From the Compost Heap header. A pencil style illustration of a compost heap with flowers and plants growing around it. A bee buzzes by and a white rabbit hops by.

  • Time, Time, Time ⌛

    It feels like years since I’ve written.*

    Since then…

    the Wheel of Time Season 3 trailer dropped.

    Season 3 is airing in March – just in time for my birthday.

    If you love fantasy books like Lord of the Rings… I’d love for you to give this a watch next month and nerd out with me. Even if you haven’t read the books – the visual design and performances for this show are so stunning I’d really recommend watching first and then diving into the books.

    This season is based on my favorite book in the series!

    The Shadow Rising is when Wheel of Time steps away from Tolkien and starts being it’s own thing.

    Half the characters travel to the desert and meet a complex warrior culture. The others go hunting down some very dangerous women. The layers build from there! I can’t even mention my two favorite parts because they are too spoilerific, but check this image out:

    A misty location with two figures suspended within three silver rings

    Don’t you want to know what’s happening there?

    I’m dying to see this scene. It happens “off page” in the books. 👀

    [This Clip Contains Spoilers]

    If you’re a book reader (or just don’t care about spoilers) here is the first scene of Season 3. We are starting out with a bang!

    What else happened this month?

    Well… I completely redesigned my website. 😂

    It’s still “under construction” so pardon my dust (and broken links) as you’re poking around. I hope to “unveil” the new site properly next month.

    I wrote a few posts including this one about website design as worldmaking. My old website was a minimalist website (which lives on as a virtual art gallery.) But I’m letting the rest of my site be weirder and more me.

    I hope it will sprawl and grow into a proper labyrinth.

    I’ve been having a lot of fun with visuals and texture. But my favorite detail so far is this “page not found” design, which feels very me.

    Screencap of Sarahshotts.com 404 page. "You've fallen down a rabbit hole" and Tenniel illustration of White Knight from Alice in Wonderland stuck upside down with his legs poking out of the ground. "What you're looking for is no longer at this location."

    If you want to read the boring reasons about why I’m switching web & newsletter platforms I’ve written about my online ecosystem here.

    I’m leveling up my zines!

    This month I used a printing press to make the February zine.

    You can see the process (including a timelapse video) here. You can also see a mini Wheel of Time zine I made. I’m going to print them up and leave them around town as guerrilla fan marketing. (Let me know if you’d like to do the same and I’ll share the file.)

    READ ONLINE

    Now that I have a printing press I’ve added a $10 tier where you can subscribe for quarterly prints as well as zines.

    I’ve also realized that the time I’m spending on these zines has been growing each month. (Especially in contrast to the simple letters I started with.) So I’m phasing out pledges below $5. This means I have more freedom to play with color and multiple page zines if I’m so inspired.

    I’m also stepping away from Patreon and Substack to host subscriptions on my own website.†

    Everything in one spot. (Finally!)

    Works in Progress

    Here’s a peek at what else I’ve been working on this month.

    Soft sculpture of a brain made from baby clothes. One hemisphere is sewn from baby socks, onesies and washclothes. Scraps sit on a wooden table to the side.
    SOFT SCULPTURE BRAIN

    Nearly done with my soft sculpture brain sewn from baby clothes. I have two hemispheres complete and need to spend some time refining them and doing finishing work. (They’re a little unbalanced at the moment.)

    Nested rainbow hearts drawn with crayons. Rainbow sorted colored pencils and art supplies to the left.
    home education rhythm

    The transition from holiday chaos back to a normal routine is hard for neurodivergents. Here is how we’re finding our feet again and freedom within structure.

    Now that I’m integrating my various blogs into one location my archive is much larger than I realized.

    Here are a few highlights.

    This time in 2015

    Embracing my Inner Samwise

    This time in 2021

    Studio Tour

    This time in 2024

    From the kitchen table to NYC 🗽

    February seems to be a big month for me!

    It’s all that energy from surviving the holidays and getting back into a rhythm.

    (You can browse the February archive here.)

    I’m planning to move the archives month by month. Motivated in part by sharing this time hop with you. Which means (if all goes to plan) I’ll be done by next February. ‡

    The Compost Heap is handmade without the use of AI. 🐝

    Support doing things the old fashioned way by joining my Patrons ($5) and I’ll send paper copies of my zines with the coolest postage stamps I can find.

    Not About TETRIS zine on a wooden table. The title is letterpress printed and three printed blocks in purple pink and yellow are arranged as if to pile up.

    Not into snail mail?

    Here are other ways you can support.

