Framed size 12"W x 12"H x2"D acrylic box
Stephen Wilson expertly crafts extraordinary and timeless designs using sustainable materials. Each art piece embarks on a journey, starting with an up-cycled luxury bag, box, silk scarf, or album. Wilson meticulously creates a bespoke embroidery design, delicately intertwining every stitch by hand.
The album series begins with a vintage album sleeve, which serves as the foundation for intricate designs created with a variety of techniques such as yarn embroidery and photorealistic embroidery. Each album is carefully embroidered with over 200,000 stitches, taking more than 8 hours to complete. Upon completion, the album is adorned with embroidered patches and other decorative objects, making each one truly unique.
"I became a KISS fan at a very early age, probably around 1977 or so. As one of the first bands to ever create merchandise, dolls, toys, trading cards and lunch boxes were all items that you could purchase. As a kid this was amazing; a rock and roll band that has cool music, singers that spit fire and things you could put on your Christmas list. There wasn’t a kid in the 1970’s that wasn’t a KISS fan. I bought all of their albums, probably through the 90’s and still listen to them today. When it came time to do one of their albums, I chose Destroyer. This was their fourth album, released in 1976, and was their first album to go platinum. The album had hits like Shout it Out Loud, Detroit Rock City, Beth, and God of Thunder. Obviously their album art was also amazing. The cover features a painting of all 4 members in full costume with with a burning city in the background. I started by stitching the background in about 30 different colors of wool thread. I created the band members as a patch, the patch itself is huge with over 50 colors and 100,000 stitches. I also created the logo as a patch and mounted both onto the album." – Stephen Wilson