic adventure, and her pigments and the stories that accompany them are a complete treasure to transform!

Other Resources

• The Kremer Pigmente Recipe Book – beautifully photographed and so informative!
• Illustoria Magazine – I love this magazine and this month is the Color Issue!

We are very psyched to announce our only batch of tintype journals for the year! I’ve collected more historic tins for what has become an annual event at Peg and Awl.

This past weekend, the Peg and Awl team traveled back in time with @gilesclement and his partner Kendra, witnessing and partaking in many tintype and ambrotype sessions at the Peg and Awl workshop (read our blog post about that here). When I pour over each portrait from the 1800s, choosing the right one for each journal, giving them new names, I wonder about the day, the preparation, who the photographer was. I wish I had a time machine to hear their conversations, to witness their awkwardness and unexpected giggles, that nearly always ended with a grim countenance.

Browse our newest Tintype collection here, and sign up for our newsletter to be notified of the launch time! Go ahead, find your favourite, and fill the pages within with your stories and let us wonder what another 150 years will bring.

Read more about our Tintype Journals here.

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

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

Vanessa Langton made a wonderful video unboxing and filling up our Sendak Mini Artist Roll! Visit her YouTube channel Pen Gangsta and follow her on Instagram @vanessa_langton

A few weeks ago, when I felt a little stuck in my everyday drawing practice, I began making paintings of my favorite things. As the little paintings accumulated, they began to feel like a gift guide – the perfect way to share some of the things I use daily. Here goes:

1. Local Food! Since moving, we’ve found growers’ markets surrounding us. Fresh, delicious local food has changed my world (and ultimately leads to MUCH smaller grocery bills for us). I cannot get enough delicious mushrooms, fresh ginger, and turmeric! My family loves Brandywine Bread Company, and I will actually cry when the markets close for winter.	2. Piles of Books! I can never have too many unread books around, though sometimes I question the excess. Find a local bookstore if you can and stock up! I am working through Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, and despite all of its weirdness, I am loving it! (It has been on my unread shelf for years) If you have any of your favorites to share, please do in the comments section!

3. Art Supplies Where to begin?! It is always a delight to find antique pens and pencils at flea markets. Stocking up on art supplies is as fun and dangerous as stocking up on books. I love Blackwing pencils. Case for Making, Greenleaf & Blueberry, and Beam Paints have all opened up my world with the magic of handmade watercolors.	4. Hydro Flask I can never get enough water and I cannot believe it is still legal to put so much stinking water into plastic bottles. The math is simple, the convenience is clear. And Hydro Flasks are great! (But not the sippy version – they leak!)

5. Saltverk Licorice Salt I love licorice in nearly any form so finding this salt was like finding magic dust for my every day!	6. Staub Kettle I adore this beauty of a kettle. We’ve had it for years. It is simple, looks great in our kitchen, and I look forward to using it every day.

7. Fiorentini + Baker Boots I had to include these. I don’t think a week goes by without someone asking about my boots. Here they are in miniature! Or, one pair anyway. I love these so!	8. Uncle Harry’s Breath Freshener More fairy dust! I am so happy to have found this breath freshener and digestive! Yum! (I love their tooth powder too!) The packaging is simple and recyclable and they make everything in America.

9. Tiger Balm …has been in my pockets or bag since I was a kid. I’ve always been prone to headaches, and this balm has always helped to lessen them. I was once back stage at a Sonic Youth show and Kim Gordon complained of a headache – I gave her a try. She loved it so I promptly handed over my tin!	10. Moss and Mineral Bee Hotel We built our garden this year at the 5 acre wood and cannot wait to put our Bee Hotel from Moss and Mineral in it next spring, and look forward to seeing all of the pollinators who will call it home. Handmade from all reclaimed materials.

 

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

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

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

 

NEW Sketchbooks and Paint Palette!

In the wise words of Annie Dillard, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” At Peg and Awl, we are working to facilitate the making of art everyday and anywhere with objects that make packing and transport easy, whilst looking quite handsome. Meet Iris and Orra!

The Iris Painter’s Palette

The Iris Painter’s Palette is inspired by the wooden palettes used by the ancient Egyptians. Constructed from sustainable maple and vegetable-tanned leather, the palette is a simple way to transport your favourite paints, whether you mix your own pigments or squeeze them from a tube.

