Michelle Reader

London-based artist Michelle Reader reuses waste materials to create unique figurative recycled sculptures.  She has been working with recycled materials since 1997, and also has a background in design for performance.  Her sculptures sometimes have mechanical elements, using the working parts of old toys, clocks or other objects.  

Michelle makes bespoke recycled and sustainable sculptures for organisations, often created from waste materials relevant to the business or event.  Michelle also works with galleries, schools, and other organisations as a freelance artist educator, and creates unique awards and trophies from reclaimed materials.

Michelle has a BA in Fine Art and an MA in Scenography. She lives and works in London and is based at Blackhorse Lane Studios in Walthamstow (Barbican Arts Group Trust). She makes unique figurative recycled sculptures from household and industrial waste combined with found objects sourced from charity shops and reclamation yards.  Her sculptures sometimes have mechanical elements, using the working parts of old toys, clocks or other objects.  She often runs workshops for festivals, galleries and schools creating sculptures and installations from scrap materials. She also creates props, sculptures and models for theatre, product launches, events and photo shoots.

In an interview she says that what she likes most about her work (besides the actual physicality of creating something) is making something that excites people as its rewarding. She says that kids in particular love her sculptures, they see them almost as a living thing that they want to interact with. She says the key is making something approachable, something you can almost walk off with, make friends with, something you can interact with, that's what intrigues people.

Here are some of her pieces of work, the first of which is a sculpture she made live in Lutons' mall, out of waste collected in the actual Arndale.