Gavin Cochrane's metalwork part of Busselton Jetty sculpture trail

Now, his biggest work yet will become home to a coral reef off the coast of Busselton.

The 37-year-old was working in steel fabrication before turning his creative hobby into a full-time job, more than a year ago.

"I've been doing metal fabrication for about 16 years, so (the hobby) was sort of an after-hours thing, on the weekends in my own time," Mr Cochrane said.

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While his metal work skills have been refined over the years, he said his creative side had always been there.

"I think that is where the beginnings started, because you had to utilise the materials you had.

"I've always enjoyed working with my hands and making stuff on the side.

"The skills that I've picked up over the years being a tradesman and having the opportunity to work in different parts of the industry, I'm able to put all those skills together."

Mr Cochrane enjoys the challenge of using metal as his material of choice.

"I like challenging myself as well, I don't know why I like to complicate things so much," he said.

Working for himself for the past 18 months, Mr Cochrane said he found general fabrication work to be "a bore".

"It just bores me, it doesn't stimulate me enough," he said.

"To me I need the challenge and the custom sort of work."

Last year Mr Cochrane entered Dunsborough's Sculptures by the Bay, winning three awards for his piece.

This put him in good stead for when the Busselton Jetty called for expression of interests for artists to create sculptures for its sculpture reef.

"It sounded like an awesome job to take on," he said.

After working through the requirements, he went with a diving helmet concept - one of his more complicated designs.

It was constructed at his Wundowie family farm which was run by his father for 30 years and used to be a piggery.

"I've never made anything of that scale or that design for myself," Mr Cochrane said.

"I didn't have the luxury of gantry cranes and stuff like that, so I had to use the tractor, which was quite challenging.

"I'm quite proud of how I designed it from sketches and then assembled it.

"The challenging part was making the sphere itself."

The geodesic sphere is made up of triangles that have to fit perfectly together.

And being a small business, Mr Cochrane had to get it right the first time, or it would have been costly.

"It was a real challenge and a bit stressful because you have to get it even right from the start," he said.

"It was a lot of planning and a lot of head scratching - I made templates of everything and did a lot of drawing.

"I triple checked all my measurements, so I shouldn't be shocked that it actually turned out right."

The sphere isn't enclosed, giving marine life an opportunity to interact with the helmet.

"Hopefully the coral and everything attaches onto the sphere itself and closes it in," Mr Cochrane said.

Over the next few months, 13 sculptures will be placed on the Busselton sea bed, between five and eight metres deep.

The project aims to encourage biodiversity within Geographe Bay, where the habitat on the sea floors is mostly seagrass meadows.

While Mr Cochrane doesn't limit himself to marine-themed pieces, he does feel particularly drawn to making them.

"I'm not sure why I have an appeal for nautical sculptures, but I do love fishing and going out on the boat with my dad and brothers," he said.

"I also lived in Karratha for a couple of years as well which gave me a love for the ocean."

Mr Cochrane's works begin as an idea and transforms into sketches, which are then furthered by research.

"I do loads of research, which I enjoy also," he said.

"I pretty much become a bit of an expert in whatever I'm building."

Once the idea and design is finalised, Mr Cochrane leaves the rest up to his imagination and flair.

He said metal was hard to work with and joked about having a go at ceramics or wood craft.

His current project is a sculpture of a Tasmanian tiger, with stainless steel teeth.

"Stainless steel is a very hard metal, there's no give in it.

"I think I got to about 30 of them (the teeth) and thought why didn't I do this in clay instead?

"I would like to give clay or wood a go at some point, but at the moment it's purely metal art."

Mr Cochrane sells his pieces to interested buyers but also takes commissions, which is easier to manage given the cost of materials.

"And not everyone wants a three metre scrap metal marron in their backyard unfortunately," he said.