Australian Blazer Bears

Posted on May 18, 2013 By Blazer Bear

Another busy week at Blazer Bear! Both of us have our eldest children doing their AS exams at the moment, and it got us thinking about this time next year – when our youngest children will be doing their GCSEs and the oldest taking their A levels.

Having grown up in Australia, as hard as I try to understand, the whole system is quite alien to me. In fact although I have happily been in the UK for longer than my years of growing up in Australia, there are still some things that will always make me feel foreign. Whilst making Bears, we often laugh about the way I pronounce certain words and come out with phrases such as ‘half your luck’ (I thought this was very well known) and my pronunciation of ‘Yoghurt’ as ‘Yowget’ is a constant source of amusement. Having a Swedish mother Kathy is very understanding of my weird ways, and patiently explains things that I don’t ‘get’.

It has been quite interesting how many Australian Blazer Bears we have made. Just this week we made a handsome rugby Blazer Bear from a St Michaels School’s (in Otford, Kent) distinctive rugby shirt. This was a special thank you gift for an Australian student who spent a year at the school – a memorable keepsake of his year at the school.

Also this week we have made a Bear for a friend of our eldest children’s sister, who went to school in Australia. Having spent some time in Australia as a family, he feels this Blazer Bear will be a great keepsake and keep the treasured memories of their time in Australia alive. We are delighted that a 17 year old boy thinks Blazer Bears are worthy of a special gift!

We recently made a Blazer Bear for a customer who wanted a unique gift for her daughter to give to her special friend who was leaving ‘Roselle School’ in Sydney. Sadly we don’t have a photo of him as complete with an Aussie sun-hat, he was one of our favourites.

Other Australian orders have been a Blazer Bear from a 1970s uniform from Korowa school in Melbourne, a Bear made from a jacket worn to a daughters’ wedding, and a very striking striped Blazer Bear made from a 1980s Prefects Blazer from Scotch College in Perth.

We love making all our Blazer Bears, but there is something very exciting about making a Blazer Bear and then sending him / her on an adventure across the seas – we are yet to make an American Blazer Bear; gosh that would be fun!