A (typewriter) love story

This is all I know about them:

He loves typewriters, bicycles, works by Keats and the colour blue.
She loves yellow.
She loves him.

She gave him a vintage typewriter last year, for Valentine's.
He types her poems and stuff, including a little tip-off about an impending proposal.
He loves her.

♥ nawww moment ♥ 

A few days ago on Valentine's Day, she asked if I could make her an artwork from my Typewriter Love series. It had to incorporate a bicycle, anything by Keats and the colours blue and yellow. Wow, I was absolutely honoured :)

I scoured the net for hours in search of poems by John Keats. He writes beautifully and I found his works captivating, but often peppered with sadness and melancholy. Then I came across one of his sonnets:

On The Grasshopper And Cricket 

The poetry of earth is never dead:
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;
That is the Grasshopper's -- he takes the lead
In summer luxury, -- he has never done
With his delights; for when tired out with fun
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.

The poetry of earth is ceasing never:
On a lone winter evening, when the frost
Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills
The Cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever,
And seems to one in drowsiness half lost, 

The Grasshopper's among some grassy hills.

John Keats

December 30th 1816

I love its liveliness and that it involves twos...

grasshopper + cricket

summer + winter

warm + cool

vibrance + silence

All of which are equally beautiful, neither more superior than the other. There is something eternal about it; it's filled with feelings of hope and faith, as if to say - love persists, come rain or shine. I think that this would make a beautiful sonnet for a wedding :)

She made some wonderful suggestions, including making the bicycle a tandem one, and I'm so happy that she loves the finished product.

They're getting married in May and this is her wedding gift to him.
Ain't love grand...
Happy Valentine's!

♥

Typewriter Series

About six months ago, I was trawling Ebay for an Eames ornament and that was when I was bitten by the typewriter bug. 

I saw a listing for an old typewriter and every nostalgic bone in my body was screaming for me to get one. I wondered whether I could use a typewriter to make artwork, combining three of my many loves: 
vintage, words and paint. 

Apparently Olympia typewriters would be up to the task as they're built to last, have particularly smooth mechanics and can handle thicker paper. So I was on the hunt. I came across some beautiful collectibles during my search, favourites being:

• white-grey Olivetti Valentine
• shiny black Groma Kolibri
• baby blue two-tone Royal Safari
• any typewriter in turquoise

By December, I had finally found my fine piece of German engineering, an Olympia SF. It arrived on Christmas Eve :)

I'm in love with everything about it, from its textured beige paint, dark grey keys and handsome decal, to its delicate typebars, touches of chrome and cute little levers. Seeing its serial number for the first time felt like I had just discovered the new sliced bread. I like that it's low profile and unassuming...hence the name SF - it stands for "Super Flat". 

Ok I lie. It stands for Schreibmaschine Flach which translates to "Flat Typewriter" ;)

When I'm typing, my words mesh with the click-clacks and occasional 'ping' and the romanticism of writing returns. I wonder what stories it could tell about the fingertips that once graced its keys. There are chips in the paint and the case is cracked, making it all the more alluring. It's QWERTY-er than my Mac. Its font amuses me. This antiquated machine makes me feel like an old school retro geek and I can't. stop. gushing!

The Olympia SF stepped up to the plate and produced my Typewriter series on Etsy. I have more ideas for it and I'm sure it's looking forward to the challenge.

And in case you're wondering, yes, typewriter ribbons are still 
being made :)

♥

Unwritten

Hello and welcome to my first post :)

The Who:

My name is Chinwei, it's pronounced chin-weigh and it means 'serene rose'. I grew up in Malaysia and now live in Perth, Western Australia. I'm creative, intuitive and random. I love nature, vintage and mushrooms. Here I am at the old boat house in Crawley, camera in hand, being in the moment, blissfully happy :)

The Why:

I interrupted my Accounting career to spend time reading, painting, photographing, net-surfing and soul-searching. That was fulfilling but I felt that I didn't have much to show for it except for a dangerously low bank balance. So I decided that a blog would be a great avenue to share my adventures and tell my stories as I continue on the quest of self-discovery. It'd be a collection of treasures and smile-inducing, thought-provoking, feel-good moments.

Here's one thing that represents my hiatus from my desk job. I spent days contently photographing a bunch of flowers and came up with one of my favourite macro shots from 2010. There's something about this photo that is so honest, reassuring, encouraging and liberating.

The What:

I'm looking forward to writing about life, food, fashion, decor and much more. I'm also about to launch my dabblelicious store on Etsy and will be writing about the inspirations behind my art. Here's a sneak peek at one of the tools of my trade, a gorgeous old Olympia typewriter.

The How:

I'm not sure how my life is going to pan out. I'm terrified, but I'm also excited. A song goes:

drench yourself in words unspoken

live your life with arms wide open

today is where your book begins

the rest is still unwritten

Yeah. I'm excited about the unwritten.

♥