MAVERICK North-East artist Richard Sowa was never one to settle for a nine-to-five existence.

The 48-year-old father-of-four, from Hemlington, Middlesbrough, travelled the world before finally deciding to put down roots three years ago - on a self-built island made from plastic bottles.

Mr Sowa's unusual home, anchored off the coast of Puerto Aventuras, Mexico, has now become a local attraction, with tourists paying a dollar a time to step on to his small sandy beach and take a peak inside his tiny straw-roofed house.

His mother, Dorothy, said she had no idea how he came up with such an ingenious idea.

"He's always been different. He travelled all over, painting pavement pictures, before going to Mexico.

"Then he just had the idea and built it. It's like a big Cumberland sausage - thousands of plastic bottles all tied up in a fisherman's net and the island built on top. He can enlarge it if he wants. We don't know anyone else who has ever done it."

Her twice-married son, who lives alone on Spiral Island, has been the subject of a TV documentary and was recently paid by a businessman to move his island further down the coast in November - where it will become a permanent fixture.

Before then, Mrs Sowa and husband Bron, of Kier Rise, Hemlington, plan to visit their son - but have booked into a hotel on the mainland.