On Safari in Hastings

In the window of the quirkiest solicitor’s offices in Hastings

This place has some nice little treasures…

The only Valentine I’ve seen in the wild

This one caught my eye through the window but a little too many squids for my pocket

So cute

And here’s another

Seemed like everywhere I looked there was another typewriter

The owner let me into the shop just as he was closing up, so there was no time to see everything in detail. Slightly regretting that half pint a few doors up the road beforehand! Oops. I will return another day for a closer look.

Replacing a paper finger on Underwood 5

A little while ago an eagle-eyed fellow typospherian Bill M very generously offered me a replacement paper finger for my 1909 Underwood 5. I was so excited to receive the parcel and get the screw drivers out this weekend. The procedure for replacing the finger is quite straight forward when you know how and have prior warning about the teeny spring and rod in the finger which have to be held carefully in place. I was grateful for the instructions Bill sent along with the part, otherwise I might have spent a while messing about with fiddly bits!

The screw to release the rod for the paper fingers is located behind the nickelled plate on the right side of the carriage. I had to loosen the rusted in place screw first with some penetrating stuff (ok, ok! it was WD 40, but as you can see I protected the rest of the typewriter with rags)

The rod lifted out without a hitch. Bill kindly sent the replacement finger with a bolt holding the spring and rod in place

Sliding the part into place on the rod. (Yes, my fingers are stained with black printing ink 🙂 more on that another time but I can tell you I’m kind of wishing I had a printing press now!)

Lovely

The rod slides back onto the machine. You can see part of the serial number there which is hidden beneath the nickelled plate.

It’s the little things that make all the difference. The typosphere is a wonderful thing! I’m always grateful to be a part of it.

Printing without a press

This is the first test this evening of a bookplate design. A lino cut of my Underwood 5, and text printed by hand using some type I bought off eBay a few years ago. I made the text block by clamping the letters and spaces together with duck tape. I’m using oil based block printing ink, and rubbing the back of the paper with a bone letter opener. The text block is simply stamped on by hand. I do love making things completely by hand. Don’t let the lack of a printing press stop you from making prints at home.

Distraction

Yes! It’s a photo of a machine I’m happy to be addicted to. Also, I finally got around to taking some nothing else in the background shots of my Underwood Five.

What a massive hunk of machine with only one purpose. “I’m here to serve your every writing need. I promise not to distract you, or judge you. I promise I never even thought about trying to spy on your friends or track your every step around town. I won’t measure your waking hours or interrupt you when you are eating with friends and family or reading a book. I’m yours, I’m just waiting for you. Whenever you’re ready.”

Imagine what the makers of this machine would make of that imagined typewriter dialogue. They would be shocked, horrified. Amused? Bewildered? What kind of world has this machine travelled to? One in which we do still have a choice. It’s worth clinging onto choices.

It’s the little things

A new A7 notebook in dark green goatskin offcut. Work in progress on the finishing.

The design is based on pine forests. I wanted to create something to induce a feeling of calm. The spine of the book represents the trunk of a pine tree, with pine needles scattered at the base catching dappled light. The slivers of pared leather are fixed in place with a mix of water-based pva and starch glue

Writing room decor choices. A lesson in not backing down.

On a happier note, I found this wonderful collection of Scottish poetry for 50p in a charity shop. Always look inside the book!

The originals are facing the translations

My brain doing somersaults over how you might even begin to translate Scots to German. I’m full of admiration and sad that my German is criminally basic.

P.s. The grey walls are now officially a temporary midway state to the perfect writing room colour scheme.

All lit up

My copy of Backspaces arrived this morning and I’m so excited. I can’t wait to read all the contributions – a whole book of stories about time-travel written entirely on typewriters? Still pinching myself ( Many many many thanks to everyone who made this project happen). Here it is with the Underwood I used to type my story on. Ok, got to go and put the kettle on and read now!

The revolution (in publishing) will be typewritten.

Night typing

The wires look a little messy but I like the effect of the lights on the key rings. There’s no impediment to typing and no typewriters were harmed in the making.

It’s the little springs

An Underwood Universal I had the pleasure of dusting and investigating over the weekend

One dodgy and loose key

Culprit: missing spring

No matter how much I fiddled and twiddled I could not get the spring back into place. As it wasn’t my machine, and I had very limited time, I secured the spring to the return lever with a bit of fuse wire for future repair. I revitalised the ribbon with WD40 and typed out the details of two repair people I could confidently recommend. Then I made a quick type sample for the database.

The ribbon was super dry so I was surprised that it managed to come back to life even a little bit!

Lovely green shift lock key

Summer storm approaching