A NEW Smaller Big Wallet!

We love our Sharas and Shara's Moms so much that when a friend asked if we could make one for her that would fit into her new smallish bag, we decided to have a go at it.  The result:  a Shara that measures only a little bigger than a 3 x 5" index card -- 5 1/2 x 3 1/4"-ish to be more exact-- and yet it holds as much as a standard Shara.  It's small enough to slip into some side pockets, easy to carry in most bags, and all without sacrificing much in carrying capacity.  (There ARE some situations in which you would do better with a standard Shara or Shara's Mom, such as if you regularly carry lots of bills or change or dozens of pictures or really love a ten-slot credit card case; so these baby Sharas are NOT replacing our wonderful regular Sharas and Shara's Moms.)

The view above shows an opened Baby Shara.  The credit card case in this one is made of clear material and has five slots.  The coin purse is large, and we've designed pleated sides to make it easier to get into.  There are bill fold pockets directly under the coin purse as well as under each side flap.

The view below shows two more possibilities for these wallets.

And the very bottom image  shows the inside of the cat wallet in the first image.  It has a Kettle material credit card slot.

 Order your Baby Shara on the Big Wallets page.  The price is the same as a regular Shara because it takes us just as long to make a little Shara as a big one.

New Look for Piece Work Wallets & Things

We hope you enjoy our new look and that it makes it easier for you to find your way around our blog and discover exactly what you're looking for.  As we develop new designs and different ways to use our materials, we're moving toward sorting our things by style rather than by material.  Our catalog pages are still basically the same (although we've edited the titles to better reflect the new design-based categories), but soon we will be combining all the standard wallets onto one page instead of breaking them down into the four materials categories that we have them in now.  And the step after that will be to make it possible for you to click on the categories right under the masthead in order to get to the catalog page you want. 

We also have a few new designs in the works-- one that's a small version of our big Shara wallets,  one that is a sleeked-down version of our standard wallet,  one that's a re-thinking of the Ultra Slim, and one that's a slightly larger version of the already big Shara.  As always, these designs are driven by what YOU tell us you want.  We really enjoy designing and finding ways of using new materials.  So keep your ideas coming!  And please let us know how your wallets and things are working for you and what we can do to make them better.

Consider a Business Checkbook!

Our friends Sarah and Shara have a small business called Haven & Hill.  They concoct and sell yummy bath and body products.  Recently when I was in New Hampshire visiting with them, they said they needed a checkbook cover for their business account.  They had given me some samples of their soaps and bath bombs and creams, so I peeled a label from one and incorporated it in this checkbook cover.  The background is from a chicken feed bag that has a sophisticated color scheme and lovely graphic of a farm scene, which reminded me of the rural area where Sarah and Shara both live.

You'll notice that the checkbook cover is being elegantly and professionally held by a super lovely and pale hand that has long fingernails.  I found this mannequin hand in my travels through the garment district in NYC with friends recently.  It seems to say "This is an elegant  business checkbook cover, even if it's made out of a chicken feed bag."

(Note to Sarah and Shara:  I'm putting your checkbook cover in the mail tomorrow.)

CLEAR!!

My friend Pat threw down a challenge the other day.  She said "Make a completely clear wallet!"  We speculated about how much fun it would be to carry a wallet whose insides were on the outside.  When you get pulled over for that little speeding infraction, no need to fumble around hunting for your driver's license-- just hold up your CLEAR wallet.  Add your own color and text depending on what you carry around.  Always know in an instant exactly how many quarters you have for parking meters.  The benefits are endless!

In the top photo you see a fully-loaded CLEAR.  You can feature a favorite photo or business card, sort of like choosing wallpaper for your phone screen.  Notice that there are small bits of text showing on the clear surface.  We made this wallet out of some heavy, clear plastic cases that a new pillow and some sheets came in.  The manufacturer had carefully printed various warnings on the plastic, so we included them when we cut out the material.  Don't want any of you confusing your wallet for a toy and putting it over your nose and mouth!  One of the sheet cases had the word "FULL" on clear tape, so we had to include that too, since your wallet will usually be full when you use it and it's good to have that cleared up right away.

The third shot shows how fine your coins and bills and credit cards look under shiny plastic.

And this final shot of the empty but opened wallet highlights the warning and also shows the many nooks and crannies into which you can not hide but reveal your wallet contents.

We've named this wallet the Patricia after my genius friend who issued the challenge.  You can have your own by ordering whichever wallet you want on a catalog page and specifying CLEAR in the notes.  Prices are the same for CLEAR as for regular wallets.  Any and all of our models can be made CLEAR!

