Art and Crafts for boys and girls

We ventured down to Connswater Shopping Centre in East Belfast to visit this new Art Studio. This is an extension of The Art Studio in Holywood.

The Connswater outlet offers you drop in activities which range from t-shirts decorating to jewelry making.

We turned up en mass (4 children aged between 3 - 6) and the girls headed straight for the tables of shiny colourful beads. The boys opted for t-shirt decorating. The girls for “individually tailored” necklaces.

The girl on duty gave us the options for the necklaces but the little £8.00 all in mixtures were not an option as the lure to choose their own beads was way too much of a draw. (Be careful, watch out because some of these beads are 75 pence each) The girls really enjoyed choosing the beads and could be left to select their own. I did try to keep them to the lower price range but this was not easy to do. They were instructed in making the necklace and were allowed to use the pliers (under supervision). They enjoyed the task but liked putting the left over beads back in the tubs as well.

The boys were given t-shirts, crayons and pens. The t-shirts were placed on cardboard to make writing on them easier. I think you would have benefited from some kind of clips/pegs to keep the shirt in place as it was quite hard for them to keep it all together. The only size shirt available was a 5/6 so the 3 year old was a bit swamped. I guess it will fit him eventually.

I would like to have seen one member of staff per activity to be honest with you as the boys were a little left out and required a lot of guidance from parent/guardian. There is a £3.00 sitting fee for each child to sit in and take part in one of these activities. The t-shirts were £5.50 each and the girls beads added up to around £6.00. A total of £29.00 for an hour and half of activity. That’s a little steep!

There are a number of options offered by Jolie Dennison’s Art Studio in both locations. There are Art Classes, Art Adventures, drop in activities and Art Parties.

WOW Overview

Kids Say
3 year old: not much said but he did not take his t-shirt off!
4 year old: The beads were the best bit of the shop. I liked to choose the best beads. This necklace is for my mummy
5 year old: This is the best t-shirt because it has monsters on it
6 year old: The beads were beautiful. I really liked my necklace. I enjoyed sorting the beads out at the end

Stress Level 3 (This was stressful to the point of trying to put back the expensive beads without the girls seeing! The boys had a few tussles over whose turn it was to use the scissors

Fun Level 2.5 (I Think this would have been enjoyed by children slightly older than ours. I think children a little more advance would have got a lot more out of this type of activity)

Cost Level 4 (I have put this at quite a high cost level simply because I feel the children we took were a little young to get the real benefits out of this activity)

[UPDATE: Since this article was penned, the Studio has closed down or moved]