Finding Inspiration in the Primordial

The New Kanilea Pen Co. Kilauea Kai collection captures the Hawaiian volcano's power to both destroy and renew.

- NICKY PESSAROFF

In 2018, Hugh and Karol Scher of Kanilea Pen Co. took a trip to Hawaii’s Big Island. This particular trip was different in two ways. For one, it was the couple’s first trip to the islands that inspired them since the launch of Kanilea Pen Co. in 2016. For another, Kilauea was erupting.

It is relatively easy to overlook Kilauea due to the magnificence of its sister volcano, Mauna Loa, but Hawaiian culture has always recognized its importance. Kilauea is the mythical home of Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes and fire. Like volcano deities throughout the world, Pele is both a destroyer and a creator.

On that trip to Hawaii in 2018, the Schers witnessed the destructive and creative properties of Kilauea. A boating tour took them within feet of the caustic lava flow.

“You stop in a little cove and have a bite to eat, but then you continue down the east coast and get to the lava flow, and it’s primordial,” Karol recalls.

As students, we were taught about the primordial Earth, the epochal time in which constant volcanic eruptions and earthquakes created an apocalyptic landscape. Looking at the photograph on this page that inspired the new Kanilea Kilauea Kai writing instruments collection, one gets a sense of it—red-hot lava spilling over basaltic rock into the scalded waters of the Pacific Ocean, creating fog and fumes that travel the trade winds and blanket the coast.