    • Share with a friend. (It’s free!)
    • Art swap! Let me know if you’d like to swap your art for a zine.
    • Buy a book or zine from my (new!) shop.
    • Link to me in your newsletter.
    • Send me a recommendation for something (book, blog post, movie, recipe, you name it!)
    Drawing of a tin can telephone and the words Let's chat

    I’d love to hear from you.

    Hit reply to email me directly.

    Let’s talk web design, printmaking, or Wheel of Time. 🥰

    Thanks for being here.

    I appreciate you.

    Sarah signed with a swoopy S

    Compost Heap Illustrations by

    Gracie Klumpp of Leave the Fingerprints. 🐞

    Footnotes

    * To share the Neuro Nest Retreat. The workshops were all recorded so you can still join in here. I’d love to have a weaving from you. (Yes, you!)

    † Substack supporters will continue to be charged through Stripe. Patreon has been shut down so anyone supporting there will need to resubscribe. (You should already have emails from those platforms, but if you have any questions at all just ask.)

    ‡ Something I’ve learned by moving blogging platforms a couple of times is that something always goes funky. Formatting is strange. Photos are hotlinked. Multimedia elements (audio, video, embeds) are missing or broken. And hardly anything has alt text. I’m using this chance to dust all the cobwebs before making posts public.

    Read more: Time, Time, Time ⌛

  • Not About TETRIS

    Zine made imperfectly on my typewriter reads: Have you ever played TETRIS for so long that you see falling blocks in your daydreams? This experience is so common it has a name: THE TETRIS EFFECT It's a lot like having an ear worm. A song that pops into your head repeatedly. But more fun. Back in my early 20's (when lots of kids go out partying) I hung out with theatre nerds clustered around a desktop computer taking turns playing TETRIS. I think we were all seeing TETRIS blocks in our sleep. I was one of the best. My hand eye coordination is not that great, but I do have excellent pattern recognition (thanks autism) so I am a deft hand at TETRIS on PC. Or I was. Last year, I started playing TETRIS with my kid. Not real TETRIS. A mobile version where you place tetrominoes" into a square grid. No falling bricks No time limit. You play at your own pace. It's basically TETRIS style tangrams. You might have expected I'd be a bit rusty, but my brain immediately accessed endless hours of TETRIS experience & favorite strategies. BUT when you're taking turns with a 4 year old games become somewhat chaotic; you find yourself in situations you'd never have put yourself in. it wasn't long before I realized my strategies weren't working. *Yes, there is a real name for TETRIS pieces.
    Green, yellow, purple and blue TETRIS pieces fall beside the following text (as if to pile up to a game over.) But it wasn't because of my Player Two... I was applying old rules to a new game. Classic TETRIS requires that you play from the top down. If you make a mess it takes up valuable space and is hard work to correct. Mess up enough and it's GAME OVER. This new game allows you to place pieces anywhere. And rows clear both horizontally & vertically. I was playing in one plane and suddenly there were two. IT may sound simple, but it was working against every instinct I had. My kid, not having the baggage of traditional TETRIS, picked up on this nuance much more quick ly... putting blocks thatt were "wrong" and clearing rows. Sometimes multiple at once. I was determined to wrap my head around the new dimensions. So I started playing by myself in the evening, My score grew higher & higher as I broke through mental blocks to see new possibilities.
    This new TETRIS game isn't about perfection. It is about making the best moves you can with the blocks you have. Mess and all. This zine isn't about TETRIS. February, 2025 A KINDLE CURIOSITY ZINE

    —

    Zine Shop

    Past zine issues are available for purchase in my zine shop.

    Subscribe for Monthly Zines via Snail Mail! 🐌 📬

    Virtual Zines via Email

    Open airmail envelope with blue and green stripes
    Read more: Not About TETRIS

  • This month I’ve leveled up my zine making to including the Provisional Printing Press.

    I’m very excited to bring printmaking into the process!

    Prints of TETRIS shapes made with flat LEGO pieces cover the table
    Prints of TETRIS shapes made with flat LEGO pieces and letterpress cover the table

    I spent the whole afternoon making test prints to see what worked best and also played with some letterpress type to print the zine title.

    Cannot wait to send these out to everyone!

    Photo of my desk with TETRIS and Wheel of Time Zines, scraps, ink and blue Aes Sedai mug

    Read the Not About TETRIS zine.

    Buy a copy in the Zine Shop

    Subscribe for Monthly Zines via Snail Mail! 🐌 📬

    Read more: untitled post 156077775
  • Read more: untitled post 156078931