"Ink - Written by Hand" a Short Film + Giveaway!

As one who hasn’t been to Wonder Pens in person, it was cool to have the shop visit included in the film. The inclusion of the vintage cameras throughout was a nice nod to another lost art as well. Very nicely done.

I really liked the bonus scenes — they felt a lot more personal, like Tanja is there talking to us instead of “making a recording.”

Jon is a movie star!! She has some incredible hand writing!

As an owner of fountain pens and ink and a daily journal keeper, this film really touched my heart. As one commenter pointed out this film can convey beautifully our fascination with the art form. Of course I loved the parts of the film where Tanja is writing but I especially loved the glimpse inside the old Wonder Pens shop. Ordering online is a joy but I hope to visit the new store one day. And also – what a great apartment to shoot in! The light!! What an inspiring space. Thank you for a beautiful film.

Loved the film. It made me want to learn to write with a dip pen like that and explore flex pens as well. Thanks for making it. I really enjoyed it.

Lovely film. Captured a lot of what people are feeling. My friend started a “slow-stitch” movement in the quilting industry. I think that we see a shift back to appreciating the process. I showed my boys your film. Yes, they love their video games but they thought this was cool too. Lucky us – our school has taught some cursive.

Well said Josiane :) Thanks for sharing!

I just love watching beautiful handwriting being written. I have very bad handwriting. On a bizarre side note: I also loved the lobby of the apartment building. Very interesting interior / architecture design.

This film gives me hope that the knowledge and art of handwriting will not in fact be lost to future generations. It also captures many of the elements that I love about fountain pens and ink, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with people who think I’m a little bit weird for using multiple pens with different ink colours during the work day.

True story: Tanja originally was hoping for a much darker score, like some evil Beethoven or something. I resisted! Thanks for sharing your thoughts Deborah :)

Saw the film, awesome. Enjoy the whole film.

It’s probably less the tool itself (in this case, instagram) that killed anything, and more how people have decided (in large hordes) to use the tools. That said, there’s a MASSIVE writing community on Instagram, as I discovered when we started production on this short.

Thanks for the comment!

Kind words! Thanks Parobertson :)

I recently bought my first fancy pens and flex nib as well! My writing is terribad, but I’m (very slowly, like really slowly) working on it!

Thanks for the kind words on the film! I’m a cinematographer by trade, so it’s v nice to hear it called out :)

I am reading this, and no problemo! Accessibility matters :)

I was instantly grabbed by the tempo and musical score… that soft playfulness and mellow cadence. The beauty in a drop of black ink rolling back down the bottle. The shock and chuckle at that sudden ink blotch, and a bit of shame afterwards, cleaning the spill, like when you’re passionately defending an argument and you splutter… The scritch of nib against paper. Such beautiful filming that makes black ink look so entrancing and mysterious.

I thought about how she talked about using technology to improve the craft (Instagram), then I noted that the same technology that helps her craft may also be the technology that killed the art form.

Those close-up shots of Tanja writing on the paper…. ahh!! And the sound of the nib gliding across the surface of the paper… ahhhh!!!! Beautiful film and great attention to detail!

You can really see the art in writing as well as the craft in the flow of words.

P.S. Ryan, if you’re reading this, thank you for providing subtitles!

Wow that was really well done.
It’s so true that writing by hand, as an art, is lost to a generation. Nowadays writing is only a means, no longer an art.

Now I’m off to do some writing. I’ve been inspired!

You’re not the only one with terrible handwriting. I put doctors to shame.

I just had to watch it twice, it is such an engaging film. The cinematography is fabulous, the location is a gorgeous space – so serene and inviting for contemplative thinking and writing. Tanja is wonderfully eloquent about her own journey in handwriting and about the larger picture of the loss of an art, and exactly how much is being lost. My favourite part comes at the beginning when Tanja describes her frustrations using a fountain pen when she was younger, and her excitement about buying her Muji pen to start writing again. Definitely a story I could relate to: I gave up on fountain pens when in my teens, and bought my first pen online from Wonderpens last year to kickstart an effort to improve my horrible handwriting.

Beautifully done! I watched it twice. I loved the part where Tanja is writing and the nib gets caught on the paper, splattering ink everywhere and she makes a cute little face and wipes up the mess. Writing with ink definitely can be messy, so it’s nice to see that instead of editing it out. :)

Finally – finally…I have been verbally trying to explain my fascination with pen & ink to friends and family; however I never seem to get the point across. This excellent film gets it across wonderfully! Wow…how well done was that film?!!Lots of ‘forwarding’ going on here. Amazing work & Thank you.

That is such a beautiful film! I was grabbed by so many things, among which the sound of the pen on paper… Tanja is right when she talks about our fascination for beautiful handwriting, and our use of handwritten fonts, because we have lost the ability to do that ourselves. I still write by hand, but not as much or as often as I used to, and that’s something I was already wanting to change – now I feel even more inspired to do so.
The only time I had a calligraphy lesson was when I was studying in Iran: with a few reeds and a pocket knife in hand, the teacher started the lesson by making a qalam for each of the students, which we then used to practice writing the Persian alphabet. I wish I’d had more time there to go beyond that very short introduction. It was the only time I thought my writing in Farsi looked good – using a qalam, taking my time, and practicing made for much better results than what I was achieving in my language classes, quickly jotting down vocabulary words in my notebook using a ballpoint pen. Oh, and as Tanja mentions in the film, getting to watch the teacher forming letters and benefitting from the tips he was sharing along the way was really helpful, too.
I won’t ever be a master of (French, English or Persian) calligraphy, but I’d like to play around with it a little more because, as Tanja says, there’s something really satisfying in seeing our ideas take form through beautiful shapes of our own creation.

Thanks Elizabeth! Tanja’s got a big collection of cards, it was hard to choose what to show.

They can’t read cursive? There must be an app for that… ;)

My favourite parts were when they zoomed into the nib and paper as she was writing. I find it amazing to just watch someone write with a dip pen like that. And yeah, my generation has unfortunately lost this art. It’s all about keyboards and touch screens now for us. I will admit that I have terrible handwriting but I have been trying to improve it. Also, I miss that old small store… I used to be able to walk there in minutes from home. Now, It would take me over an hour to venture to the new store. BTW is there parking at the new store?

Handwriting is such a personal thing. I just look at those marks that people made, and it makes me… feel. The way the ink interacts with nib and paper… There’s a beauty there, one that is hard to recreate. I loved looking at those post cards. That is a superb little film. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. Now if only the commute to your store was easier for me… ;)

Ah, how that pen danced with the paper! Very inspiring! Makes me very sad to know my own children cannot read my cursive writing.

Fantastic. Makes you want to spend a lazy afternoon writing letters or practicing your penmanship with a coffee or tea that’s gone cold because you’re so focused on the ink flowing from your pen. Wish you were closer so I could drop by at my lunch hour. Thanks for supplying my subtle addiction!