By Pinkerala News Desk | Feb 11, 2019

Shabnam Shaheed is a paper cut artist from Palakkad and she is basically an architect who completed her course from MES School of Architecture, Kuttippuram. She started the company ‘Miraculous Paper’ in September 2016. Her inspiration was her teacher who took ‘Architectural Design and Graphics’ during the first year of her course. Every engineering student has to make models of tiny prisms. However, she was really bad at doing it and had to redo it around four times. Even then she could not accomplish the task successfully and the teacher asked her to keep it and go. Shabnam took it as a challenge. She was initially very bad at cutting sheets. She devoted much patience, effort and care while doing it and ultimately she was successful in completing the task. First, she made patterns using prisms, and then used them to make cards for birthdays, anniversaries and gave them as gifts. During the 2016 college fest, she had a chance to do the paper cutting on a whole wall. During the fourth year of her course, she did an internship at Eco- Design, Palakkad. Her first investment for ‘Miraculous Paper’ was the stipend that she got from the internship at Eco- Design, Palakkad. On 18th September 2016, she started a page on Instagram by the name ‘Miraculous Paper’. Shabnam got good exposure through Instagram. Initially, casual stuff was done. In November 2016, she got her first order and it was a Dream Catcher Owl (Large size). Slowly she started getting orders.

Shabnam’s parents wanted her to be an architect. Although she is from a conservative family background, her parents were really supportive in her venture. They always supported her passion and took her to frame shops and print shops. Her parents came all the way from Palakkad to take her to the Sankalp exhibition at Kochi. They wanted her to get more exposure so that she could procure more orders. At present, a lot of people know about ‘Miraculous Paper’. It is her passion and acts as a mind reliever for her. Whenever she is emotionally upset, angry or hungry, she devotes her attention towards creating a paper cutting. She has come to this field because of architecture.

Shabnam uses ivory sheets (Neither thick nor thin), larger knives and surgical knives. Initially, she used normal penknives costing Rs.10. For precision, detailed knives are needed. Her progression from normal knives to detailed knives is noteworthy. Most of the orders received by her are comprised of portraits.  

She derived great inspiration from her friend Anagha Suresh who asked her to start a page on Facebook. She got the opportunity to participate in Sankalp exhibition through Anagha.  Aparna S (Lenore Portraits) who was her second customer, was also a great inspiration. She did not charge her first customer but she charged Aparna, who placed a bulk order of six pieces of paper cuts.