Creative Composting (a zine)
How to reframe failure and turn it into fertile soil for new ideas to grow
Hi I’m Keila. Perpetual weird art kid. I write zines and visual essays to help you build a sustainable creative practice. To work seasonally, each quarter of the year follows a theme. Creative Composting is part one The Art of Wintering series.
Each month, you can read zine and a biweekly article deep diving into the theme. After the quarter is up, the zines are a trilogy. However, they also can be read as stand alone works.
Follow along for more creative inspiration.
Happy new year! Thanks so much for being here.
Some housekeeping stuff. We are changing things up a bit in 2026.
I write about topics I want to learn about. Recently, we were doing monthly themes but I found myself not being able to really sink my teeth in. A month just simply wasn’t enough to truly learn the theme. Some pages of the monthly zines could be whole zines within themselves. I was writing these Art of wintering zine last month, and felt each subtopic could be expanded on.
In 2026 I want to work seasonally, so we are going to focus on quarterly themes. Each month still gets a zine, but they are going to work as a trilogy. The works can be read as stand alone pieces though. We are going to keep the Art of wintering theme, and just do a composting, dormancy, and emergence zine.
Also, I’ve been experimenting with a different scrollable format for the visual essays. To avoid blowing y’alls inbox up, I’ll post those biweekly. The other two weeks will be articles for my personal zines as I do them or visual diaries.
How are you feeling this wintering season? Give yourself time and think about those remnants to turn into rich dark soil for new ideas to grow.
Signing off,
K
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📬 Join the creative zine club in January and get this zine. The makers zine helps you build a sustainable, fun creative practice. Paid subscribers receive a physical mini zine each month. The zine goes along with the monthly theme and is a companion to the articles.
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"Nothing you made was a mistake." That really hits with me because I'm constantly fretting about my previous artworks not fitting together cohesively and also pressuring myself to one-up myself on every new piece. There's literally no room for "failure" in that mindset. Probably best to leave that behind and embrace the soil I've created for myself 💖
Wow I love this so much, I really like the analogy with composting. And it’s such a timely reminder that sometimes you can’t force something into fruition. “Let it become soil” is my new mantra. Well done!