New Location for The Ash Tree!

The Ash Tree's unique products can now be found at our new store location, 6 In The Shipyard. The new shop, now located in the recently opened Hingham Shipyard Launch at 18 Shipyard Drive in Hingham, has been a smashing success so far in the holiday season.

Though we wished we could have moved in earlier to capture more of the holiday rush, the traffic and business has been excellent. 6 In The Shipyard represents six different vendors that each bring something unique to the table, and I am proud to be doing business with them.

I have been able to contribute my online marketing knowledge in the design of a new website and blog, as well as setting up a 6 In The Shipyard Facebook Page and Twitter account. At the shop, I have all of my merchandise, and will use the venue as an experiment when designing new jewelry or pieces of art. Currently, I have my jewelry (and famous handmade earrings!), handmade books, recycled sail wallets and sail bags, embroidered necklaces, Purple Heart merchandise, seaglass rings, seaglass necklaces, and much more!

Also included in the "Six" are Dock This Way Embroidery and Design, Camilley's Closet, The Pink Poppy, Soul One One, and Sea Glass Photography. For more info, be sure to swing by the 6 In The Shipyard website to view products from each of the vendors, visit their websites, and check out the guest blogging and *wonderful web design work* provided by yours truly!

Contact me for more information!

Recycled Sail Women's Wallet

Women's recycled sail wallet, $39

Women's recycled sail wallet, now available for purchase online! I bought this wallet a few years ago, and was fascinated by its structure. I studied it, broke it down into a pattern, and created this expansion of the recycled sail product line: the Women's Sail Wallet.

Though my Tri-Fold Recycled Sail Wallet isn't necessarily exclusive to men (it's actually in fact more unisex), I was envisioning this one as being a bit more glamorous, and ideally a great complement with one of my recycled sail Bowline Bags.The Tri-Fold Wallet is also very popular, and I'd love to see something a little bit different with a touch more fashion, like this style, take off!

As always, I embroidered a few numbers on the front: for the next wallet, I'll probably do only 2 numbers and have them be a bit larger. I chose navy because I feel like it looks the best on the stark white of the sail, but have also embroidered the numbers in both Hunter Green and Red.

Like this item? Buy the sail wallet at my Etsy shop! Don't forget to browse through the other Recycled Sail Products I have available for sale.

The holidays will also be here before you know it, and my orders are starting to come in! Contact me to create a custom wallet - makes a great gift for the sailor or nautical person in your life :)

Handmade Recycled Sail Wallets

I thought it would be a great idea to do talk a bit about my famous sail wallets, as I have just sold my 8th wallet from my online Etsy Store! (Yeah, okay, 8 is no 10, but I think it's a big deal. So yay for me.)

These wallets are handmade recycled sail wallets, and are available with custom embroidery numbers of your choice. This assures you that not only are no two wallets the same, but you can really make it "yours" by choosing your color and number! The colors available are red, navy (my favorite, and I think looks the best...) and hunter green, and you can have up to 4 numbers embroidered - you can see the machine in action embroidering a piece of sailcloth, above!

I currently have 3 types of sail wallets available in my shop, to suit three different price points and styles. There is the simple clutch recycled sail wallet, below which can hold a check book or cash, and has 5 pockets to hold credit cards.


Then there is the simple (and most popular!) tri-fold handmade recycled sail wallet (pictured below). I think people like this one because it is the most unisex. It has a see-through (made from racing sail!) pocket for a license, and 2 sets of 3 pockets each on the other two sections, which both pull pack to hold additional stuff. Then, of course, all of it is sewn outside of the larger pocket for cash!

My last eco-friendly wallet was actually modeled after a wallet I bought my brother in Italy. It has some slight modifications, of course, but it is essentially the same. It's a handmade recycled sail bi-fold wallet!. The special sauce? I actually sewed a CHANGE POCKET which is secured by velcro! Amazing!

These handmade wallet styles are all available in my Ash Tree Etsy Shop, with more ideas being cooked up every day. Click through the wallet links to check out some more pictures, or browse through the other great options for handmade nautical gifts.

Have a wallet you'd like to see? I'd love to get some recommendations or even feedback!!

Sidewalk Sale: A Great Success!

I just wanted to thank all who came and checked out my work at the Sidewalk Sale last weekend. I hope that you all got something nice, for Mom or yourself!

It was a smashing success! I doubled (and then some) my profit from last year - which was amazing considering we had a freakin scary torrential downpour with scary thunder. Due to my busy-ness, I sucked at documentation :( But my table display was great!! I had a black tablecloth with my handmade jewelry scattered around. I also had my new handmade journals that I blew out of - once I make more, they will definitely be for sale on the website! Lastly on display I had a representation of my handmade sail products, like the sail notebooks and wallets.
As always, I had my embroidered necklaces, which did fairly well - the biggest hit were my $8 earrings, which were the perfect Mother's Day gift at the perfect price :D

I also did some trading at the very end, which is my favorite part - I traded earrings and necklaces for some awesome ceramics: I got two bright blue mugs, an earthy colored mug, a bowl, and a sterling silver wire ring. Fun!! (Pictured below is a piece by Sara Eustis: I custom made a pair of earrings for her mother for Mother's Day, and she traded me a mug that was similar in style to this vessel - I love the look of her pieces!!)

Here were some of the advertisements that we received for the event!

Boston Globe – Thursday, May 6

“Bargain Bin”

Circulation: 264,105

Going.com e-newsletter

“10 Things Boston is Doing this Week”

Style Carrot blog

“ARTevent: SMFA Sidewalk Sale”

Recycled Sail Notebooks

Oh my god this is so awesome. Though I feel as though I may have more success with this product at live shows or in person, I simply have to write about it because its awesome. As I said.

So I've been experimenting with my sail cloth, and am always trying to come up with new products and ideas. I'm currently enrolled in a Book Arts class, which surprisingly, I absolutely love. It's as though all of my creative juices are finally coming together through my love of writing, paper, and sewing into one fantastic package. This book is a prime example.

It's blank insides are made from recycled sketchbook paper, and I knew that the sail canvas wouldn't be sturdy enough for a cover - as in, it would probably fold and be a bit flimsy without being sewn like a hem: similar to my sail wallets. So, after I cut out a piece and embroidered it, I dipped it in wax to see what it would do - and it just feels so cool. It gave it that extra push for strength and added a really cool, soft texture to it.



I then bound it with a running-Japanese stitch, which is actually a lot simpler than it looks. (I think I'll throw up some how-to's for stitching, because it's so fun!) And there you have it! This model is really big and thick, more like a sketchbook that you can take *anywhere* - I'm going to make some smaller ones once I can get more canvas embroidered and cut to go. So let me know if you're into a custom order, or keep checking back in my etsy shop for smaller pieces!