The William Morris Gallery will showcase its first new temporary exhibition since winning the Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year 2013 on Saturday 6 July, with ‘The Art of Embroidery: Nicola Jarvis and May Morris’.

Nicola Jarvis trained as a professional hand embroiderer at the Royal School of Needlework, and has produced fashion embellishments for leading designers including Anya Hindmarch, Jaeger and Amanda Wakeley. Winner of the 2010 ‘Inspired by Morris’ group show, her new solo exhibition includes works on paper and textiles created in dialogue with the techniques and ideas championed by William Morris’s daughter May Morris. Jarvis’s work will be exhibited alongside rarely seen archive materials offering refreshing new perspectives on May’s career.

In preparation for the exhibition, Jarvis created a series of meticulously observed botanical studies. These were developed into embroidery designs which have been stitched by friends and colleagues around the world. A huge range of techniques, including crewel work, canvas work and appliqué have been employed. A range of Jarvis’s embroidery kits will be on sale during the exhibition.

Nicola Jarvis said: “I share the same approach to design that May articulated in her text 'Decorative Needlework' (1893), 'the first thing the designer will do is to go to natural growths and animal life, and show his pleasure in them by studying their infinite grace and beauty, and introducing them into his work.' With over two decades of experience in stitch teaching and a focus on hand embroidery, my exhibition work has afforded an opportunity to display hitherto rare and unseen embroidered works and sketches of May Morris held in the William Morris Gallery collection.”

Cllr Ahsan Khan, Waltham Forest Council’s Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing, said: “Nicola’s exhibition achieves exactly what we were setting out to do with the new-look William Morris Gallery. It can be enjoyed on many levels, from the sheer visual appeal of her exquisite craftsmanship to the historical perspective it provides and the clear correlation between May’s approach to art and that of her father. It’s a wonderful exhibition, and I cannot recommend it enough.”