Given the widespread impact on small businesses during the ongoing lockdowns, we’re spending the lead-up to the festive season sharing inspiration for local gift ideas.
This week, we’re focusing once more on playful experiences to be had around the coast, an opportunity to offer your loved ones an uplifting break from what has been a challenging year.
The Fifth Lane – handmade metals and workshops
This Fifth Lane is the brainchild of silversmith Thomas Lane who was trained by a master craftsman – a friend of his mother’s – throughout his childhood.
What started out as a handcrafted jewellery line, brimming with unique pieces has now expanded into a range of bespoke ring-making workshops.
The sessions provide an intimate, creative experience to share with friends or to enjoy privately. Thom leads participants on an exciting journey to grasp the basics of silversmithing as they create their own piece of handmade jewellery.
The process includes heating the sterling silver, bending it manually into shape and soldering it. Then a solid hour filing and sanding the piece to get the desired finish.
To peruse his full range of jewellery or to learn more about the workshops, head to thefifthlane.com.
Meditation & Yoga with Arjanna Van Kan
Arjanna Van Kan is a yoga and meditation teacher and the co-founder of two female owned initiatives here on the coast: the Enchanted Life Org and Surf Salutations.
Following her travels around the world to learn from the most authentic teachers and her previous career in medical science, she brings a diverse array of wisdom and experience into her present work.
Through mindful movement, meditation, breathwork and play in nature, Arjanna specialises in facilitating meaningful connections for people with themselves, each other and nature.
She teaches in-person and online classes and healing sessions at her MacMasters Beach studio, monthly pop-up Women’s Circles and yoga and surf/yoga retreats.
For more information on her final Women’s Circle + Ayurvedic Dinner for the year, head to theenchantedlife.org/shop or to enquire about an upcoming retreat in Seal Rocks or Byron Bay, head to: surfsalutations.com.au/retreats
Follow Arjanna on Instagram: @arjannavankan
We have so many wonderful small businesses here on the coast offering something truly unique, so consider supporting them and shopping local this holiday season. Stay tuned for more local gift ideas and recipes over the coming weeks.
Centered Ceramics
Centered Ceramics is a Pottery School, Café and Retail Store in Umina Beach. The airy and contemporary studio is an exciting new creative hot spot on the Central Coast. They offer term classes, half day workshops in both wheel throwing and hand building and their ‘Friday Night Wine and Clay’ sessions are in high demand, providing a unique night out after months in lockdown.
Centered Ceramics is an inclusive space for all, catering for children and beginners through to more advanced level courses. Fostering a supportive, positive and joyful creative experience for students is at the core of their business.
One of their rooms features six student pottery wheels; the handbuilding room can hold classes of twelve and their new, all-weather courtyard can host private parties of up to twenty-four.
The retail store is filled with beautiful locally made ceramics, local tea and coffee brands and all your pottery needs. Their latest lockdown project is a range of ‘take home kits’, available for making creations at home or as a mailable gift idea for family and friends.
With so many unique gift possibilities on offer, it’s worth dropping by the studio Monday to Saturday 8am-1pm to grab a gift voucher for a class or a handcrafted pottery piece.
Georgia is a clinically trained nutritionist, wholefoods chef, columnist and mum. She’s been featured in Body & Soul and had TV appearances on ABC Breakfast and Studio 10 for her unique approach to food and health. She’s known for reinventing traditional foods for the modern kitchen and was instrumental in a radical new approach to sports nutrition with a program for the NRL Parramatta Eels, kickstarting their ascent on the ladder in recent years. Find out more at stirringchange.com.