Stephen Wilson Studio
The Who, Tommy
Embroidery stitched directly through a vinyl record sleeve.
12x12x2 inches, framed in acrylic.
Tommy was a rock opera created by The Who in 1969 and over the years it became one of their most popular and endearing albums. There have been musicals, movies and countless covers of the songs from Tommy over the last 50 years. The cover features a graphic of the band behind a geometric orb with airbrushed clouds and birds on it. I wanted to use multiple layers of fabric to create the background and foreground. I started with black glitter fabric for the background and then stitched the band members in rayon thread on top of the fabric. I then appliquéd the blue foreground fabric and laser cut the holes out of the fabric to expose the background. The clouds and birds were stitched in multiple layers of blue and white rayon thread with the logo stitched right through the fabric.