LUISE HEINZL’S TYPEWRITER EPHEMERA
I have just downloaded this kit from Luise’s Etsy and love the vintage grunge of it all. I successfully printed out all the sheets on my new printer and am very pleased with the result.
The pages consist of printables of page tabs, pockets, belly bands, journaling cards etc. The designs are of old typewriters, including a child’s version. I had completely forgotten about these but seeing the images, I was immediately taken back to my childhood and remembered that my friend had one. You turned the big dial on the top to get the letter you wanted, and then pressed the spacebar to type the letter. Extremely laborious and slow compared with touch typing on a standard keyboard, but such fun for kids!
I love the idea of using vintage typewriters in art work. I earned my living on typewriters – not as old as these, but you don’t see them in offices these days! In my first job I had an Imperial 66 – a green monster with a long carriage which you had to return with a lever when the bell rang to tell you that you were at the end of the line, and the whole thing weighed a ton. I ended up with a repetitive strain injury in my hand from using that thing! At college I learned on an Imperial 70 which was the blue one, an upgrade on the 66 but not all that different – just a slightly more stylish look. My dad had a really ancient black typewriter with two separate sets of keys – the capitals at the top and the small letters beneath, hence “upper case” and “lower case” letters. When you pressed the shift key the whole mechanism raised up so the correct keys would engage – again, hence “shift.” It took quite a bit of hand strength to do that. People these days don’t know they’re born, with light touch electronic keyboards… I’ve always had a sentimental attachment to typewriters. When they were first invented, they were known as “typewriting machines,” and the operator was the “type writer.” Many employers ended up falling in love with their typewriters!
There are also butterfly images in the kit, looking as if they were made from old typewriter parts – really steampunk!
I have some scrapbooking paper with old typewriters (“Tattered Time” by Stamperia – now retired but I found an unopened pack on Ebay recently and bought it). These ephemera will make good companions to that paper. I also have other digital downloads with images of vintage typewriters and sets of typewriter keys, and some stamps.
Cutting out the elements
I’ve cut them all out now. The above pieces were just awaiting the fussy cutting stage.
Once cut and the edges inked, they look like this.
I had a job trying to get the colour right on this one – it was late in the day and it’s come out greenish, even after extensive colour editing!) I used dies from a nesting circles set to cut the smaller pieces (I am hopeless at cutting circles with scissors!). I didn’t have the exact size so they came out with a white border. A light application of Distress Ink around the edges solved the problem and they look great.
Here are some of the grungey metallic butterflies.
Resin
I covered some of the circles with UV resin. As always I had problems with the larger ones warping. I tried the solutions suggested online to prevent this (shorter periods of UV exposure, allowing for cooling in between, etc.) but it didn’t make any difference. If I turn these into dangles I shall paint the backs.
A little while ago I took apart a necklace that had the small metal rings seen in the above photo. The depression in the middle was exactly the same size as the mini-typewriter keys I cut. These are attached to the rings with resin. There is a tiny hole between the bumps on the silver rings so I am hoping to be able to insert a jump ring or bulb pin for album attachment, or alternatively they could be glued down onto a page.
Waste from the die cutting
I have already started to use these on another project!
