Winter Solstice
We had a wonderful time hosting a Winter Solstice event at Art Mania last month! It was a casual affair, with a pot luck/bring a meal theme. Thanks to some generous cooks, the smells of lamb stew, chicken curry, lasagne and pasta bake wafted through the studio and enticed us to the table. We had […]
Global Day of Parents
How we raise our children may be cause for many disagreements, but we can all agree that no matter our parenting philosophy, it is hard! I am raising two teenage boys by myself, and our oldest is going through Year 12- a stressful time for all of us, compounded by our family coming down with […]
CREATIVE KIDS AND COVID
It’s hard on us all being put into lockdown. Having restrictions placed on our movements, our day to day life. As adults, we can understand it, we may not like it, but we do understand the need for it. But how about your children? Especially the younger ones. Suddenly they can’t have that sleep-over they […]
RECIPE FOR PLAY DOUGH
If you are running out of things to do with your kids, why not try out this recipe for play dough? It’s a cheap and easy way to make hours of fun. Ingredients: 2 cups of flour ½ cup of salt 2 tablespoons of cream of tartar 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil 1 and ½ […]
LIFE IN LOCKDOWN
As we enter the eighth month of 2021, Newcastle and the Hunter region are now in lockdown. Sydney, the Central Coast and other areas of NSW have been in lockdown for a month or so now. The threat of COVID is real again, especially for those of us who may have become complacent. Having positive […]
HOW ART IS MAKING ME BRAVE
I am not a particularly practical person. If something breaks or stops working around my house, I contact the real estate so they can send someone to fix it for me. If my computer plays up, I call one of the IT techs at Guide Dogs so they can talk me through the process of […]
THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF JOURNALING
Earlier this year, Art Mania ran some workshops on journaling. They were: journaling for creativity, journaling for organisation and journaling for welbeing. They were held at the Hunter Wetlands Centre and were a huge amount of fun. They also left us all with some incredibly useful skills and tools. These workshops were also so popular, […]
A TASTE OF THE TERM TO COME
One of the best things about a new term at Art Mania is getting to try something new. Not just for you, our students, but for the staff too. I’m so excited, I just couldn’t wait. I had to share this. Starting on Tuesday, 13 July, we will be running Creative Tuesdays for all who […]
STAFF SPOTLIGHT: ANDREW
Andrew is one of our glass fusing and lead light teachers. He is also responsible for kiln maintenance firing schedule development. If anything goes wrong with the kilns, both glass and clay, it is Andrew who is comes in to save the day and keep everything running and stopping general panic amongst students wanting to […]
SKILLS I’VE LEARNED AT ART MANIA STUDIO
In the last few weeks, I’ve been struggling with my inner critic,. Every time I’ve sat down here at my laptop and tried to put a post together, my inner critic has woken and started nagging at me, making me question everything I’ve tried to write. So this post is going to be a little […]
