Sharyn Sowell

Confined to a fishing boat with a pair of restless toddlers and two avid fishermen, Sharyn used her husband's Swiss army knife scissors and the children's lunch bags to cut out Noah's ark and a zoo full of animals. Merely trying to amuse the boys, Sharyn never suspected she'd just fallen head over heels into a love affair with scissors and paper.

Thousands of sheets of paper later, Sharyn's deft scissors flash, revealing a sparrow's wing, violets in a grassy meadow, or children at play with the fairies.

Today, her work can be found on tableware, greeting cards, needlework kits, gift bags, rubber stamps and more. Sharyn's original designs always begin with just scissors and a single sheet of paper cut free hand. She embellishes the cut paper with calligraphy, watercolor, pastels, type from her antique press, and digital enhancements. Sharyn's book, Paper Cutting Techniques for Scrapbooks & Cards, was published by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. in 2005. Her work has been seen in galleries and museums nationwide; critics call her work "striking...imaginative."

In a tiny cottage studio, Sharyn surrounds herself with snips & scraps of paper, pots of ink and glue, old family photos, birds' nests and other everyday wonders. "My work celebrates the miracles we see each day if we open our lives to simple pleasures,'" says Sharyn, who agrees with Hans Christian Andersen that “real life is the best fairy tale."