What’s your business name and what do you do?
Yellow Twist. Floral design, installation and sculpture.
How did you learn your craft?
Each and every holiday growing up I received flowers. I loved to play with them, taking them apart, rearranging, seeing how long each bloom could last. When eighth grade career day was announced I told my mother I would be going to the flower shop because one day I would have my own.
After undergrad, a career as a director of fundraising events grabbed my attention. I loved it but started to long for more creativity. A friend got married and trusted me with her flowers. I fell back in love – the same kind I felt in eighth grade. For a bit of time working with flowers was a side job, but then I went for it and opened Yellow Twist out of my home in Pittsburgh. I decided to see what formal training looked like and completed a floral design certificate at Phipps Botanical Conservatory. It was fascinating to learn the history of flowers, become familiar with formal techniques and meld them together with my own design philosophy. I also finished a master’s degree in Multimedia – focusing on graphic design.
Since then I have had the privilege of studying with many of today’s great floral designers and innovators. I intend to be a lifelong student.
What do you enjoy most about what you do?
Problem solving. Each event and project brings a new set of challenges; many that only present themselves in the moment. I get great satisfaction making things work without the clients ever knowing what catastrophe was avoided.
What do you enjoy least?
Washing buckets; especially when they’ve been forgotten and have rotting flower bits – it is an indescribable smell. And email. I’m a xennial and like the phone.
What’s one thing you wish people knew about your work?
Flowers should be considered more of an experience than a physical product. Hence why it is not their longevity that is valuable but the sentiment they communicate and the way they make people feel. In the hands of talented designers, flowers become art, and in the hands of a recipient they can become love, gratitude, shared grief and more.
What’s one artist you look up to?
Holly Chapple brought me back to flowers after a diagnosis of leukemia. I wasn’t sure how to return to my work and art but she knew what to do. Her capacity for giving is unmatched and the entire floral industry has benefited from her willingness to share her talent. She elevated event designers out of the “basement” and opened the doors for designers to structure their businesses in new and diverse ways.
What do you do when you’re not at Yellow Twist?
I have two young kiddos and two pups. Operating as a studio allows me the flexibility to leave the winter open for skiing. Being on the snow is pure joy. I intend to write more but confess that it never makes it to the top of the day’s tasks.