Another New Design

We had an email from Shara Buffington's Mom Susan the other day asking if we could make her a large Shara wallet, only there were a few changes that she thought would make the wallet work better for her.  She liked the size of the Shara and she liked the ten credit card slots, but she wanted two compartments, one on the outside and one on the inside, to hold photographs of her grandchildren.  She referred to these new compartments as coin purses, so we simply sized up our standard coin purse so that it would fit on the outside and inside of the left-hand flap.  It took a little playing around and a few false starts, but the final wallet came out so well that we've decided to carry it as another choice in our Big Wallets category. 

The day I was walking around thinking about this new design, I met up with  a friend who handed me a bird seed bag and asked me to make a Shara out of it for her.  I mentioned that I was concocting a new version of the Shara, and she liked the sound of it so much that she asked me to make one of those for her.  So look below to see photographs of Shara's Mom Susan's Shara's Mom as well as Laurie's Shara's Mom!  (You can custom order your own Shara's Mom on the Big Wallets catalog page.  And remember, everything is on sale until June 21!)

The original Shara's Mom is on the left, and Laurie's Shara's Mom is on the right.

This is the inside of Shara's Mom's Shara's Mom showing a big coin purse on the left and credit card case on the right (and bill folds under each of these).

 

This is the outside of Laurie's Shara's Mom, showing one of the coin purses on the front (right side).

And this is the outside of Shara's Mom's Shara's Mom.  The lighthouse, which Susan requested, came from a bag of Cape Cod potato chips.

How to Recycle a Recycled Wallet

If your wallet is getting a little scuffed and worn,  or if you're just getting a little bored and are longing for a change, consider recycling your wallet and treating yourself to a bright new spring one!  To help you do that, we're running a SPRING SALE until the summer solstice-- June 21.  Here's the deal:  between now and the official end of spring, we'll send you $3 back on every wallet or bag that you order through this blog and $2 back on every Ultra -Slim or checkbook cover.  Place your order as usual, and when we ship it to you, we'll tuck your rebate into your wallet or bag or checkbook cover. 

Now for the big question-- what do you do with your recycled wallet when you want to retire it from its active life as a wallet but it still has some life left in it?  Here are a few ideas: 

1.  Make a planter out of it (see the illustration above)
2.  Open it out flat, cut a small X in the center and a slit leading from the center of one side to the X;  then slip it around the stem of a newly-planted tomato plant to protect it from cutworms and as a mulch.
3.  Open it out flat, fold it in thirds, and use the resulting skinny rectangle to cushion a branch of a tree or bush  that you need to tie up.
4.  Fold it like a small tent, push the tent up against a brick or a piece of garden edging stone, and you have a fine toad house for one of the most useful garden predators around.
5.  Open it out so its bright colors show, and hang it in your garden as a scarecrow.
6.  Cut it as described in #2, only slip it around the trunk of a blueberry bush as a permanent mulch.
7.  Open it out and fill it with potting soil as in the illustration, and use to to start seedlings indoors.
8.  Use it to store seeds as you collect them.  Put the seeds into small folds of paper, label them, and tuck them into the various pockets and slots of your old wallet for safekeeping over the winter.

These are just some off-the-top-of-our-heads ideas.  If you think of others, send them to us in comments, and we'll send a FREE wallet or bag or checkbook cover to the people who send us our five favorite ideas that we get before June 21!

Getting Lighter and Lighter

Lightening up as the weather grows warmer means lighter clothes, lighter shoes, and certainly lighter bags.  Shortly after I can't stand the thought of socks, I can't stand the thought of lugging a heavy bag either!  Piece Work has a solution:  this summer, instead of carrying everything with you all of the time, do spring cleaning of your bag, and transfer the essential items to one of our small shoulder bags.  And then, to make things even lighter, transfer the most essential of the essential to one of our Ultra Slims.  This way, when you leave the house, you can put the Ultra-Slim with your driver's license, a couple of credit cards, and a few bills plus your gym card inside your small bag (which might also be holding your phone, keys, and a pen a stick of gum).  Then when you get to the gym or the park where you plan to take a walk, slip just the Ultra Slim in your pocket and hide the bag with your other things in your car.


To encourage you to try our Light Combo, if you order a Small Shoulder Bag and an Ultra Slim, we'll slip a $3 refund into the pocket of the Ultra Slim, put the Ultra Slim inside the Small Bag, and ship the two to you in one light package.  This offer is  good for spring cleaning time only, March 20 - June 21.