I believe most writers have quirky writing habits, and I’m no exception. I love to write my first draft by hand, and I use a very specific sort of paper and ink, in a Sheaffer fountain pen I was given as an award. It’s engraved “Teacher of the Year, 1983.”
I love this pen because it has a very fine tip, which works well with my rather cramped handwriting. I use Skrip cartridge ink in “peacock blue” because it dries instantly on the page. If you’re left-handed, you know why this is important. I’ve ruined many a sleeve, dragging it through wet ink.
When I was very young, I found some old papers of my mother’s from college, and she used this same color ink. So it must be in my blood.
But there’s tragic news for us lovers of Peacock Blue. Because, okay, they still make the ink and it still looks the more or less the same. But they changed the name to turquoise. What’s up with that? Peacock blue is evocative. It’s romantic. It means something. Turquoise is just a color.
I’m curious about the marketing decision that resulted in changing the name. I wish they’d checked with me first. Writing is hard enough without messing with our heads about the tools of our trade. From the www.Pendemonium.com web site:
“In July of this year, Sheaffer announced that Skrip was being re-formulated and would be available in new colors….Sheaffer also took this opportunity to inform us that Skrip was now being manufactured in Slovenia! A mild panic set in amongst pen collecting Skrip fanatics… And just where is Slovenia? …. Favorite colors such as peacock blue went the way of the Skrip-Well. Gone are the transparent cartridges where you could easily see how much ink was left. In their place are just very slightly translucent cartridges that appear opaque at first glance. The new cartridges are the same color as the ink inside them….Prior to the recent changeover to Slovenian Skrip, the available colors were: Jet Black, Blue, Blue Black, Green, Red, Brown, Lavender, Gray, Kings Gold, Burgundy and Peacock Blue. Sheaffer discontinued Lavender, Gray and Burgundy entirely. They replaced, or perhaps better said, renamed Kings Gold to Gold and Peacock Blue to Turquoise. Both of these colors have changed; the new turquoise is still definitely turquoise, but darker than the old Peacock Blue.”
Okay, so that’s probably too much information, but I am in a funk here. I just used up my very last cartridge of real peacock blue. Who knows how my next book will turn out? Will it be darker? More obscure? We’ll see–I have to start work on it tomorrow.
Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, here’s a great quote. When THE MARCH by E.L. Doctorow won the National Book Critics Circle award for fiction, Doctorow said in his acceptance speech: “A book written in silence and read in silence goes from heart to heart and soul to soul as nothing else can.”
Susan
www.susanwiggs.com
21 comments
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September 4, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Word schmerd « The View From Here
[...] It’s every bit as essential as my Clairefontaine notebooks and Shaefer Javelin fountain pen (peacock blue ink, please). WordPerfect is not perfect, but for writing a novel, it’s [...]
May 31, 2009 at 9:57 pm
What are you looking for? « The View From Here
[...] Whatever happened to peacock blue ink? [...]
May 15, 2009 at 3:38 pm
tracey
I too long for the days of my original encounters with Sheaffer and peacock blue ink. I was so excited when I googled the color and found other people who are passionate about this color. I ordered a new fountain pen and turquoise refills this week from http://www.penhero.com.They arrived and I have found that the color is really pretty however I don’t think it is exactly the same. Oh the good ole’ days!
February 27, 2009 at 8:39 am
Register by midnight tomorrow… « The View From Here
[...] still my heart…they are making collages! Do you hear me? COLLAGES. Best writing tool since peacock-blue ink was [...]
February 21, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Douglas Goodall
i was thinking back to my youth and remembered a time when I had a fountain pen with peacock blue ink. Suddenly I had a yearning to have one again. I did a web search and imagine my surprise when I found a posting about someone else that had the same experience. That friend was a little strange. He was in to bats and was a big fan if old movies. I am so jazzed up I am going to go out and visit the Office Depot and see if I can find one today. I am studying for my ordination, and I want to find a very nice pen to write in my bible study journal. Thank you very much for the posting, it really made my day.
February 12, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Leslie Cohen
I started with Peacock Blue, too! Aaargh! I addressed and wrote all my holiday cards this year with that color, finding some old cartridges to which the years had left very little liquid. It took all of them to finish the cards with almost none to spare. I figured I would find more, as I always had, in art supply stores, or now, on the internet, but what sad news here! My Sheaffer pen has a clear barrel so that I could always see how much remained as I was writing. Now, they’ve even changed the opacity of the cartridges that they do still make. Oh, why must companies always change the beloved!
December 9, 2008 at 11:10 am
FJ
I started out using Peacock Blue. Wrote in fountain pen starting when my biology teacher, who used to carry around a set of old and new fountan pens with him in his shirt pocket, got my attention by using such a great color to correct papers, etc. I got into fountain pens because of him and peacock blue was my fave. Sad to see them change the name; I’m with you Susan, I feel they should have kept the name the same.
December 7, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Marsha
Oh, my. I’m very late to the party here, but am heartbroken at the loss of Peacock Blue. In high school, I wrote with those beloved, but cheap, Shaeffer fountain pens with the deeply colored plastic barrels. I was especially enamored of the emerald green ones which were the same glowing color of the green Duncan yoyos of the time. Most importantly, however, was the ink color and nothing, but nothing, would do except Peacock Blue.
I’m mourning its passing…
October 3, 2008 at 6:57 am
A word from the daughter « The View From Here
[...] it’s her left arm, so writing is going to be tough for her for a little while (remember, she handwrites her first drafts!). There’s nothing to be super worried about, but make sure you send her good [...]
August 31, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Lynn Jordan--Author's Tools
I loved Peacock Blue and the fountain pen that let the ink flow onto the page. It seemed to encourage the words to jump on the page.
