May Morris: Arts & Crafts Designer

by Jenny Lister (Editor), Jan Marsh (Editor), Anna Mason (Editor)

May Morris, youngest daughter of influential designer William Morris, was one of the leading female contributors to the Arts and Crafts Movement. She ran the embroidery department of her father’s famous firm Morris Co., and had a successful freelance career as a designer, maker, and exhibitor, founding the Women’s Guild of Arts in 1907 and undertaking a lecture tour in the United States between 1909 and 1910. May’s approach to embroidery was innovative and widely influential in the UK and abroad, yet her important contribution to embroidery is often overshadowed by the accomplishments of her more famous father.


May Morris: Arts Crafts Designer is an attractive introduction to May’s work, with exquisite images including close-up photographs of her embroideries. The book is divided into five chapters—Sketches and Watercolors, Wallpapers and Embroidery, Book Covers and Designs, May Morris and the Art of Dress, and Jewelry and Metalwork—each of which opens with an introductory text, followed by catalog entries with extended captions. Interspersed within the chronological arrangement of objects are feature spreads highlighting particular aspects of May Morris’s work.

Genres: Art, History, Nonfiction, Fashion, British Literature

240 pages, Hardcover

Published October 24, 2017

Reviews

[Leyla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating read - brings to light yet another underrated female artist of the Victorian era. The focus of the book is May Morris and her embroideries, but she was also proficient in watercolor, metalwork and needlepoint (though she loathed this one). She was a pioneer in raising the art of embroidery beyond just craft work - and interesting to learn about in comparison with the current surge of female “needlepainters” (though she herself loathed needlepainting...). The best part was the embroidered book covers, which I now covet along with one of her embroidered bed covers...

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I'm a remarkable woman -- always was, thought none of you seemed to think so," writes Morris in a letter to George Bernard Shaw. This collection of essays shows how remarkable Morris truly was. Unsurprisingly, her embroidery work stands out. All of the book, though, is richly illustrated with color images and expert commentary. Eye-opening stuff.

[Gina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Biographically, I feel like this book just scratched the surface of the daughter of William Morris but I found it to be an excellent overview of her many artistic crafts. Beautiful photos of her embroidery, sketches, jewelry, and clothing! The detailed history of each item in the catalog was informative... just wish the opening about her life was not as brief.

[Alyssa Grady · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book for thesis research, and while I was primarily interested in how her parents inspired May's artistic activity, it is intriguing to see how she struck out on her own, especially after her father's death. It is also wonderous to see the arts and crafts she participated in that her parents did not, such as in jewelry making. Overall, while May was very much her parents' child, she was also her own woman and succeeded at many arts and crafts during her lifetime.

[Lucienne Boyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book reflects May Morris’s talents in a collection of essays, every one absorbing, authoritative and well-written. Jan Marsh’s chapter opens the volume with a short biography. Other chapters look at May Morris’s sketches and watercolours, wallpapers and embroidery, jewellery, dress design, book cover design and so on. The book is wonderfully illustrated, and the descriptions and notes which accompany the illustrations are illuminating and informative.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning book. Bought this in anticipation of a lecture about her. Book was written as part of a museum exhibit a number of years ago. It contains a good biography as well as extensive explanations and photos of the work May Morris designed and created throughout her life. If you like the Art & Crafts movement, or Morris; this is an excellent book to get.

[Jenni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even if there had been no text, the illustrations were so gorgeous. But the text made clear Morris' contributions to and development of the Arts and Crafts movement. She must have been an extraordinary woman to be heading up the Embroidery workshop at just 23 years of age.

[Suzanne Ashworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

inspired to read this by the exhibition of her work at the Russell Cotes museum. her life is as fasscinating as her desings - such a free spirit and made me wish I had lived then with her means and independence.

[Krista · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully illustrated exhibition catalog-cum-biography of May Morris, who carried on the Arts and Crafts endeavors initiated by her father, William Morris.

[Biblioteka Wydziału Neofilologii UW]

709/6934 OSB