a guide to our collections
There are a lot of stories on this site & some of them are available in multiple styles. Quite a lot to sift through! So, we thought we'd help you out a bit & give you a quick overview of what you'll find here at Flying Edna...
the classics
(prints, flat cards, books, calendars, story keepers, sculptures)
Kai's most recognizable work, created for over 25 years under the name Brian Andreas.
All of the stories you find in this collection were originally drawn & painted by Kai in numerous notebooks, on random pieces of paper, & even napkins or scraps of paper innocently laying about when an idea for a story came through.
This collection spans work created from 2012 on forward, as well as pieces re-envisioned from notebooks Kai has kept since the late 80's. To see them all, we've separated the large volume of prints into two categories: classic prints and the library.
bird & brush
(prints, flat cards, storyblocks, story keepers)
This is a collaborative series between Fia & Kai that begins on reclaimed hardwoods.
Synecdoches in a way... pieces of a larger whole. Once part of towering, living trees, then repurposed or reclaimed. Our way of honoring craft, working with existing materials, always remembering we are only one small part of this wild universe...
It began when we lived in Bozeman, Montana, with access to gorgeous reclaimed hardwoods. What evolved over time was a process that includes both of us: 4-8 layers of paint, ink, & graphite (including a hand written secret wish between layers 1 & 2), onto one side of the wood, leaving the other sides to show the natural grain & history of the wood. We use the originals as guides to create every product in this series.
miranda &
(artblocks, prints, flat cards, & raw crow blocks)
Miranda showed up as a result of all the corvids we saw in our backyard when we lived in Montana. Sometimes delightful, sometimes menacing, always curious.
Kai's first crow showed up on a piece of Nepalese handmade paper. A combination of pen and watercolor. We titled it 'herald,' and moved him on to an early storyblock. As if they knew they had a willing artist ready to play, the crows started to show up more regularly. Kai chose one of our most favorite things, a cup of coffee, & paired a crow with it on a piece of reclaimed elm from North Dakota. We named her Miranda.
Each of these pieces was originally hand painted by Kai on a piece of reclaimed wood. We then scan the images to create digital prints & to create what we call a vocabulary of birds that we then use for our flat cards & raw crow blocks.
Yoshi gets some credit for the raw crows... One afternoon, Fia was outside reading, when Yoshi started a lively conversation with two crows resting on the electrical wire connected to the house. As Fia eavesdropped, her imagination drifted to the idea of pairing crows with some of the beautifully scarred pieces of reclaimed wood that we couldn't use for storyblocks. Using Kai's crow vocabulary, she creates these as the wood is available & the muse inspires...
the women
(prints, flat cards, artblocks)
A line Kai began in 2018, dedicated to and inspired by women from around the world...
All of the women you'll find in this collection were originally drawn & painted by Kai on paper or reclaimed wood by hand, with graphite, paint, and in some cases, metal leaf. Digital prints are made from the original pieces. We use our bird & brush process on the artblocks.
