Rufus Marsh has been a cake decorator, a circus performer, a ballet dancer and a baker.

But the Brighton-based Jack of all trades always had a burning ambition to stick to one thing - he longed to be an inventor. Rufus has spent years getting up at 3.30am to work as a cleaner before toiling away late into the evening on his creations.

He has made an umbrella that snows, jewellery inspired by Houdini and a chair you can spin on your forehead. He has also invented a mechanical leg raiser strapped to his back and operated with a handle, which Rufus freely admits has "no purpose whatsoever", and a mechanical box opener.

Now Rufus's marvellous inventions have been recognised by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA). The body has named him 'an amazing person' and awarded him with a fellowship worth £72,000 to carry on with his creations.

Rufus has ditched his cleaning job and plans to dedicate himself full-time to inventing. He said: "It is just wonderful that I have been given the opportunity to further some of my goals. I'm delighted to have got the fellowship."

The 43-year-old is one of only 24 individuals in the country to be granted a NESTA fellowship. Dr Jonathan Hare, a scientist at Sussex University, has also been granted the award. A spokeswoman for NESTA said: "Rufus is a remarkable individual with a highly-original and imaginative approach to problem-solving and design."

Rufus left school at 16 to work in a factory in Lancashire. He later trained as a baker and cake decorator, but yearned for a more unconventional lifestyle. After teaching himself to juggle seven balls at once - a notoriously difficult trick - he joined Fred's Flying Circus in France as a performer.

He said: "When I was working in the circus about five or six years ago, I wanted to develop a new act. I was a juggler, but I would also do sword balancing. I was already accomplished at balancing things, usually on my head, but I decided I should be able to spin things on my head too. So I tried to develop a chair I could spin on my head."

Rufus went to Brighton College of Technology to do an art foundation course, and discovered it was his unique way of seeing things which made his inventions so successful: "Right from when I was a child I was encouraged by my parents to make things. But it is only over a period of years I realised I had an unusual way of looking at things."

Other inventions include a flowerpot which squirts water at people by remote control and an umbrella that produces 'snow' from a case carried on a performer's back. Rufus makes everything on his kitchen table. The money from NESTA, which was created 'to sustain the UK's most imaginative people', will allow Rufus to create his inventions in a more professional context.

He will be looking at furniture which can be folded, adapted and altered, aids for invalids and new kinds of hand tools. He said: "I have had a very lucky and happy life and it brings tears to my eyes thinking how lucky I am. I hope to just carry on making the most of life. This is a wonderful opportunity."