Rising Stars: Meet Amanda Forgash

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Forgash.  

Hi Amanda, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I’ve been in the floral industry over 10 years and started my own boutique floral studio, Petalpushr, a couple years ago during the pandemic. I made the decision to pivot from fresh floral for wedding and events to dried floral decor for the home because events were practically non-existent once covid hit, and I wanted to be able to work comfortably from my home and work outside the limitations of fresh floral. 

For fresh, you need a cooler, and there’s a short window of time before flowers wilt and are un-sellable. Dried floral also comes in a really fun array of colors and textures – way wackier than what’s typically available as a fresh flower. Having done wedding floral for so long, I yearned to design pieces that were weird and interesting, not conventionally “beautiful.” I wanted to truly follow my own vision as opposed to creating within the confines of what a bride wants. I wanted to create botanical ART. 

So, I began creating unique wreaths and mini floral landscapes under glass domes and selling them via Instagram under @petalpushr, and things took off from there! Dried floral happened to be somewhat trendy at the time, and people were stuck in their homes and wanted something fun to look at, and eventually, business boomed to the point I needed to move out of my home studio. I’d also really wanted to expand into floral design workshops – just did not have the space to do it. I found a great shared studio in the bustling and hip Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago, and now I regularly host classes – both public and private. That’s become my bread and butter. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I’ve had to constantly pivot and find new revenue streams along the way. Before I had my own space, I expanded into retail so folks could shop Petalpushr art in stores, and it helped build brand awareness. I moved into workshops once the world opened back up post-pandemic because less folks were buying for their home, and it seemed like the ideal time to create “experiences” for folks. People were finally out and about and wanting to have fun and learn new skills. 

Another struggle was running a business for the first time by myself. I’m a sole proprietor with zero employees, so I do it all! I’ve had to grow my website-building skills, my accounting abilities, etc. 

Given Petalpushr is just me, balancing my personal life with work has been challenging as well. These days, I am learning to work smarter and not harder. 

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I specialize in botanical art comprised of dried floral and other natural elements such as moss and sea barnicles. Petalpushr pieces are colorful, textural, detail-oriented, and other-worldly. My main designs typically fall into the following categories: wreaths, floral domes, flower arrangements, framed moss art, and hanging floral clouds. 

I’m also known for my floral design workshops. I try to create an experience that is not only educational but equally fun and relaxing. That’s when you do your best work when you can turn off your brain a little and stifle inhibitions. I know folks can become intimidated to get creative when they haven’t flexed those muscles in a while (or ever), so I serve drinks, put on music, light candles, and ignite friendly conversation. In fact, I’ve seen lots of new friendships emerge from class interactions, and I myself make new friends through chatting with my students in class. 

I also offer a thorough exploration into my thought process as I demo the design and give them an array of flower types and color palettes to choose from. The selection is highly curated so students have choices, but at the end of the day, everything goes together, so they can’t go wrong. By the end of class, I am truly floored by how amazing the student work turns out. And the students are visibly impressed by their creations – they didn’t know they had it in them! That’s always so rewarding to see. 

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was a whimsical and creative kid who preferred spending time in nature. I especially loved flowers growing up! My mom and her side of the family are gardeners, so I was exposed to a variety of flowers and shrubs at a young age. I didn’t realize until stepping into the floral industry how much I’d picked up on and memorized as a child. I would pour over flower identification books and was obsessed with Cicely Mary Barker’s beautifully illustrated Flower Fairy book series, so I was equipped with a surprisingly deep knowledge of flower types and that gave me an advantage in the floral industry. 

I also loved writing and constructing stories. I think I tap into that in my floral design, especially my dried floral domes. They’re like mini universes trapped under glass, captured and frozen in time. You can easily picture a fantasy world within them. An ecosystem of tiny aliens or fairies inhibiting life under the domes. They’re setting a stage for a story of your own imagining. When I demo designs in workshops, I often talk about the flowers “having a dialogue with each other,” meaning this stem speaks to this stem. For example, maybe it’s the way identical flowers are strategically positioned across from each other but at different heights – that sort of thing – that feels like the stems are in conversation. Storytelling has a way of sneaking into my work. 

Contact Info:

• Website: petalpushr.com
• Instagram: @petalpushr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/petalpushr