The Orra Sketchbook

Life’s astonishments and the impressions they conjure leave me awash in scribbles and sketches. 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. Made from high quality Strathmore drawing paper, Legion cover stock, and handstitched with linen, these versatile sketchbooks can take on a variety of media including pen and ink, watercolour, and graphite. Available in three sizes.

Landscape	Portrait	Large Portrait

Both the Iris Painter’s Palette and the Orra Sketchbook (Landscape and Portrait sizes) are designed to fit into our Classic and Mini Sendak Artist Rolls!

Where Women Create magazine published a full story on Margaux and Peg and Awl this past Summer! Read the full story here.

The NEW Steinbeck Furniture Collection

With roots as a cabinet maker, apprenticed to my father at a young age, I set to work in the early days of Peg and Awl making work benches and tables for Margaux in her book binding and jewelry studio. At that time my woodshop was in the basement of our city row home. The six foot tall ceilings and the narrow steps leading up to the kitchen made it quite difficult to build anything of size. It was within these constraints that the first Peg and Awl puzzle table and the seeds of the full Peg and Awl furniture line were sewn.

Through the past ten years we have made a variety of objects, and the lessons learned from cabinetry and joinery informed many of our designs. We have built products out of wood, canvas, metal, leather and paper, but making furniture was never far from my mind; it was as if I was waiting for the right time. I would see a table here and a chair there in our travels to historic homesteads, and I would always jot down details. Slowly the collection took on shape and when it came time to bring the ideas and concepts to life, the stacks of memories and cataloged jottings flowed out like a story I’ve always known. The Steinbeck Furniture Collection was born.

With simple lines and balanced proportions, each piece allows the locally and sustainably harvested American hardwood to shine. Form and function do not compete, yet through the minimalist design and time-tested craftsmanship that harkens back to the furniture makers of the Arts and Crafts Movement, each piece speaks with one tongue to the honesty and harmony of the sourcing of materials, the makers making, and the settling in to their new homes.

The Hawley Table

The Steinbeck Desk

The Kino Coffee Table

The Joad Chair

The Eden Bed Frame

The Travelers Bench

The Cannery Side Table

The Peg and Awl House: A Living Showroom

With the launch of the Steinbeck Furniture Collection, we also have turned the house where Peg and Awl started into a living showroom. Available to rent through Airbnb, the house is open for guests to stay and experience the furniture and the Peg and Awl lifestyle, to eat at the tables and sit in the chairs and sleep in the beds that were first conjured in that very same house with the low basement ceiling and the narrow staircase.

“I think perhaps I am one of those lucky mortals whose work and whose life are the same thing.”
—John Steinbeck

 

I wanted to share a little of our home schooling journey here!

This is an interview from Søren and Silas’s home education co-op Open Connections (OC). As life and work are always intertwined for us, it seemed reasonable to share:)

 

The Open Connections Family Interview: Introducing the Kent Family  

1. Please describe your family constellation: Parents, names and ages of young people.

Margaux, Walter, Søren (11), and Silas (8)

2. How long has your family been on this path of self / family-directed Open Education?

We officially began in September 2018, but we have been exploring alternative paths since Søren was born in 2008.

3. What led you in this direction?

Listening to Sir Ken Robinson’s “School Kills Creativity” Ted Talk and hearing the Kent Family Homeschooling Stories. (Walter is 1 of 12, which is a great place to start…)

4. How did you get involved with Open Connections?

Ruthie (Walter’s sister and Mom to Liliana, Elle, and Lucie) invited us to the Open Connections Open House last March. Having not seen Ruthie and family in ages, we went only to visit them and escape the city. Besides, there was no way I was driving 2+ hours a day to take the boys to school. Within 20 minutes of our visit I murmured, “Walter, I think the drive would be lovely…” and thus began our official homeschool journey.

Our best decisions are made quickly, and this was no exception.

Soon after we made another quick decision—we left the city for greener pastures. We found a Frankensteined House whose origins began in the 1700s and settled in as if it was built just for us!

5. What programs do your young people attend at Open Connections?

In the fall, Søren will be in Tutorial III and Choice. Silas will be in Tutorial II and Choice.

6. How do your young people spend their time when they’re not at Open Connections?

Drawing, reading, journaling, collecting creatures, playing with Lego, adventuring near and far—though since we moved, most often at our new home, which we have given the name, The 5 Acre Wood. Also, eating sushi, watching movies, biking, archery, exploring, fishing, bickering, and most recently—skateboarding!

