Annie Howe sits at her table, X-Acto knife in hand, working meticulously as little shards of discarded paper scatter around her like confetti. Her cuts are quick, controlled, and accurate—it’s like watching a skilled surgeon—and within a few seconds she’s created a beautiful border around a quickly sketched tree as she demonstrates her papercut technique.

A gallon Mason jar full of razor blades sits on her desk a few inches away from where she works in her sun-filled studio in Lauraville.

“I wanted to do one of those things where you’re like, ‘Guess how many jelly beans are in the jar,’” she says with a laugh in her distinctive voice—a mix of her Rhode Island upbringing and her 27 years in Baltimore. Today, she’s wearing a cat apron, the bow neatly tied at her waist, her arms freckled exactly like you would expect from a strawberry blonde like her. She nods to the jar. “I mean, this is probably years and years, but it’s like that because the blades are so small.”

Those little blades have made a big impact.

A year ago, Howe moved into a new studio upstairs at Found Studio Shop to accommodate all the work she’s doing. Her papercuts are sold downstairs, at Mount Royal Soaps, and on her website, and her work has adorned everything from Eddie’s of Roland Park grocery bags to gift tags sold by Anthropologie.

Her needs for papercutting are simple—a pencil (she prefers Ticonderoga), 70-weight paper, an eraser, a pencil sharpener, her cutting knife, and always Excel branded blades. It starts with a sketch in pencil on the paper—and then she gets to work.

“I tell people in my workshops—this is the way I do papercutting. I don’t know if this is the way everybody else does it,” says Howe. “That’s the thing I love about papercutting, there’s really no right or wrong way to do it. There are no right or wrong materials to use. It’s highly up to you, which is so cool.”

Her pieces are complex, playful, and stunning and often involve woodland creatures, florals, or familiar cityscapes. She can expertly add words that seem to be hanging by a thread—and the fact that all her sketching is done backwards on the back of the page makes it all the more mind-blowing.

“I didn’t realize, when I got into it, the depth and history of papercutting as an art form,” admits Howe.

Papercut art first appeared during the Jin dynasty in 4th century C.E., after Chinese official Cai Lun invented paper in 105 C.E. Papercutting continued to be practiced during the Song and Tang dynasties as a popular form of decorative art. By the eighth or ninth century, papercutting appeared in West Asia and, in the 16th century, Switzerland and Germany established scherenschnitte (“scissor cutting”).

According to the Guild of American Papercutters, located three hours outside of Baltimore in Somerset, Pennsylvania, the “Pennsylvania Germans brought the art of scherenschnitte to America in the 1700s and used the cut work to decorate birth, baptismal, and marriage certificates.”

Howe came into papercutting in kind of a circuitous way. She grew up in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, before moving to Providence as a teenager when her mom got a job in Boston. “I have always loved art from the beginning,” says Howe.

That was solidified when she ended up at a high school with a strong art program that included continuing education classes at the nearby famed Rhode Island School of Design. She knew she wanted to study art in college, but also wanted to get out of Rhode Island—so she headed to the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). The first time she stepped foot in Baltimore, she was completely smitten.

“I was totally charmed by the architecture of Bolton Hill,” says Howe. “Baltimore seemed really cool.”

Her plan was to be a painting major, but she felt she was “not as talented as many of the other painters”—so she switched to fibers and quickly found her niche.

“I think I was drawn to printmaking and fibers because what I really liked was the processes of doing things,” she says. “I liked fabric dyeing, silk screening—the technique, the physical nature, and the repetitive tasks, which papercutting is sort of in a way too.”

Howe became involved in performance art, including costume and mask making and puppetry. That all came to fruition when MICA’s community art partnership paired Howe with an after-school art program and she, alongside fellow student Kate Cusack, was tasked with creating a big spring festival in Bolton Hill with the kids.

“That was really an exciting experience, because I was like, ‘Oh, this is a way that I can use my interest in giant puppets and street parade and fiber arts and organizing.’”

She also spent summers interning with performance group Big Nazo back home in Providence, where she crafted puppets, did street theater, and was even able to join the troupe on a trip to Scotland. “I always like to be part of a team, which is funny, because now I work mostly on my own; but I’ve always loved collaborations.”

After Howe graduated in 2001, she spent a few years teaching art after school at the Chesapeake Center for Youth Development in Brooklyn and South Baltimore. She was introduced to Molly Ross at a lantern-making workshop. Ross was the director of Nana Projects, a group consisting of self-proclaimed visual alchemists and lanteeners, who were responsible for the design and production of the Creative Alliance’s Great Halloween Lantern Parade.

“I was looking to hire staff for the next Lantern Parade, and she seemed perfect,” remembers Ross. Part of Howe’s job was creating miniature shadow puppets that would be shown on overhead projectors for the finale of the Halloween parade. Howe took the technique and supersized it. “She cut these large-scale papercuts to be decorations for a fundraiser we were having,” says Ross. “And they turned out to be gorgeous.”

