Meet Michelle
Growing up on the North coast of Cornwall with its golden sands, I spent my childhood summers in my grandmother's beach chalets, playing with my brothers and sailing with my parents on the southern coast. My love for the beach, kayaking, and sailing runs deep, but my favourite activity is combing the beaches with my husband Tony, our daughters, and our dogs, Molly & Merry.
Over the years, the Cornish beaches have changed. The once pristine sands and sea are now littered with waste and plastics. The trash has become so common that it almost goes unnoticed. Every time I leave a beach, I not only take sand between my toes but also bags full of other people's waste – beer bottles, glass, cans, wire, BBQs, rope, and more.
Where It All Started
Everything changed after the New Year storms of 2014. In February, while walking on Perranporth beach, I was struck by the massive amounts of plastic washed ashore. Tony and I wrote "HELP" in the sand using bottles we collected. Since that trip, I’ve spent hours and hours cleaning Cornish beaches, removing plastic, rope and often focussing on microplastics.
Among the debris, I often find vintage toys, Lego lost at sea, toy soldiers and Smartie lids, turning our family beach cleans into a treasure hunt. My Smartie lid collection has grown to over 400, including a rare imperial-sized lid from the 1960s-1970s, sparking my interest in their history, detailed here on my website.
The plastic we collected inspired me to create quirky, story telling art, which I gifted to family and friends. Sharing them on Instagram then led to requests, and that’s how it all began!
My Hopes & Dreams
My aim is to collect as many Smartie lids and as much marine debris from the tidelines as possible to raise awareness of the growing impact of plastics and waste in our oceans. Each piece of plastic removed from the beach is one less threat to our precious marine life. I hope my work will inspire you and future generations to take better care of our waste and our beaches.
I sometimes have to pinch myself that I have such a cool job, cleaning beaches and making art from the plastic I find. I am literally living the dream!
You can shop my collections here or contact me to request a bespoke order.
Happy beach cleaning, everyone! xx
Where To Buy My Art
You can purchase my art directly from my website and on Etsy, where I showcase a variety of unique pieces. I also regularly attend markets around Cornwall which you can see here Additionally, several shops around Cornwall stock my artwork, check out the list of these wonderful locations below!