Heather Large discovers how building robots from junk and writing about them became a thriving passion – and business – for Andy and Lorraine Laverton.
When Andy Laverton needed to clear his mind after a stressful day at work, he pottered about in his garage.
One day, he was feeling creative and he began building a robot out of scrap parts.
Little did he know that the characterful sculpture it would be the first of many to take shape in his workshop.
“It started with me needing an outlet for stress. I have a pretty stressful job, to say the least,” says Andy, a line maintenance engineer.
“I was getting more and more stressed and at the beginning of this year, I started spending more time in my garage. I had always worked on different things in my garage.
“One day I put together a robot – and thought ‘I quite like that’. So I made another one. I got lost in the process. Every time I made a robot, I would bring into the house,” he explains.
The growing collection of mesmerising robot sculptures are now known as The Berts.
From wiper motor parts to vintage cameras, they are all made from discarded objects and each robot is given its own personality and name, inspired by their distinguishing features.
Working alongside Andy is his wife Lorraine, who writes stories about his creations as she imagines the adventures they might have.
It wasn’t long after Andy starting bringing each robot he made into the house that they started sparking Lorraine’s imagination.
“I had always wanted to write a book, I used to write as a child but then life took over,” she says.
“Everybody advises writing about what you know but there are so many things you do in life, what do you pick?
“I kept looking over to the robots and I could imagine their characters. I knew I needed to write their stories and we needed to give them a name.”
The couple, who live near Shrewsbury, have three children and six grandchildren.
They decided to name the hand-crafted sculptures after Lorraine’s great-grandfather Herbert, who never discarded anything he deemed useful.
Among the growing collection of The Berts is Fulbert who carries a leather backpack adorned with a functional light meter and has a head fashioned from a vintage camera.
There is also Norbert whose head is made from an old Viewmaster that contains photographs of Norway and Lambert who has been created from recycled parts including gears, circuits, and wires and carries a lamp in his hand.
Andy has also made a series of transport and motor racing-themed robot sculptures including Helibert, Jenson Berton, Bertverstappen and Hogbert. Many of the robots are available to buy on the couple’s website.
For each robot, he repurposes a wide variety of unwanted parts including items destined for the recycling bin at his workplace.
“I go dumpster diving every week at work and pull out scrap parts, nuts and bolts,” he says.
Andy also sources bits and pieces from eBay and car boot sales and receives donations from people who know he will find a good use for them.
“My garage is organised chaos, more chaos, than organised, but I do know where everything is. I have boxes of stuff waiting to be made into robots.
“When I start a robot, I don’t know what it’s going to end up looking like. I’ve started a few and said ‘that’s not the right head for you’ and I’ve made something different.
“I’ve got heads sitting in drawers waiting for the right bodies,” he says.
The 59-year-old finds the process of selecting what items to use for his latest creation and putting everything together very therapeutic.
“One day I made breakfast at 6am, went out to the garage in my pyjamas and dressing grown and came back into the house at lunchtime. I thought I’d only been 20 minutes. It’s like meditation for engineers,” he explains.
Lorraine’s first book inspired by The Berts, titled Weebert Has an Adventure, has recently been published.
Illustrated by Amy P Simmonds, the story about friendship and the magic of trying new things features an array of characters including Barbara the sheep, who is based on an ornament in the couple’s garden.
“I had so many ideas and once I started writing, the words just flowed. I’ve got lots more stories in my head, five are written down and Weebert is the first one to be published.
“The book teaches children that everyone is different and our differences should be celebrated,” explains the 60-year-old.
Lorraine visited her grand-daughters’ school in North Yorkshire to read her story to the children and also took along some of the robots. “They loved listening to the story and meeting some of the real Berts. I would love to do the same at other schools,” she says.
Eight of Andy’s sculptures can be seen in the Winter Lands Exhibition at The Found Gallery in Dunbar. He has also created a special robot bear for Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice in Huddersfield, which was based on the charity’s mascot.
