In 2016, A. Shahinniya decided to focus her artistic talents on her daily life and embarked on her independent career as a Paper Artist. Her diverse and, in some cases, international clients often have connections to the beauty, fashion, or lifestyle industry. In 2021, she founded a small creative agency with her friend Nicole Theurer to provide a home for her other areas of interest.

How do you answer the question of what you do for a living?

Anja: You could call me a paper artist. Every job is different.

Can you please explain your technique in more detail?

Anja: The first step is that I design something in my sketchbook, such as the decorative bottle with orchids. I draw or design the structures of the flower, then I scan the flower and have to trace every line on the computer in order to create a print file for the laser.

Why don't you just use the drawing?

Anja: Firstly, I can use it to duplicate the drawing and secondly, I can illuminate the work. The laser cuts or carves the drawing lines and when I illuminate the work from behind, the light shines through.

You only started your own art business two and a half years ago.

Anja: Yes, I studied fashion design before that and was a fashion editor at Burda for twelve years, at MVG-Verlag, which published Cosmopolitan at the time (today the magazine belongs to Bauer-Verlag, editor's note), and at Condé Nast.

What did you do there?

Anja: I produced fashion spreads.

And how did you get into paper?

Anja: I had specialised in watch and jewellery productions at Cosmopolitan and wanted to do a production where watches were hanging in a kind of paper puppet theatre. I worked with a paper artist from Paris, but when she sent me the puppet theatre setting to Munich, I had a different idea - it didn't work with the proportions.

And then?

Anja: I tried it myself because I was afraid to confess to my editor-in-chief that it had gone wrong with the Parisian artist. I then locked myself away for four days with scissors, a scalpel and drawings - and then we took my puppet theatre. It was cool and great fun because I created my own world for the first time.

Was that the start of your career as a paper artist?

Anja: I didn't stop working as a fashion editor straight away, but I kept it in the back of my mind. After I had my first child five years ago, it was difficult for me to return to my job part-time. The budget was also cut. There are thousands of fashion editors, so I thought to myself, I have to find something that defines me. I read up on paper art and looked at scissor artists. There are incredible geniuses there - what they create from blank paper is fascinating. I then started accepting commissions incognito, so to speak, while I was still working as a fashion editor.


And then you started your own business.

Anja: I had a lot of contacts through my work as a fashion editor, for example with PR agencies. I called them or went there like a representative and said: If you ever want to do a decoration or a live act, give me a call. Or I approached companies directly. I also have an official page on Facebook and Instagram. And then the requests started coming in. I never thought it would go so well. In the meantime, it's also a lot of word-of-mouth advertising.