Jay Z, The Black Album

Embroidery stitched directly through a vinyl record sleeve.  12x12x2 inches, framed in acrylic.      Everyone has a favorite Jay Z album, mine is definitely the Black Album. This was supposed to be his retirement album so he brought in a group of different producers for each of the songs, Kanye, Pharrell, Rick Rubin and Timbaland help Jay Z create a sonic masterpiece that I still listen to on a regular basis over 15 years later. Since the album is black with a silhouette of Jay Z it proved a challenge. I decided to use wool thread embroidered in multiple layers of abstract stitches. This gave the album cover a very dimensional quality, for the logo I created a patch using puffy foam to give the letters a three dimensional look similar to techniques that I used to use on ball caps.