Save the Remingtons...

Today was was a rather blissful day away from the library, the highlights of which were sleeping as late as I desired then fiddling with jewelry most of the afternoon (including a version of the ubiquitous asymetrical flower necklace everywhere on etsy these days, but I couldn't resist, trendy or not, some of them are really pretty.)I also re-stocked the lemon verbena soap and made some new typewriter key rings. In random internet oddness, yesterday I was accused, out of nowhere, by another vintage seller via e-mail of destroying typewriters to make my jewelry, which he/she implied, like all typewriter jewelry, were trendy peices of crap. While I agree it's dumb to rip apart a working typewriter, there are a million that are basically very large paperweights, just waiting to be dissassembled. I get my keys on ebay usually in some ferocious bidding wars. I replied to his/her rather snippy message very nicely that I have never knowingly violated a typewriter, that I actually have a small collection of 50's models myself that I'm very protective of, and that he/she should remove the Tori Amos box set from his/her shop since it is neither handmade nor vintage. Thank you.

I am seriously coveting that pink one, if I weren't saving up for this for the studio, that would be mine.
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Comments

md said…
the pink one is like poet-candy. yum!
3:03 PM
Olivander said…
Hi. I saw a link to this on another blog. Y'know, I used to be of the philosophy that, ok, if the typewriter is truly inoperative, then lopping off the keys for jewelry is justifiable. But these days I've come to feel that typewriter key jewelry is wrong no matter whether the typewriter was operative or not.

Let me explain: in my 20 years of collecting and repairing typewriters, I've learned that most typewriters that are passed off as "nonfunctional" are either simply dirty or need a very minor repair to return to full functionality.

Even if a typewriter is beyond repair, chopping its keys only feeds the market and encourages less scrupulous keychoppers to destroy undamaged machines to meet the demand. It's the moral equivalent of selling elephant ivory jewelry but rationalizing it with, "It's ok, because the elephant was already dead when I found it."
8:56 PM
kristy bowen said…
Very true..I imagine alot of folks jump the gun. When I was a kid, somehow we wound up with an old 30's model from a garage sale I used to "write" on (this was the early-eighties, so we didn't have any computers or word processors in the house) It was huge and eventually my mother threw it out, not knowing the value or that possibly it might have been salvageable (this was before ebay even). I guess, even if they are not really broken, I'd rather see part of them harvested to make something interesting and lovely than just being mere landfill fodder.
11:34 PM
Kay Weeks said…
Kristy,

Love the typewriters. I have a manuscript for younger audiences that you would like, called DRAGONCLOUD. Would you consider it?


KD Weeks
11:45 AM
kristy bowen said…
Kay, we're open to submissions for the next week or so (until Sept 1st) We haven't in the past published anything for younger audiences, but it's something I am definitely open to. You can find our guidelines at dancinggirlpress.com..
8:53 PM
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