George Michael, Faith

Embroidery stitched directly through a vinyl record sleeve.

12x12x2 inches, framed in acrylic.

     Faith was George Michael's debut album released in 1987. Following the success of Wham, George Michael embarked on a successful solo career by releasing Faith, an album with touches of rock, soul, pop and rhythm and blues. The album went on to sell over 20,000,000 copies and is on the Rolling Stone list of the top 500 albums of all time. The album features George Michael’s photograph in a darkly lit profile wearing a leather jacket. This is a very dark album with a lot of shadows so approaching it was difficult. To achieve the proper shading I decided to use rayon thread which is thinner, so I needed to use more stitching, which allowed me to use more colors. There are over 15 flesh tones used when shading this album cover and over 75,000 abstract stitches in him alone. For the jacket I decided to use a piece of real leather, I appliquéd and then laser cut the appliqué. I then added highlighting stitches on the leather to finish the jacket. The actual leather adds a unique dimensional touch to the album cover. I added the Faith logos as miniature patches collaged onto the album.