I’m pleased to say my book “Typewriter SOS, A DIY Guide to Fixing Typewriters” is now available as a physical paperback book from Amazon. No longer do you need to read it as a downloadable pdf!
Order it today here
Some of the 15 problems we talk about in this book:
If your typewriter works fine, but it only types in one line like this:
H
E
L
P
!
If your carriage is loose and there is a piece of string flapping about underneath it.
If the upper and lowercase letters aren’t aligned
Turning the letters inside glass keys the right way round
If the ribbon is faint even though it is not old
And much more.
45 pages with photos and illustrations of step by step instructions on how to fix 15 different typewriter problems, and to have you up and running in no time.
There are a few common problems people come across that can be easily fixed, because mostly a lot of these things aren’t problems at all, it’s just about knowing which lever is causing it and then sorting it out. No two models of typewriter have their levers in exactly the same place, but in this zine we point out the broad area and show a few different examples for you to see. Typewriters are machines that have been made using precision instruments, they rely on every angle and length and spring and cog working together to get the letters to hit the page, just one small adjustment of one part may result in the complete mis-alignment of the letters on the page, so taking it apart could completely ruin it.
This zine is designed to show you what you need to unscrew, what to leave alone, and what bits you can fix without having to take your typewriter apart and completely ruining it.
This is a 45 page downloadable E-book, which you will be able to download as a pdf file as soon as you make the purchase from the Etsy shop for a bargain £5!!!
I am very pleased to announce our latest typewriter is available! An Imperial Good companion model T, a 1950s model reconditioned and painted in a beautiful pastel green.
Available on Etsy!
Do not forget that for discounts codes and special secret sales, you must be signed up to the secret sales catalogue list! On the right of this page, there is a mailing list sign-up. Put your email in there are you shall receive!
Caroline Groves makes bespoke hand made shoes, and I’m a little bit enamoured by her. These are luxury works of art. I first saw her work at the V&A shoe exhibition in June where her Turquoise Parakeet shoes were exhibited. It was the claw sticking out of the front that got me, such beauty in the feathers and rich colours, meeting with the sinister claw that pokes out of the top. They’re quite fairytale-like.
Hello August! I’ve just released a typewriter out on general sale. It’s a little pink number, a 1930s model, and it is now available in my online shop on Etsy.
Hope you’re all having a wonderful summer, and that you’re having barbecues every night in your luscious back gardens and drinking white wine under tartan blankets.
Annie X
So if you’re already on the mailing list, look out for it in your inbox, and if not, hit the subscribe button in the side bar!
We’ve got two typewriters available today, a pink Remington and an original matt black Imperial, both reconditioned and in working condition. The priority has been given to the subscribers of the mailing list so they may not make it to public sale, however if any that remain unsold will be made publicly available and will be posted on here in due course.
Hi! If anyone has tried to go onto my website over the last month you’ll see that it’s not available. That’s because I’m claiming back my domain from a company that had full control over it, and the process takes a while. So, yes at the moment my usual email address annie@clairelasecretaire.com does not work, so this blog is acting as my online presence, for now. I do have Facebook, and Instagram too, so if you want to get in touch, you can do so by contacting me on Facebook or on here.
Hopefully the website will be up again within a month, but it will be a much better, much more user friendly, supersite instead of the sort of car crash that it has been. Funny that a website about typewriters needs to keep up with the internet.
Catch you on the flipside
Annie
Now that the recovery from Christmas is well and truly over, I am starting to come out of hibernation and into the world again. I feel like January and February are sort of reserved for sorting stuff out, rejuvenation, assessing things, sleeping, thinking about what’s what and then and then as soon as March hits, it’s like ‘What can I make?! I need to make stuff.’
Hello folks, don’t forget to sign up to our secret sales on my website, this month we will be sending out a catalogue of typewriters at reduced prices for people who sign up. These will all be one-offs, so if you see one you like you’ll need to act quickly before someone else snaps it up. The catalogue items will be available at these reduced prices for 24 hours, and after this point any that are unsold will go back up to the original price and offered up on my public shop.
Halloween Invite!
Are you thinking about having a halloween party this year? I have always LOVED the idea of having a halloween film night, although I don’t like scary movies, I find the fear diminishes almost entirely when you are surrounded by your friends and plenty of moonshine! If you did want to get into the halloween spirit but can’t really be bothered to make any invitations, here’s a free download of an invitation flier I made for the movie night.. based on The Shining, and features one of my latest typewriters – a 1930s brushed steel Oliver. it’s A5 pdf and you can add your own details. Download the pdf here halloween_invite
If you do have a party, let me know how it goes!
If you’ve not already looked at the Writing Ball blog, and you consider yourself to be into typewriter culture, then you should check it out because the blogger Richard Polt is writing a book all about typewriter culture called The Typewriter Insurgency; A Field Guide to the Typewritten Revolution.
At the moment there is a list of potential chapters that he intends to include, and he’s asking for input if you have any other ideas. I was most excited to see that he had included a chapter on zines, because that’s how I started to get into typewriters, so it’s great to see that this is being explored.
So here’s the link http://writingball.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/book-plan-please-comment.html and get obsessed with his blog.
Ok, bye!
A x
Claire La Secretaire 