In those days I didn’t have word quotas and goals, just homework. I wonder when I switched over to black when I’m not using the computer.
Is there a good substitute for peacock blue? Would a pen work better for the unleash your story challenge or NaNoWriMo? Maybe I’ll just have to stick to the AlphaSmart.
February 15, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Gary Steinweg
I used a fountain pen in the early years of grade school because ballpoint pens had yet to be invented. Even after the invention of ballpoint pens, I tended to use a fountain pen into high school a little. My favorite ink color quickly became “Peacock Blue.”
Here I now am, fifty years later, wanting to go back to a fountain pen. My how things have changed. I seem to recollect a fairly decent shaeffer fountain pen could be bought for less than $5, and large bottles of ink went for around 49-cents. The bottle had a built in ink-well. Fountain ink cartridges were invented a little after ballpoint pens, probably to compete with the convenience of the new ballpoint pens which cost more than fountain pens.
How things have changed. A decent fountain pen now costs over $100. Fountain pen inks are hard to find, even the cartridges. Certainly there’s no large rack of ink bottles in a dozen or so color choices.
My wife just got me a Parker Gold somethingorother pen. It has a screw activated internal reservoir. I thought I could take it out and use cartridges, but no luck. The stub in the pen that the cartridge would have to slip onto is too large in diameter.
My search for ink begins. Having read this website, I find that Peacock Blue is no longer made. Bummer.
Regards to all, Gary in Sandy Eggo
September 22, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Chriztian Steinmeier
This is weird – today I was cleaning out a box of stuff and stumbled upon my old “Calligraphy” box set of a Schaeffer pen with three different sized tips. The box included 14 Skrip cartridges (7 different colors, 2 of each) of which all but one has been drained from all the drawing and writing I did umpteen years ago.
I thought to myself: “Guess I should google those cartridges and see if it’s still possible to buy them”… well, I end up here on this page, read your story about peacock blue and of course I’ll have to go check which one it was that was still unused…
Yep.
“Peacock Blue” – that’s just great
Who thinks up these schemes for the world?
September 10, 2007 at 9:42 am
Sharon
When I was in jr. high school in the 60’s, my best friend and I both purchased a Schaefer fountain pen and the peacock blue ink cartridges. We loved our uniqueness! Although, I did have one teacher who did not like the color and insisted I use black or navy blue ink. Such great memories of all the notes I took and homework I did with my fountain pen and “peakcock blue” ink. It was fun being a teenage girl then. Thanks for writing about a nice memory I had temporarily forgotten about.
July 17, 2007 at 7:01 am
I love this business. « The View From Here
[...] or not I could survive signing so many books. On my best day, I’ve written maybe 5000 words in longhand. But the Levy people made it easy. They had us set up assembly-line style so helpers would open the [...]
June 15, 2007 at 12:07 am
Rita St. Claire
I just have to comment on what you said: “And for a writer, four months of unrelenting darkness, rain and snow is actually a work opportunity.”
All I can say is HAHAHAHA! Very good!
June 4, 2007 at 8:47 pm
susanwiggs
Mary Lou, I have that pen! Or something very like it. I love the detail in your comment. I can perfectly picture it. I’ll take a picture of it and post.
June 4, 2007 at 9:39 am
mary lou
I, too, LOVED to write with Peacock Blue Ink! I grew up using it, as my Mom used it too. I really miss the bottle with the little well on the side. I used an Eberhardt fountain pen, that had a marbled turquoise body, abd a little lever on the side that you had to pull down, dip the nib into the well, and then slowly let it up so it would fill the rubber bladder with the ink. I LOVED it. Alas, it got lost in a move with the Navy, and I never could find another like it, so Now I use a computer! SIGH!!!
April 16, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Give it a shot (you know you want to). « The View From Here
[...] their stories down and then sending them out into the world. Which ones actually pick up pen and paper, or fire up their computers and actually go for it? There’s such power in taking [...]
January 29, 2007 at 11:43 am
Debra Moore
That photo is gorgeous. As you know, I used to live in Seattle, and I have to say except for the rain which kept my hair in constant state of frizz, I loved it there…
And Yes! Thank you! It was Miss Christina! Much happiness in 2007!
January 27, 2007 at 9:10 pm
susanwiggs
Sometimes I sense a mass migration of writers to this corner of the world. I think, when you break away and pick anywhere on the map to live, the Pacific Northwest rates high. Washington has no state income tax so that’s a plus. And for a writer, four months of unrelenting darkness, rain and snow is actually a work opportunity.
And check out the header of this page. That’s a picture I took from my beach. It’s what I see out my window every (clear) day. You can’t beat that with a baseball bat!
Nice to hear from you. I wonder if you’re thinking of authors Susan Mallery or Christina Dodd.
January 27, 2007 at 11:56 am
Debra Moore
Susan has a blog! Go girl!
Congrats on the optioning for the movie, by the way! How exciting is that? Got your postcard for The Winter Lodge. Can’t wait to pick up my copy…and the coupon on the website is an awesome idea!
Just saw the other day that another Houstonian had moved to the Great Northwest…and now for the life of me cannot remember her name! Agh! Cute little blonde who was friends with “Cay David”… my old age disease is kicking in.
Anyway, saw her book on the shelf at the grocery store, thought immediately of you, too, up there in God’s country, then got your postcard the same day…the joining of events–kismet or a nexxus (or as Tom Hanks said in Sleepless in Seattle…”the Bermuda Triangle”)!
Oh, and the pen…man, that stinks. You find something that really works for you, and then they change it! Maybe a petition…wonder what language they speak in Slovenia…I should look that up!
Many happy blessings to you and your family. And be sure to tell them you want a cameo role in your movie…Stephen King does it! And you’re a lot cuter than he is!