About
As an independent small business, About the Trees has two main focuses: delivery of craft courses to adults and children, and CPD/training for educators keen to develop skills in using tools with youngsters as well as building confidence in taking learners outdoors.
About the Trees is the work of Jonnie Crawford; a creative woodworker, high-school teacher and dad of three school-age kids. Jonnie grew up in rural Fife, training at college as a furniture maker then going on to study furniture design, before spending sixteen years both self-employed and employed in the furniture industry. In 2019 he re-trained as a high school teacher, delivering woodwork and design as well as running forest school sessions with 11-18 year olds in Fife.
Jonnie spent his childhood playing amongst - and learning in and about - local woodland; he credits his passion for timber, trees and woodland, sparked at an early age, to the retired professor of Botany who lived two doors down. As well as introducing Jonnie to whittling, they spent many hours and days walking through native woodland - ash, beech, alder, holly, gean, blackthorn - learning how to identify each from bark, leaves and timber, as well as learning about foraging, fungi and folklore. Jonnie began pursuing crafts at primary school age, by his teens a competent woodturner and selling work through local craft fairs. Throughout his adult life he has continued to be passionate about crafts, relishing foraging for raw materials, milling timber, turning, spoon carving and furniture making.
Jonnie's love of crafts carries through to his work as a teacher of Craft, Design and Technology for Fife Council. He is passionate about helping kids gain confidence and creativity through tools, and becoming passionate themselves about trees, timber and woodcraft. He is a trained forest school leader, and relishes venturing out from school to neighbouring woodland. At the crux of his enthusiasm for making and the passing on of creative skills is the firm belief that craft plays a crucial role in child development, as well as in lifelong physical and mental wellbeing.
Jonnie has always enjoyed sharing knowledge with others; his Instagram account @fifewoodturner has grown to be an outlet for sharing work and knowledge, as well as making links with other makers. Leaving industry to re-train as a teacher, Jonnie had the seed of an idea to start delivering craft courses. With plans on hold during the pandemic, About the Trees came from that seed of an idea. In February work began in earnest, breaking the ground for self-build construction of a dedicated woodland workshop where our courses are now hosted.
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QUALIFICATIONS
PGDE Secondary Education (Design and Technology)
Forest and Outdoor Learning Leadership (Level 8)
Outdoor First Aid for Forest Schools & Woodland Learning
BA(Hons) Design and Applied Arts (Furniture)
HND Furniture Construction and Design
Contact: Jonnie Crawford, About the Trees, c/o Glassmount House, Kirkcaldy, Fife, KY2 5UT
About the Trees is the work of Jonnie Crawford; a creative woodworker, high-school teacher and dad of three school-age kids. Jonnie grew up in rural Fife, training at college as a furniture maker then going on to study furniture design, before spending sixteen years both self-employed and employed in the furniture industry. In 2019 he re-trained as a high school teacher, delivering woodwork and design as well as running forest school sessions with 11-18 year olds in Fife.
Jonnie spent his childhood playing amongst - and learning in and about - local woodland; he credits his passion for timber, trees and woodland, sparked at an early age, to the retired professor of Botany who lived two doors down. As well as introducing Jonnie to whittling, they spent many hours and days walking through native woodland - ash, beech, alder, holly, gean, blackthorn - learning how to identify each from bark, leaves and timber, as well as learning about foraging, fungi and folklore. Jonnie began pursuing crafts at primary school age, by his teens a competent woodturner and selling work through local craft fairs. Throughout his adult life he has continued to be passionate about crafts, relishing foraging for raw materials, milling timber, turning, spoon carving and furniture making.
Jonnie's love of crafts carries through to his work as a teacher of Craft, Design and Technology for Fife Council. He is passionate about helping kids gain confidence and creativity through tools, and becoming passionate themselves about trees, timber and woodcraft. He is a trained forest school leader, and relishes venturing out from school to neighbouring woodland. At the crux of his enthusiasm for making and the passing on of creative skills is the firm belief that craft plays a crucial role in child development, as well as in lifelong physical and mental wellbeing.
Jonnie has always enjoyed sharing knowledge with others; his Instagram account @fifewoodturner has grown to be an outlet for sharing work and knowledge, as well as making links with other makers. Leaving industry to re-train as a teacher, Jonnie had the seed of an idea to start delivering craft courses. With plans on hold during the pandemic, About the Trees came from that seed of an idea. In February work began in earnest, breaking the ground for self-build construction of a dedicated woodland workshop where our courses are now hosted.
- - - - - - - - -
QUALIFICATIONS
PGDE Secondary Education (Design and Technology)
Forest and Outdoor Learning Leadership (Level 8)
Outdoor First Aid for Forest Schools & Woodland Learning
BA(Hons) Design and Applied Arts (Furniture)
HND Furniture Construction and Design
Contact: Jonnie Crawford, About the Trees, c/o Glassmount House, Kirkcaldy, Fife, KY2 5UT