Same tools, different materials I’m a compulsive course-attender and a collector of tools and skills.

open.substack.com/pub/michelle...

Labour’s great nature sellout is the worst attack on England’s ecosystems I’ve seen in my lifetime | George Monbiot The horrifying planning bill, which rips up environmental protections, was drafted with CEOs in mind. We know because Keir Starmer told us, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

“The government’s planning and infrastructure bill is the worst assault on England’s ecosystems in living memory. It erases decades of environmental protections, including inherited EU legislation which even the Tories promised to uphold.”
Please read & share.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Michelle Reader - Making Art from Waste Materials — Green Meadows Knowledge Bank

I was recently interviewed by Andy Barratt for #thegreenmeadowsproject Knowledge Bank. A very comprehensive article ranging from how I started working with reclaimed materials, to what I’m up to this summer with puppets and imaginary plants!

www.greenmeadowsknowledgebank.uk/michelle-rea...

Orange graphic with OS Notts Logo, website address OSNotts.co.uk, and text reading Each Weekend in May.

As part of the county-wide Open Studios Notts taking place across Nottinghamshire throughout May, four of us at the Harley Foundation Studios will be opening our doors from 10am til 4pm on Saturday 3rd May. Come and visit!
#openstudios #osnotts #harleystudiogroup

To the world:
We are fighting back. Our movement has been silenced by the media here—but we are not backing down. This is what our streets looked like across multiple cities. Tomorrow, there will be more of us! Raise a glass to freedom.

—With love,
Your American allies.

#worldpuppetryday #spoonbill #birds #puppet #recycledart #earlyyears

Spoonbill puppet made from reclaimed materials - a litter picker, salad spoons, plastic milk, detergent and yoghurt bottles, bottle lids and garden hose.

Miriam talking to Spoonbill puppet

Basket of paper fish on blue fabric.

Happy World Puppetry Day! The perfect day for Spoonbill to have his first outing, to Mansfield Museum with me and Miriam Keye. He’s exhausted after meeting two groups of under-fives and their adults, who cleared all the litter from the river and fed him lots of fish!

This week I’ve been having fun preparing for tomorrow’s River Adventure for under-fives at Mansfield Museum. The spoonbill puppet, whose key ingredients are a litter picker and salad spoons, is coming to life, watch out paper fish!! 🥄🐟
#spoonbill #puppet #recycled #earlyyears

A sign saying ‘Michelle Reader Sculptor - ask me about how I begin a new sculpture’. On a table with models, drawings and a photograph of the artist with two metal horse sculptures.

A diagram of a horse, a photograph of a maquette being made and clay models of horses

Three small sculptures on a table in the Portland Collection gallery. A moth, bluetit and bat made from found materials, by Michelle Reader.

Diagrams of an ox

I’m in the Portland Collection at The Harley Foundation for a Studio Discovery Day. I have a few of my sculptures and some of the preparatory work I did for my horse sculptures in the courtyard. And using a painting by Gaspar Dughet of a pair of oxen, to demonstrate how I begin a sculpture.

I hadn’t heard of that phenomena before, amazing 💚. Thank you!

Green hawthorn hedge against a blue sky

If you can, please plant a wildlife hedge instead of building a fence! It could help hedgehogs, hoverflies, bats, bumblebees, mice, moths, butterflies, blackbirds, frogs, fieldfares, solitary bees, squirrels...
Here’s how: bit.ly/40YAjG7
#nature #biodiversity

The best way in which to counter Musk’s outrageous attempt to manipulate British democracy is to deactivate and then delete his propaganda vehicle from your phone and laptop.

Do it now. Please.

Hello new friends! Love your drawings 💚

My favourite wildlife camera capture of recent years at #stannsallotments Nottingham, a beautiful green woodpecker

#addBirder #bird #woodpecker #wildlife #allotment

Sculpture of a common pipistrelle bat made from recycled materials, by Michelle Reader. The materials used are offcuts and discarded materials from the studios of artists and craftspeople on the Welbeck Estate where Michelle is based. Mouth/nose is a 3-pin DMX connector from a light fitting, the fur is a scrap of knitted textile. The wings are tin cake moulds cut and brazed together. The wooden body is part of a stair rail and the feet are feet from sewing machines. The copper ears are offcuts from jewellery-making, and the wings also feature piano wire and the sleeve of an electrical cable.

Earlier in 2024 as part of an exhibition showcasing the residents of the #harleyfoundationstudios, I created some small sculptures of the wild creatures we share our workplace with, made from scraps and offcuts from all the studios. This one is a common pipistrelle bat.
#batsculpture #wildlifeart

Photo of a book - Islands of Abandonment, Life in the Post-Human landscape by Cal Flyn

Using my down time not only for literary escapism but for more serious reading too. This book was recommended by more than one of my Wild.NG friends 💚

“All the time, these seeds and spores - the potential for wildflowers, of wildlife - are drifting by us on the air, waiting for their chance.”

Hello, you can add me if you like 😊💚🐝. Thanks!

Currently being followed for first time by people on Twitter and it’s like meeting people in the lifeboat as the ship goes down.

Since being stuck at home with an ankle injury I’ve had the luxury of time to read, and have absolutely loved these three gems, two of them gifted by thoughtful friends 💙📚

Thought I’d be leaving the house today for the first time since breaking my ankle to go somewhere other than the hospital. Think again! Back to the books and the joy of admin. And exploring Bluesky 😂🦋

💚📚💚

Ooh love it! 🥰

Yup, pizza and Repair Shop here, it’s a Friday ritual 🍕🔨

Our latest - October - newsletter from Wild.NG. We need the support of local people to encourage Nottingham city council to continue the suspension of the use of glyphosate in Sherwood ward, and to expand it to the rest of the city. Plus lots more wild news 💚 mailchi.mp/c7b963fe6f90...

Arrived here recently, great to see so many moving over, will be deleting my Ex account soon! I make sculptures out of things other people discard, run creative workshops in schools, museums and other places, and am passionate about biodiversity and making space for wildlife in urban environments 💚