I’ve been sending out hand typed stories with my etsy orders, this one features the fabulous “a beautiful mess” blog, they’ve really made the big time now! And this latest cobbling together of my imagination is more nonsense than ever. I wouldn’t waste your time reading it actually.
If u do read it, I mean St Kilda off the coast of Scotland not the one in Melbourne. It is important you know that.
Poor Etsy customer.
A x
PS, in case you’re wondering, this wasn’t written on one of my reconditioned typewriters, it was on my boyfriend’s 80 year old Corona 4, just so many typewriters lying around you know…
Category: Books and Things
I’m Obsessed with Emily Winfield Martin
Her work is magical! She does illustrations and writes her own children’s books based on mysterious worlds where children and animals are friends, and live side by side in nature. Her style is so beautiful, and she herself is also. Here is a snapshot of one of her seafaring children.
You can see more at her blog http://theblackapple.typepad.com
Are you obsessed with any artists at the moment? Who inspires you?
I’m off to the studio now to try and be as creative Emily Winfield Martin 🙂
A x
The Reading Room in the Nottingham Contemporary Gallery
A picture from the time my friend Becca and I hung around Nottingham Contemporary reading room for way longer than we had spent looking at the actual exhibits… There’s something very intimate about a small room with walls full of books. This one is filled with books on design and art history through the ages. Anyone can go in, I wonder if they’d let you stay all day though..Â
A Writers Studio Exists in Nottingham now
Inspiring Typewriter Stories
This guy is better known as The Roving Typist; a story teller who busks on the streets of New York with typed stories from his portable typewriter. You can also buy stories online from him on his website : www.rovingtypist.com
“Truth Difficulty” by The Roving Typist
I love that this exists 🙂
Back in February, I wrote about The Roving Typist, a writer who spontaneously creates stories on the streets for people, “stories composed for you while you wait.” He doesn’t keep copies of his stories, he doesn’t keep track of who buys them. He just writes them and then lets them go.  His work began as a way to make some money, but has evolved into a kind of performance. I have reposted the video about him at the end of this post.
The reason that I am writing about Christopher Hermelin is that I ordered a story online from him and it just came today! He had asked if I wanted the story to be about anything in particular and I gave him free rein. With great anticipation, I opened the envelope. Inside the larger envelope was a card-sized envelope stamped with his insignia (typewriter-above left) and the title of the…
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E-Book Launch “Typewriter SOS: The DIY Guide to Fixing Common Problems with Manual Typewriters”
This essential 45 Page E-book has been made to help the sea of people who bought a typewriter from a charity shop and for some reason it has stopped working and the only people who know how to fix it are either retired, dead, or live really far away.If this is you, don’t worry help is here.
Written and illustrated by Claire La Secrétaire Typewriter Studio, we have been reconditioning typewriters for 5 years and have had hundreds of typewriters through our doors all with varying problems. We have put this concise guide book together from our experience in diagnosing and fixing most of the problems we come across, most are easy, all of them are fixable.
The first reason that this is better than scouring the internet for hours in the hope of finding an answer to your particular typewriter issue is:
THE TROUBLE SHOOTING SECTION
Because how are you supposed to fix it if you don’t know what’s wrong with it?! I know, you may not know what all the parts are called and you don’t want to sift through every section trying to see if it matches your problem, so that’s why we’ve written a troubleshooting section so you can diagnose what the problem is, without the technical terms.
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.
Extras include information on specific models that have specific problems (such as Olivettis, Byron, Oliver, Swissa Piccola and Remington), what some of the buttons and levers are for, and where to get replacement ribbons, as well as links to our youtube videos to help with specific problems.
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 ÂŁ5!!!
So if you have a problem with your typewriter do not delay! Get the e-Book today! Click Here for the Etsy Shop!
Claire La Secretaire 