A dad who quit his floor-laying career in the pandemic is now earning thousands building complicated mechanical contraptions from scratch, including for the latest How To Train Your Dragon film.
Oliver Pett, 48, who is originally from west London but now lives in the Scottish Highlands, worked as a flooring contractor around Inverness for 25 years before quitting in 2020 and devoting himself to creating unique moving mechanical devices, known as “automata”.
His creations use custom-made gears and intricate pulley systems to depict magic tricks, swashbuckling pirates and recreations of 80s adverts.
After an “incredibly difficult” first few years, the father-of-two is now taking on commissions worth tens of thousands of pounds and has built props for the recent live action remake of How To Train Your Dragon.
“I describe automata as telling a story through mechanical means,” Oliver told PA Real Life.
“Making automata was always at the back of my mind, but I never had the confidence to do it, let alone think I could make a living from it.
“I said to myself, ‘I’ll just say yes to everything and jump outside my comfort zone’.
“I feel comfortable now in what I’m doing, but it’s been a hard slog.”
As a boy growing up in west London, Oliver was always “taking apart everything”, including pinball machines and his sister’s stereo, to see how they worked.
He recalled: “I had a band saw and a pillar drill in my bedroom, and there used to be trails of sawdust outside my door.
“I’ve always been in my workshop, experimenting. Whether it’s woodworking, metalworking, or anything creative – I’ve tried it, I’ve failed at it, I’ve tried it again.”
When Oliver was 12, his father moved to Tain, near Inverness, to found a Scottish-themed pottery business.
“I used to go up a lot, and then one day I drove up and I never came back – that was over 25 years ago,” he said.
After working as a flooring contractor for 25 years, Oliver decided during the pandemic that he wanted to spend more time at home with his wife, Beata, and his two children, Harry and Isla, aged nine and 13.
He started spending 12 hours a day in his workshop, developing ideas for his “automata”.
Oliver said his “superpower” is being able to figure out designs in his head, without needing to draw out diagrams.
He explained: “For me, it’s just second nature: I know what works and what doesn’t through my years of failing all the time.”
Except for screws, he builds all his components from scratch in his workshop.
“The fun bit is putting it all together to see if it works,” he said.
“It never does the first time, so you’re tweaking and making adjustments.
“Once I know it runs smoothly, I’ll take it all apart, decorate it, and put it out on social media.”
After an “incredibly difficult” first two years of struggling to make sales and meet mortgage payments, Oliver “almost gave it up”.
“I said to myself, ‘I’m not going to be in this position next year’,” he recalled.
“I really tried to understand who my audience was, and how to make engaging videos on social media.”
Having “never engaged” with social media before, Oliver worked hard to improve his content skills and was eventually rewarded with increased attention and inquiries about commissions.
One video recreates a famous 80s advert for Johnson & Johnson’s Reach toothbrushes, which involved a man opening his mouth a full 180 degrees to clean his teeth.
Another features a shifty-eyed mechanical magician making a rabbit disappear with a flick of his wand. A glimpse into the mechanism shows a rotating trap door that simulates the disappearing act.
Oliver made 30 of these magicians, which sold out at £650 each.
“If you wanted that as a one-off piece then you’re talking thousands of pounds,” he said.
“It’s not really the materials: it’s the time that dictates the price.”
He is now trying to focus more on creating engaging stories with his automata.
“To begin with, it was more to do with the engineering challenge,” he said.
“Now, my challenge is to really have that person go away and think about what I’ve made, or the story it conveys.
“If I do that, then I know that I’ve done my job.”
Oliver recently completed a commission for a large mechanical theatre that performs an abridged version of the musical She Loves Me.
With painstaking attention to detail, Oliver and his daughter hand-painted the set, which transforms into different locations as the performance goes on.
He said he was “particularly proud” to receive an email from the Broadway musical’s director praising his work.
“It exhausted me, mentally and physically, but I was so proud of what I achieved there,” he said.
He said the project took him eight months to complete, featured more than 1,500 parts and came at a cost of £40,000.
“Because I come from humble backgrounds, I find charging a lot of money for these pieces difficult,” he said.
“I almost feel a little bit embarrassed by it all – I probably rip myself off all the time.
“I do often think about ways in which I can make something that everybody could own, even if it’s just a really small little piece that could be affordable for people.”
Oliver also built three automata which appear in the recent live action remake of How To Train Your Dragon, depicting a whale, a boat and a flying dragon.
“The main character plays with one of them while he’s speaking to his father,” he said.
“I’m delighted that they’re part of the film – these are opportunities that I never expected.”
Oliver is now documenting the process of creating his “dream” automaton, a mechanical archer who draws and shoots an arrow.
He hopes the technically challenging build, which involves countless articulated joints, will be a high-end product.
He said: “I want to be successful – I know it’s all about the art, but I don’t want to be one of these artists that’s struggling to pay the mortgage.
“Without sounding big-headed, I’ve got talent and I want to push myself. I want to see how far I can take this.”
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