Everything about it felt instantly innate to Howe. “I think it came really naturally, and that’s part of the reason why I gravitated to it,” she says.

She started experimenting with different techniques. “I would fold the paper in half—I still mostly do that—fold, draw, and cut what I can,” she says. “That is just part of the fun of it; it’s always a little unpredictable. You never know exactly how it’s going to turn out.”

“THAT IS JUST PART OF THE FUN OF IT…YOU NEVER KNOW EXACTLY HOW IT’S GOING TO TURN OUT.”

For Christmas that year she made paper-cuts for her family. “I think they were like, ‘Okay, that’s cool, I guess. I don’t know, a little weird,’” she says, laughing. Up until that point, it was still just a part-time job and hobby. And then in 2008, Howe’s friends Winston Blick and Cristin Dadant opened the restaurant Clementine in Hamilton and needed artwork for the walls. “I was making a lot of veggie-themed work [for them] and Winston told me I needed some meat.”

Customers loved them. “And that’s part of the thing about Baltimore,” says Howe. “Just from day one I felt like people were so encouraging.”

That included the now-closed Trohv (then Red Tree), which became Howe’s first retail shop. “I emailed them, and they helped me figure out prices and presentation. I just didn’t know any of that stuff.” (In a full-circle moment, she created a stunning full window display for their 10th anniversary in 2016.)

“When we first met Annie, I was stunned by her ability to portray a story with such precision, scale, and with such a kind and visionary spirit,” says Trohv owner Carmen Brock.

Buoyed by the exposure, Howe began doing the craft show circuit and Woodberry Kitchen approached her about creating a T- shirt for their staff. That was her lightbulb moment. “I realized this is something I could do for other people.”

At that time, through a MICA AmeriCorps program, she was working full-time at Nana Projects while also doing more and more papercutting, including commissions. When Nana Projects ended after Ross moved to Florida, Howe took a somewhat mundane part-time sales job with a produce distributor, and soon realized that what she was making there she could easily earn if she dedicated herself to papercutting full-time.

It didn’t hurt that she had some safety nets in place. “I was married at the time. We had a house. I could do my artwork in the basement. I wasn’t totally just going out on my own, so I said, ‘Let me see if I can do this.’”

That was 2012, and she hasn’t stopped creating. That includes partnering with other artists and businesses to make products such as book covers, window displays, ornaments, public artwork, posters—even a “Welcome to Mathias” billboard for a town in West Virginia.

“Annie is one of those artists who is a retailer’s dream—she is focused, creative, fun, open-minded, and thoughtful,” says Brock. “Without a doubt, she played a formative and important role in Trohv’s history and expression of notable artwork.”

Ross says a few years ago she was in an Anthropologie store and saw an advent calendar that looked like Howe’s style. “I picked it up, and it was indeed her work.”

Her collaborative work continues to grow as she finds new ways to take her art to the public, including as Ladew Gardens’ artist-in-residence this past September.

“Annie’s work is so elegant and joyful, and she has been hugely popular with the Ladew community,” says Emily Emerick, executive director of the Gardens. “Her work is both intricate and ageless.”

For Howe, it’s not a matter of wanting all these different partnerships—she does—but making sure she has the bandwidth to do it all.  “The cool thing about having your own business is that the sky’s the limit,” she says. But she also has to be able to keep up with all the work.

For now, she’s bent over her table diligently working away, adding another blade to the jar.  Says Howe, “I just keep cutting and cutting and cutting until it’s ready.”

Stepping into Found Studio Shop, a retail gift shop in Lauraville, feels like the most genuine hug from a friend. Everything is bright, fun, and comfortable—with just a touch of sass—which is exactly how owner Kacey Stafford designed it.

“One of my favorite things to do is get together a collection of things that are beautiful and functional and bring joy,” drawls the Kentucky native. “I want people to walk in here and sigh, ‘Ahhh.’ This is the ultimate retail therapy destination.”

The shop is a veritable emporium of gifting, stocking everything from jewelry and chocolate to bath and body products, pillows and cocktail shakers, and adorable goods for babies and children.

Stafford, 45, carries an extensive collection of paper goods and clever cards and plenty of fashionable housewares. Many of the items are locally sourced from Baltimore-based artists and some of Stafford’s employees are makers themselves.

The store is the brick-and-mortar embodiment of Stafford’s personality, equal parts Southern charm and endless creativity. A mixed media artist—you may be familiar with her “BMORE KIND” sticker—Stafford received a degree in art education at Murray State University in her home state and began her career as an art teacher in public schools.

Eighteen years ago, when her husband, Scott, needed to relocate for work, it brought the couple to Baltimore, where they fell in love with the quaint neighborhood of Waltherson, in northeast Baltimore. They set down roots and have been dedicated to that community ever since.

As much as she enjoyed teaching, and supporting public schools in particular, Stafford didn’t feel it was her life’s vocation. Her father owned a furniture store and her grandfather a nursery and landscaping business. Even though she knew the challenges of entrepreneurship, she always felt called to the world of independent retail. She ditched teaching and, “decided I would listen to what was pulling at my heartstrings—I wanted a shop.”

