Maker. Educator. Engineer. Churchill Fellow.
About James
James Kean was born and raised in the north of Scotland. He has an engineering degree from Aberdeen and trained as a teacher at Moray House. He spent more than twenty years teaching woodwork and product design at Plockton High School on the west coast — one of Scotland’s most remote secondary schools — before moving to Edinburgh to lecture in mechanical engineering at Edinburgh College.
He’s been designing and making things his whole life. The Technocroft range is the public face of a practice that spans mountain safety equipment, bespoke furniture, photographic art, kitchenware, model boats, and now three published books.
How Technocroft started
In 2000, James received a Churchill Fellowship to study snow rescue and survival techniques in Norway. He came back with an idea for a dual-purpose piece of equipment — something that could work as both a snow shovel and a snow belay anchor, so you’d only need to carry one piece of kit instead of two. The Liveman Snowanchor™ was the result. Technocroft Ltd was registered in Scotland in 2001 to develop and sell it.
The work widened from there. James started exhibiting wood creations for the first time at the Lochalsh Art Fair in 2011. He’s now a regular at Portobello Market and Porty Art Walk. Over time the range has expanded to take in furniture, kitchenware, photographic art systems, model boats, sculptures, and novelty gifts — all made by hand, all started with a problem or a question.
His interest in teaching creativity led naturally to writing about it. He’s now published three books — on invention, 3D printing, and STEM activities — and continues to develop new educational resources alongside his lecturing work.
Outside the workshop
James lives in Portobello, Edinburgh. He has two grown-up children. He is, by his own account, obsessed by bikes — both pedal and motor. He is also a regular at the Portobello Farmers Market, where you can usually find him and his work on a Saturday morning.
36 years
Teaching design, technology, and engineering to students of all ages
Churchill Fellow, 2000
Awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study snow rescue techniques in Norway
3 books published
On invention, 3D printing, and STEM education — all practical, all based on real experience