Michelle works predominantly with recycled materials and glass in particular. She is interested in a low impact and thoughtful approach to making and utilises her immediate environment to inspire her work. Texture and tactility are dominant components of her pieces.
The forests of the Victorian Central Highlands, on Taungurung, Gunaikurnai and Wurrundjeri Country, where Michelle lives, is the focus of her work. She collects bottles from within the forest and along roadsides in this area and processes this material for use. Her work carries an environmental bias that explores notions of anthropogenic impact, and the connectivity of the symbiotic relationships in the forests that she studies. Using a traditional Pâte de Verre technique in an experimental way Michelle references species loss and hopes to promote discourse and agency of our natural spaces.
Michelle obtained a Bachelor of Fine Art Honours at RMIT in 2018 after completing an Advanced Diploma in jewellery at Melbourne Polytechnic in 2011. Her work has been chosen for multiple Australian and International shows including North America, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and Italy. She has travelled to Canada and Scotland for arts residencies and in 2018 won a sustainability award for her recycled glasswork in Venice, Italy. In 2022 she has been selected as a finalist in the National Contemporary Jewellery Award at Griffith Regional Gallery. FUSE glass Prize at the Jam Factory, Adelaide and travelling to Canberra Glassworks and the Australian Design Centre, Sydney and in Glass Chrysalis at the National Art Glass Gallery, Wagga Wagga.