Reed Pen and Walnut Ink

The slow art of lettering, from Lahore to Kyoto

Hamza Siddiqui2 episodes2 min of audio81 playsEpisodic

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S1 · E2Jul 29, 20260:4945 plays Preview

A Japanese brush master and a Lahore qalam compare notes

Hamza sits with a shodo teacher visiting Karachi and compares brush and reed, breath and angle, and the moment in each tradition when a student is allowed to stop copying.

S1 · E1May 22, 20260:4736 plays Members

Cutting your first reed pen

Hamza describes cutting a qalam from a dried reed, the angle that makes Nastaliq possible, and the year his teacher refused to let him write a single word.

About the show

Reed Pen and Walnut Ink is a fortnightly show about calligraphy and lettering in all its traditions. Hamza Siddiqui trained in Nastaliq under a master in Lahore for seven years and now runs a small studio in Karachi, and he talks to calligraphers, sign painters, type designers and brush artists about the discipline of making letters by hand. Each 30 to 40 minute episode is a conversation with one practitioner, sometimes two from different traditions comparing notes: a Kufic specialist in Istanbul, a Japanese shodo teacher, a Mexico City sign painter, a Devanagari type designer in Pune. The show is for people who practise lettering, for designers who use type and want to understand where it comes from, and for anyone drawn to slow, patient work. Hamza asks about tools, teachers, mistakes and faith, and keeps coming back to the same question: what does a letter look like when someone has cared about it.

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