Forget Disposable Pens, Try Sustainable Keepsakes!

October 8, 2009

At Bluff Park Art show this weekend there were several artists with beautiful ink pen creations. Pens made out of everything from wood to denim. I picked several pens up. I caressed them. I oohed and ahhed. And I set each one back in its holder. Turning to my friend, I said, “You know those are so beautiful, but I couldn’t buy one because I would never be able to hang on to it.”

What???

A couple of days later, I’m really regretting not buying one of those little works of art for myself. I realized that the comment I made at the show is a prime example of the kind of boxed-in thinking that keeps me from treating the earth as well as I should. I’m really not so scatterbrained that I automatically lose everything, but plastic pens mean nothing to me. I have become accustomed to the “buy, lose, toss and buy” method of keeping up with ink pens. The thought irks me that I would very definitely misplace something just because I can get another one. Cheaply. One more pen in the landfill. When I cleaned out my studio space, I found at least enough working plastic ink pens to completely fill a shoebox. Don’t get me started about the ones that didn’t work anymore. How embarrassing.

Now, I don’t know how many pens are in the landfills right now. But, if you are a mom you can pretty well figure it out. Think about the beginning of school each year. Last year my daughter was required to buy 2 boxes of Bic pens (one blue and one red). Each box had, oh, I don’t know 20 pens in it? OK. 40 pens for my daughter. She has 400 kids in her grade, so 40 pens for each of them, too. That would be 16,000 Bic pens. She’s in high school, so there are 4 grades, so that’s 64,000 pens at the start of the school year. For ONE school. So, you see where I’m going with this. And do you think, that 4 weeks after school started, we could find even One of those plastic pens? Well, of course not, because who would care anything about keeping up with a plastic pen? Did we buy more? You bet.

Tonight I imagine that if I owned a pen that had been lovingly made from beautiful wood, and felt good in my hand, and cost more than 69 cents… I would probably become quite attached to that pen. I would know where it was all of the time. And, I would love to take it out and use it each and every time. I would covet it, and never, ever lose it. With this thought in mind, I went to my studio in search of an old cartridge pen that I had many years ago. I remember how I loved using it, I always loved the way the ink flowed so smoothly. (And I have a mental vision of middle aged men from my fathers generation walking around with ink stains on their shirt pockets from leaking pens. This tickles my fancy). Can you believe that I actually found the pen? Unfortunately it doesn’t appear to be in good working order. The nib is crusty and dry, so I am now on the hunt for a new pen. I came across a post from BirminghamMom.com, another local blogger who also attended the art show. She has a nice photo of one of the exhibitor’s pens and she cites another great reason for buying handmade… these pens can actually be keepsakes. Pens can be made out of all sorts of potentially sentimental items. Check out her post here.

And of course, nothing is perfect. Many of these pens have plastic cartridges that you have to replace. You can buy pens that you can refill out of a bottle, but I’m not ready to go there just yet. So, I’ll let you know what I find. I’m really anticipating finding just the right pen, it will be like a fun treasure hunt. And, maybe, my family and co-workers will forgive me if I become a little obsessive over my new possession. Maybe they will be inspired to get their own. And… there’ll be one less pen in the landfill. Small things matter.

Filed under: art,Inspiration,reuse,Uncategorized

Tags: art, green living, Lifestyle, reuse, sustainable recreation