Stafford joined forces with Carmen Brock and helped open Red Tree in Hampden in 2006—it later morphed into the much-loved Trohv—but left three years later to have her children, now ages 10 and 13. (Trohv closed in 2022.)

“When I left Trohv I said, ‘I probably won’t ever do a store again’—because it’s so demanding and takes over your life,” she recalls. But then an opportunity arose in 2019 for her to have a tiny, 250-square-foot niche shop within Red Canoe Café, right in the heart of her own neighborhood. “I thought, well, this is a good, low-risk way to find out if this is still my passion. And as soon as I opened, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve missed this so much.’ This is my passion. This is my gift.”

The little store took off. While Stafford acknowledges that retail is no joke, she says that Baltimore will turn out for the right kind of store.

“Baltimore doesn’t want a cookie-cutter world, and they don’t want vacant Main Streets or just big-box stores,” she says. “Baltimore supports and shows up for its local businesses and local artists.”

The origin story of what is now Found Studio is as much the story of a building as it is a store. Despite the pandemic being “the universe giving me a slap in the face,” Stafford knew she would need to expand when online school ended—she was home with a kindergartener and a third grader—and the world went back to normal. And she knew just where she wanted to go: a building on Lauraville’s main street on the same block as Red Canoe and near her friend and fellow local retailer, Christina Brunyate, who owns Domesticity Sewing Studio.

The building had history; it had been everything from a pleasure club in the ’80s to, more recently, a DIY home projects store. But it had stood vacant since 2015, and Stafford had always kept her eye on it. In a twist of fate that can only happen in Smalltimore, the building’s owner turned out to be Stafford’s neighbor. It took a year—and a whole lot of that Southern charm—for him to agree to sell.

“It took a lot of negotiations and meetings, and I finally convinced him with my nice Southern drawl and a couple glasses of bourbon,” she quips.

She and her husband acquired the building in November 2022. What ensued was a frantic year of constant work. Dead birds, dust, and detritus were cleared out. Stafford secured a Project Restore grant from the state and a façade improvement grant from Baltimore Development Corporation. Although a contractor did the heavy lift of HVAC, electrical, and plumbing, Stafford and her husband did much of the work themselves, customizing every inch of the store with an artist’s eye. They painted all the floors and laid intricate patterns of tile in the bathrooms, along with designer Gary Godbey.

Almost every piece of furniture was purchased at Second Chance, through Facebook Marketplace, or is a hacked piece from Ikea. A group of volunteers helped paint furniture. The pièce de résistance is the accent wall behind the register area that Stafford painted herself in her signature mixed-media style. The paint was barely dry when Found Studio opened, just in time for holiday shoppers.

The store’s tagline is appropriately “curated by an artist.” A committed member of the Charm City Craft Mafia, where she’s been on the board since 2011, Stafford carries many things by local artists and makers. For example, she says they can’t keep Hon’s Honey products on the shelves. (The Baltimore-based social enterprise sells honey products made by survivors of human trafficking.) She carries cutting boards made by woodworker Deirdre Smith from trees that naturally fall on her Baltimore County farm, prints, notecards, and paintings by local artists like Emily Uchytil and Gertie Smith, and candles and soap crafted by Mount Royal Soaps.

The second story of Found Studio is used as a rotating gallery space for artists and for events. Local papercut artist Annie Howe has a small studio space there, too. In the future, Stafford would like to get back to her teaching roots and offer classes in the space.

“I think this vibe is very Baltimore City-centric,” she says of the store. That local edge is important to Stafford, as she finds retail to be as much about community as it is commerce. “Creating community is the part I love,” she says. “We have a lot of regulars who come in and people come here to be surrounded by beauty and to forget about their cares, if only for a few minutes.”

For all the whimsy of its wares, it is Stafford who brings the magic to Found Studio Shop.

From the number of people who volunteered to help her and Scott get the shop open, to the dedicated customers who swing by just to say hello—and Stafford always remembers everyone’s name—it’s clear that she is a fixture in Lauraville, a splash of Southern comfort in a Natty Boh town.

This piece appeared in our March 2024 issue. For more great Baltimore stories, consider becoming a subscriber.

Clockwise from back left: The Original Handwarmer Mug by Clay in Motion ($25) at 2910 on the Square. Kate Rowe Creations speckled tumbler ($30) at etsy.com/shop/KateRoweCreations. Limatus terra cotta tumbler by Guten Co. ($40) at Tortuga. HONEY+HANK 50-states leopard napkins ($44 for four) and handmade cutting board ($42) at Becket Hitch. Bmore Kind Julia E. Dean mug ($42) at Found Studio Shop. PinkKiss Pottery cactus mug ($48) at Found Studio Shop. Ceramic hedgehog pinch pot ($6.50) at Becket Hitch. Ceramic hand-carved yellow mug ($35) at Kate Rowe Creations. Bumble bee gold spoon ($6.50) at Becket Hitch.