Engineer John Hindmarsh developed a method to soften latex and now makes sex machines for use in clubs and porn films and supplies dominatrixes and fashion designers with latex clothes
He was asked if he could make a sex machine by a client and he rose to the challenge and now produces machines for sex clubs and porn films (Image: Gloucestershirelive / SWNS.com)
He bought a specialist chlorination machine which had once belonged to Gloucestershire aerospace company Dowty's.
What he did not realise at the time was hat the chlorination process could be used to soften latex so that women in the bondage business could squeeze into their skin-tight fetish gear much more easily.
And the mild mannered man began supplying dominatrixes with their latex clothes and dungeon equipment - as well as manufacturing more mundane everyday items like squeegee mops.
As latex clothes became more mainstream on the London clubbing and fashion scene, demand for his sideline grew to include designers working in high fashion pastels as well as the usual dominatrix dresses in red and black.
John Hindmarsh, from Cinderford, Gloucestershire, is an engineer by trade and he applied his knowledge to producing specialist rubber (Image: Gloucestershirelive / SWNS.com)
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"People love their latex so much they will not just put their clothes in the post," he explained.
"It's an expensive scene to be into. You can fit thousands of pounds worth of latex into a small suitcase so people drive hundreds of miles to deliver them in person.
"Because of this I got to know some of the top people and started going to trade shows to promote that side of the business. It just grew from there.
"It's changed a lot. Latex used to just be red and black and 90 per cent of it would be fetish wear.
"Now it can be made in all kinds of colours and people are wearing it to go to ordinary discos in London. I think it's now more 60/40."
And although he says he is not into it personally, he did start wearing latex because it was compulsory at the after show parties at trade shows.
"At my first trade show one of the top designers let me borrow a pair of her boyfriend's skin tight trousers for the after party," he said.
"I felt like a right idiot because he was about 19 and looked like a model, whereas I was a 58-year-old bloke looking like this.
As his client base within the sex industry grew, he diversified further to open a photo studio available to rent (Image: use
I knew so many of the people there it was all fine and everybody was lovely."
Since then he has commissioned a designer-made, looser fitting latex suit based on a medieval knight that he can wear at promotional events.
It was through the burgeoning latex scene that he started to meet those behind bondage clubs who asked if he could use his engineering expertise to produce X-rated robot wars.
"Somebody showed me a film with a sex machine in it and said 'can you make one of those?" he said.
John renovated a disused part of the industrial unit into a studio and found useful props in the furniture recycling charity next door, including items such as a renovated "cage" from the back of an old police van, ceiling winches, chains and handcuffs
"It was like a red rag to a bull. I told him I could not only do it but I could make a better one.
"I wasn't working much at the time because I'd had motorbike accident so it gave me something to do.
"I've made about six since then. The girls come up with the ideas and name them.
"They called one the 'girly whirly' because it's pink and very quiet and another is called The Stallion for obvious reasons."
John is obsessed about the inner-workings and the safety of his machines and insists on giving the user complete control and only using top grade medical rubber at £1,000 a machine.
John had to start wearing latex to trade after-show parties because it was compulsory and although he now has a loose-fitting suit, at his first event he had to borrow skin-tight trousers from a designer (Image: Gloucestershirelive / SWNS.com)
"You can get them from Eastern Europe but they are thousands of pounds so a lot of people try and make DIY sex machines," he added.
"Mine took me about three years to get everything right and they cost around £3,000 to build, but I'm very safety conscious."
The machines were used in sex clubs in the Midlands until a photographer and director suggested using them in films because retro machines in adult films were growing in popularity.
John has since been involved in six films made in an old converted abattoir in the Midlands and one at his business in the Forest of Dean as he also now has a photographic studio.
A year ago when his landlord repaired the leaky roof covering a disused part of his industrial unit in Cinderford, he turned the area underneath into a studio.
A furniture recycling charity next door has proved useful for unusual smaller props for his collection which also includes items such as a renovated "cage" from the back of an old police van, ceiling winches, chains and handcuffs.
The films are shown on pay per view channels in America.
"Sex is big business," he said.
John, an engineer, is obsessed about the inner-workings and the safety of his sex machines and insists on giving the user complete control and only using top grade medical rubber at £1,000 a machine (Image: Gloucestershirelive / SWNS.com)
"I've been in engineering since I left school at the age of 15. Years ago I used to go to tool shows in the NEC and I would be there for eight or nine hours and still not have time to see everything. The last one I went to I was there for 20 minutes. There was hardly anything there.
"I've been to two sex shows in Birmingham now and they have both been absolutely packed. It's growing all the time."
He said he is not at all embarrassed talking to people, including friends and family, about his sideline.
"I don't hide it," he said. "Why should I? I haven't done anything to be ashamed of.
"Everything is legal and above board and I have all the paperwork from reputable modelling agencies to say the girls are above 18 and have given their consent.
"It's all over the internet for anybody to see. I could use some stupid made-up name like some people do but that would suggest I had something to hide, which I haven't."
He said the public underestimate the talent and skill of the latex fashion designers and people who make sex films.
"People read Fifty Shades of Grey and think they can do it, but that's how they get hurt," he said.
"Dominatrixes take their work very seriously and actually do training courses.
"We get people who say they want to be filmed tied up and don't realise it's so complicated that it can takes an hour of work by somebody who knows their knots to get a 10 minutes shot."
John does not have a partner and says he never married because he has always been wed to the pub and his motorbike.
"I'm not into BDSM but now I can understand why some people are," he said. "Most of the people are very happily married. They call it play and when the game is over everything goes back to normal."
Ironically he has recently had to change the name of his business on a trading estate in the outskirts of Cinderford.
"It was called the Tormentor," he explained. "But that was after the colliery that used to be on this site.
"When I started doing this some of the girls said the name might frighten some people off so now we call it Valley Road Studios.
"I keep the studio separate because photographers don't want me hovering in the background as they work. This way I can carry on with my work but be available if they need anything."
And with that John steps through the wardrobe door from his X-rated 'Narnia' into the steel-filled engineering shop where he is making rubber squeegees for cleaning machines.