A 15-foot copper giraffe that towers over the garden of part-time sculptor Mondo Pena provides a perfect example of the plumber’s passion for eye-opening art work.

But the impressive unfinished animal, dotted among sculptures of giant sharks, a huge eel and a ten-foot globe, is not what brought the San Francisco-born father-of-two television fame this week.

It was a life-sized Octopus that caught the eye of the producers of Four Rooms, Channel Four’s daytime auction programme.

And Mondo, of Brookhill Road, East Barnet, took his unique work on the show, which was aired yesterday (Tuesday), before shaking hands with a Shoreditch dealer on a price exceeding £4,000.

A full-time self-employed plumber, the 48-year-old creates his incredible art pieces entirely out of copper scraps left over from his day job.

He makes time in the evenings and at weekends to get his welding torch out, put his Santana album on full blast and get to work in his garage on the attention-grabbing centre pieces.

His work to date includes a huge Jaws replica and a 12-foot shark that currently sits at the side of his back garden.

“They used to call me Shark Man in San Francisco because I made so many of them,” he said. “I would sit out the front of our garage in the street and just weld all day – we had all sorts of people coming round and everyone in the neighbourhood got to know me.”

What started as a hobby to pass the time after he was badly injured in a car crash in 1994 became a fully grown passion for Mondo, who dreams of ditching his day job and taking up sculpture full-time.

He said: “When I picked it up, I felt for the first time ever like I was doing something that I should be. It is an amazing feeling when you’ve created something that has been in your head for so long.

“I would die to do this full time – I can’t think of anything I’d rather do more.”

Since the show, Mondo has been speaking to art dealer Shaun Clarkson, of Pitfields Shoreditch, who bought the octopus on the show.

He has already suggested Mondo exhibits his other work at the popular London gallery, which boasts celebrity clients including Jade Jagger, later this year.

Mondo said: “I feel really excited. I hope this does go somewhere – there is nothing I can’t make and I have so many ideas in my head that need to be created.

“I like to put smiles on people’s faces and I’ve had some incredible reactions to my work recently. I just hope this is the start of something big.”

To see more of Mondo's art, visit www.mondoworks.co.uk