Consistently engaging in hobbies is crucial to human growth as they quite literally enrich our lives. Opting to introduce a new hobby in your life means you have something to look forward to in your free time. It’ll be something that is both stimulating and rewarding. Not to mention, something to focus on beyond the 9-5.
Like many of us, after the stress cloud of the pandemic, the lust for trying something new somewhat diminished. Haven’t we been doing the same ol’ thing for long enough? Adopting a new self-care outlet allows us to focus on something other than our daily pressures. Feeling stressed seven days a week is not the energy I am taking into this final quarter of 2022. Finding a purpose that isn’t my career has been my biggest eye-opener. So today, I have compiled a directory of outlets you may want to embark on if you understand my drift. Slumming it on the couch in hopes of recovering from a hectic week will only leave you on Monday with the same delightful dread you started that week with. Weekends need to work for you. Hence the emphasis on some cup-filling activities that you can harness for more energy and purpose in your life.
Workshops, classes, and experiences open doors to share with your people. Getting handsy with clay or picking up a paintbrush may be the calling if you need something to build confidence and self-assurance. Subsequently, keep yourself busy with something you like, or begin to appreciate. You’ll be less inclined to waste time on unproductiveness ruling your weekends or letting that feeling of stress take over your time.
Drawing Attention Class with Amanda Billing
Under Amanda’s expert guidance, you will set your hand to paper. Exploring how making marks can foster self-awareness, harness a sense of determination, and free the mind from fixed ideas. Consider this a healing class through art but with a lot of play and fulfilment.
These classes fill up fast and happen now and then, so you will need to express interest and book in advance.
Brown School of Art
You can join Brown at any skill level, and they host day and evening part-time courses. Enabling resident artists to learn, explore and expand their visual thinking – it’s the perfect entry point for anyone contemplating a connection, or re-connection, with their creativeness. The classes are enjoyable, informative, stimulating, and held in a relaxed, friendly, and mutually supportive studio environment.
Blush Flowers Workshop
Appreciating the beauty of flowers is something that we can all agree on. If you have ever wanted to know how to care for your flowers, create a bouquet or simply want to surround yourself with them, Blush holds wonderful classes where you can spend the evening making a bunch, enjoy the aromas with a glass of bubbles and have a fabulous time.
The Jewellery Collective
Jewellery speaks to our emotions. It expresses who we are. There is an exceptional bond between the maker and the receiver. All over Auckland Tiktok, people have been sharing their insightful time spent in the workshops. I had a friend take her girlfriend to their beginner class, and the ring she made looked like it was bought from a jeweller.
You can build on an incredible opportunity and unique skill within this space as a member.
Kevin Thorne Jewellery Workshop
This is a slightly pricey workshop if you want to make jewellery a regular thing. I learned about this class through a good friend and bought my boyfriend a private class as an anniversary gift. He was stoked with the lesson and had decent insight for taking his jewellery-making to the next level at home. No jewellery-making experience is needed. Kevin will guide you through the process.
The Clay Centre’s Coffee & Clay Workshop
Every Saturday morning, the Clay Collective in Ellerslie hosts relaxed entry-level pottery classes.
Perfect for heading along solo or bringing a friend along for some fun. An energising and exciting way to start your weekend and something that you may become addicted to. They even do wine and pottery on Fridays, so a real win for anyone keen to combine a hobby with a cheeky bevvy or two.
Make Your Own Perfume
Ever thought about making your own perfume? Perfume Playground hosts 2-hour introductory classes to create your own natural bottled scent. In their Classic Club and Masterclass workshops, you’ll learn about the secrets of scent design before embarking on an exploration of discovery and play – guided by your scent memories.
Through specialist blending techniques using our extensive collection of naturally derived top, middle and base notes, you’ll discover the art of scent design in a playful and explorative way. There are classes held in Auckland, Wellington and Melbourne every month.
Tufting Lab NZ
Tufting is the art of making rugs. You know the super cute colourful shapes and graphics all over Instagram at the moment? You can make one by yourself at the Tufting Lab on Symonds Street. They’ll help you learn the ropes, and then you can spend as many hours as your heart can take creating your very own masterpiece. The Niche Studio in Wellington also offers private workshops for your very own creations. All Things Effy Workshop in Christchurch also teaches and hosts entertaining and wholesome art.