7. What are some of the key pluses to this educational approach for your family?

Freedom! We work and live for exploration. We now have the ability to work and play and travel without being held down by some alienating system and daunting schedule. Best of all we get to learn how to learn, something that isn’t available in many traditional schools. Why, just yesterday we learned that a garter snake will forgo a bit of its tail when held by it, spinning itself wildly like a top until it is able to twist away!

Ever since Søren and Silas’s escape from the Public School System, their days have been filled with what we used to jam into weekends—the life experiences and learning that happened around the hours of school. Our first official Homeschooling adventure was going to the Philadelphia Free Library on a “school night” to hear Jill Lepore talk about her new book These Truths.

When I pick up Søren and Silas from OC, the car is filled with steady chatter about all of the things they experienced in the day—a far cry from the grumbling uniformed kids that used to greet me in the schoolyard, with a “thank-goodness-THAT’S-over-BUT-there-is-still-tomorrow-angst” in each heavy word they spat out.

8. What concerns or challenges have you experienced along the way? How have you addressed them? Do you have any concerns as you look ahead?

It is sometimes daunting to buck the system—a system agreed upon by so many—and to follow an unknown path, particularly when it comes to making that long term decision on your children’s behalf. I am always fond of what mysteries lie beyond. But will Søren and Silas thrive in that same way? We negotiate this regularly but knowing how much they are enjoying life in contrast to previous years, I cannot help but to feel a stronger pull on the, “you are doing just fine” side.

9. What is your approach regarding academics? Real Work? Play? Self-direction/self-motivation?

Our approach is to explore the possibilities. To us nothing is set in stone and by spending our days focused on what we love and challenging ourselves, many unimaginable things can happen.  We love finding the magic in the world around us and seeing the fruits of our efforts. We do struggle a bit with schedules but make an effort to turn them into habits with a weekly checklist hanging in the kitchen. Daily, our boys read and write in their journals. Thursdays are for documentaries, and proper math instruction (via Kahn Academy) is three days a week. But most of the day is for exploring and putting the skills we learned into practical use. We delight in visiting historical sites (even with their suspicious truths!) and parks and museums. Art is an incredibly important subject in our world—so whether home or out, we are scribbling. And Søren and Silas learn a LOT about life through the goings-on of our business, Peg and Awl! They are very self-motivated boys and are often working at one thing or another.

10. What resources—people, books, curricula, places or organizations (museums, art centers, scouting, 4-H, businesses, etc.)—have you found helpful? How have they contributed to your youth’s development?

This past year, our first year of homeschooling, we were mostly finding our way.  Endless adventures await, and since our recent move to West Chester, everything is a new adventure for our family.  Some of the places we have enjoyed are the Brandywine River (both in the canoes and out), the Chester County Historical Society (where we picked through old maps as we tried to find the history of The 5 Acre Wood), the Chester County Art Center, (where Søren took a graphic novel workshop and Silas made monster vessels with clay), as well as the Chester County Public Library. We also joined the Delaware Valley Mineralogical Society, which led to us finding the sparkly magic of amethysts rising in the freshly plowed field of an Amish farmer. Equally important is our time spent on the Bike Trail or at Stroud Preserve, where we talk and walk and go sledding. And this summer, our friend and author Michael-Patrick lead a writing workshop for The Brothers Kent (and I joined in!) at our home.

11. From your young people’s perspectives, what are the main pluses of this type of education?

Guys, what do you think about homeschooling?

Søren: I love it! I love OC, and I like Choice the most! I love drawing and reading and making graphic novels. Homeschooling is fun. School was boring.

Silas: What do I love most? Being free! I love being outside so much. And I get to learn about snakes! Homeschool is covering everything, and it is making it fun, and we are learning more this way. I love OC, especially Thursdays and Tuesdays.

12. From your young people’s perspectives, what could OC do to further enhance their OC experience?

Nothing!

13. Looking back to when your family was new to OC, what events (Open Campus Days, Parents’ Meetings, Open Mic Night, etc.) helped your family become more connected to the OC community?

The Mudder was a great! Walter and I (unexpectedly) joined Søren’s group for a quiet, muddy connecting! We also loved assisting Group Tutorial 1 coptic bind their year-end appreciation books.  The 24 hours of the Awesome Camping trip was grand, and the Pausing Ceremony was so sweet.

14. What could OC do to further your (the parent’s) experience, help you reach your un-met goals, or pursue them in a more effective or enjoyable manner?

We are really happy with how things are going and don’t have any suggestions for an improved experience!