Look what I’ve got. The first Kowal Portable Typewriter and Adding Machine.

I mentioned that I wanted to modify my computer to have some of the stylings of a portable typewriter. After a great deal of thought I decided to go with sticker applications on the keys due to the wee attachment points on the existing key caps. To create the sticker, I started by taking a photo of my keyboard as close to straight on as I could. If I do this again, I will scan it instead.

Next I grabbed a stock photo of a typewriter key. Now, since the computer keyboard has a lot of keys that a manual typewriter doesn’t, I knew that I would have to create keys from scratch. So, I erased the letter on this one and used it as the template for all the keys. For the font I chose P22’s Parish Roman, which is a gorgeous spin on the standard Roman fonts. You’ll see how lush it is in the next photos.

I laid out the keyboard directly over the photo I took to control for spacing. If I do this again, I will squish the keys closer together so that I have more space around the keyboard area for making adjustments to fit. I thought I allowed enough, but I didn’t.

I’m about halfway through the process in this photo. I used a piece of paper to make a template to cut the keyboard area of the sticker to the right size. As you can see, I wound up with silver space all the way around, but in my original, I was going to run the sticker right up to the edge of the keyboard. I think the image was enlarged slightly when they placed it on the sticker. The process of modifying the keys is pretty simple. Here– I’ll show you.

	Pop the key off the keyboard with a butter knife.
	Cut out the corresponding key with your exacto knife. I was paranoid about losing a piece so I only cut out one key at a time.
Carefully center the sticker on the key.
	This is the squiggly part. I had to bevel the edges of the stickers as I was trimming them, or the edges were noticeable and distracting under my fingers.
	Next, I colored the edges with a permanent marker. I initially did that before adding the sticker, but the edges of the sticker showed up as white. Over the two week since I did this, the ink has crept under the stickers giving a slight patina to my new keys. It doesn’t look bad in this context, but it’s not what I planned. I’m also discovering that in a couple of places, the ink is wearing off–not surprising, but faster than I expected. Next time, I think I’ll try to seal the edges as well as experiment with black enamel paint. Edited to add: I now use black nail polish. It is smooth, glossy and chip-resistant. The black marker wound up rubbing off.
	Here’s the finished key ready to be installed.

And here it is in all its glory.

Well, not quite all its glory. I still have to do the space bar, but I need to go to an art store for that. I’m debating about doing the space around the screen itself, which would be pretty, but just seems like a lot of wasted sticker, unless I can come up with something clever to do with the middle section. Hm, I guess I could do a style thing to the power supply… Nah. That would just be silly.

Edited to add: In response to comments.

• I used schtickers.com to create the sticker. These are repostionable tough stickers designed to protect the exterior of a laptop and have prooved pretty durable on the exterior, which I did about a month ago. I travel a lot and so no signs of wear, so I went for the interior. The stickers have a beefy vinyl coating so I think they’ll hold up to wear.
• I don’t believe that I’ve done anything which will impact the warranty. Although it’s a moot point, since the laptop is well past warranty date.
• And for the curious–the plan for the space bar is to use a very thin wood veneer to make an “ebony” space bar. It comes in paper thin sheets at the art store. I expect this to be the spot that shows the most wear, but that’s the way it is on actual vintage typewriters too.
• Edited to add: I finished the space bar. Pictures and process are detailed here.
• The design is based on a blending of an early Royal, a Remington and a Ox-blood red Smith-Corona.
• The background is actually a screen saver from 3planesoft. I wound up deleting it after trying the demo version, because it goes through this loading thing that was bulky. It is pretty though.

Further edited to add: The fine folks at schtickers.com have said that they would like to offer readers of my blog a 10% discount. Just enter the discount code KOWAL during the check out
process. You might also want to use their old interface, as the new one does some resizing that might frustrate you.

And yet further edited to add:

Want a Kowal Portable Typewriter and Adding Machine of your own? I’ve opened a store. http://www.kowalportable.com

On Monday we headed down to Canal Street to look for lighting fixtures. This incorporated my first subway ride as a resident, which feels like it ought to be momentous but really wasn’t. What was interesting was learning the dynamic of traveling by subway with Rob. When he was here twenty years ago, he said that one didn’t speak on the subway or do anything that would call attention to oneself because it was dangerous. I haven’t had that experience. Plus, when I travel by myself on the trains, I usually write on my Palm Pilot. So it was this weird thing of not wanting to write, because that felt rude, but also not having a conversational partner. Much later in the day we discussed it and figured out what was happening. In the future, I will feel free to write if he’s not in a chatty mood.

The 1 goes straight from our place to Canal. After wandering around for a bit and being annoyed by all the cheap handbag and jewelry shops, we turned onto Bowery which has block after block of lighting shops. Several were filled with nothing except crystal chandeliers. I wish I’d had my camera with me. Alas.

We needed to come up with six lights. It took a while, but we finally found four that we liked in a place that had a 70% off sale. The other two are cheap Chinese imports. The all fit into the category of “we don’t hate it” and beat the bare bulbs that are hanging out of the ceiling.

The drop on three of the lights is too long by about eight inches, but not so low that one is in danger of hitting one’s head. At the moment we are content to live with them at this length until I can get a thread cutter and trim them down.

After shopping we met Fabulous Girl, Jodi and Sam for drinks at Flute and then headed to Thalia for dinner.

Yesterday, was all about trying to install the lights. Suffice to say that nothing in the building is built with any degree of consistency and that it took much, much longer than it should have. However, we now have fixtures in the hall, bedroom, bath and office. The kitchen will be a challenge and the dining room/living room lights are coming from Rejuvenation in Portland.

And now, here are your pictures from yesterday.

Lighting