Ink Doc Film Makes the Rounds

When Jon first told me that "this filmmaker" who knows Tanja, a regular customer of ours, was making a video on ink and handwriting, and wanted to come in and film the shop for a scene, I was all for that, in particular because Jon was going to be the one making the cameos for the shop scenes. I think at the time of the filming, wintery snow was about, and the baby was just months old and could be reliably independent for about 15 seconds before requiring attention. I actually remember Jon and I debating at that time whether or not I should cut his hair (one of my many, many jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none skills), and we settled on "okay, if there's enough time," which of course there wasn't, as you can clearly see in the video. If we had known that so many people were going to see it, I think we may have re-thought the decision to not cut his hair... The video has seemed to have made it everywhere - the Globe and Mail, Gizmodo.com, pen bloggers and forums. We've had a few of our customers phone in and say, hey! Go to your computer and look up this website! Or email us to let us know where they heard about us. I feel like the baby is a bit older now, almost a year, toddling around and can entertain himself for quite a while with a plastic cup and a spoon, but I still don't quite have my act together in keeping on top of all that's happening in the pen world. We also had a few new folks come in with a new interest in maybe picking up a new pen to see where they can take their handwriting. Two exciting things have happened as a result of this video (in addition to having met Ryan Couldrey, of course!).

1. Tanja was interviewed by the CBC's Matt Galloway for Metro Morning (listen here), and we were briefly mentioned! We're at 3:45 of the clip. I don't know if I should be embarrassed by how exciting it was for us to be mentioned at all, since the interview is mostly about Tanja and how she has been exploring handwriting and its significance in today's world, but it was great to hear. As a small business, we survive on word-of-mouth, and Tanja's putting our name out there means so much to us, and really reminds us of how amazing our customers are. 2. We were briefly mentioned on The Pen Addict podcast! The Pen Addict is a blog run by Brad Dowdy, and he also has a podcast with Relay FM.

You can listen to the full podcast episode #163 here. The bit about the Ink Doc is at 14:40, but pay extra special attention to 17:02, when they discuss the little pen shop (i.e. our tiny shop here in Toronto!) and Brad in particular says we are " kind of pen shop"!! ....he then goes on to describe the long gone days of 906 Dundas West, with boxes stacked against the windows, and along the walls, and ink bottles crammed into every available nook and cranny. While I love this new space here, and especially having the apartment in the back, I think there's something very nostalgic and kind of special about going into a tiny shop crammed with inky things, knowing it would be either Jon or me and sometimes some crying little beast, and leaving this tiny shop with a bag of paper or inks or a pen. (I'm nostalgic now that we don't have to unpack boxes of stock onto the front table while tripping over boxes and trying to shove stock underneath tables and piled up on things.) On a slightly bizarre note, some other folks are trying to film something here in the new space, and I think they need Jon for a few words. You can be sure we will be cutting his hair for this one. And giving him an ironed shirt.   In other news, the long-anticipated TWSBI ECO is in! Check it out here. If you've been thinking about TWSBI for a while, but haven't pulled the trigger, this may be the pen for you.