Hand- drawn, hand-cut design. Every Bird Mafia design begins as cut paper imagined, drawn, and cut by artist Emily Brown.
Hand- drawn, hand-cut design. Every Bird Mafia design begins as cut paper imagined, drawn, and cut by artist Emily Brown.
BIRD MAFIA is a Portland, Oregon based design company inspired by the intricate and unique papercutting art form. Every Bird Mafia design begins as hand-cut paper before making it's way into our collection. Founded in 2009 amid the handmade revolution in indie craft fairs and the DIY movement, operations began small. Today the Bird Mafia line can be found in stores throughout Portland and the United States.
EMILY L BROWN grew up in the center of California, midway between all the cities anyone has ever heard of. In 2007, Emily borrowed her partner/husband’s xacto knife, and soon after, what started as “playing” with papercutting turned to devotion. Since then, she has honed her papercutting skills, shown her work in galleries from California to New Hampshire, been featured in print, ad campaigns, an artist spotlight series, and a stop-motion short, and built her company, Bird Mafia, to share her art and love for papercut design. Today, she lives in Portland, Oregon where she spends her days papercutting, hiking, and befriending neighborhood cats.
In her other life, Emily is an author (E. L. Starling.") Her debut novel, a YA sci-fi romance retelling of Titanic is set to release July 1, 2025.
(Emily eventually got her own xacto knife.)
