Archive for April 2009
If you are interested in learning flower arrangement and cannot spare time during weekdays, why not join Weekend One Day Seminar offered by California Flower Art Academy ? For people who are busy and can spare time only on weekend, Weekend One Day Seminar is not only very convenient but also very affordable. All you have to pay is only $150 including flower materials. By joining this program, you can learn several designs which are easy to make spending about 4 hours. This special training session is offered at our San Jose classroom (close to the city of Cupertino in Santa Clara County) and also at our Burlingame extension class (located in San Mateo County close to San Francisco Airport). Our unique way of hands on training of person to person instructions (close to semi-private lesson)
greatly help entry level of students easily and quickly acquire practical skills of floral arranging. If you live in Greater San Francisco (Bay Area and Peninsula including Daly City, Millbrae, Foster City) or Silicon Valley (South and Wast Bay including Milpitas, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, San Jose, Santa Clara, Cupertino, Saratoga etc), we recommend you to join this special program. California Flower Art Academy is authorized by Flower Decorators Association (Tokyo Japan) and has been engaged in educating local people who would like to earn practical skills of flower arrangements no matter for what kind of puropse they want to learn for hobby or for business. If you are interested in this program and want to take a lesson, just email to info@california-academy.com We help you make a difference in floral art.
If you are planning to work as a floral designer or open your own floral shop (florist), we recommend you to learn and acquire the skills of funeral floral decorations in addition to wedding flower arrangements because it is said that the demand for funeral decoration is pretty high and we cannot ignore the market demand. However most of people look like paying special attention only to wedding flower arrangements seemingly because wedding decorations are happier and the colors used for the decoration is brighter and more beautiful. As far as you make a decoration as your hobby, you can ignore funeral deocorations. However when it comes to doing business as a florist or floral shop, it is better for you to learn and offer funeral decorations as well so that your business operations can be stabilized. California Flower Art Academy has been educating uncoutable number of students who would like to earn practical skills of various floral designs and flower arrangements or become a floral designer/floral decorator. One of programs/courses we offer is Funeral Floral Decoration 
Course for $298. Since the unit price of each deccoration/design is offered in the market at $170-$350, your investment for $298 to attend this course can be easily paid back/amortised within a short period of time. Classes are available at our San Jose main class room (near the intersection of freeway 85 and De Anza Blvd) and also at our Burlingame extension class (in San Mateo County near San Francisco Airport) and you can take this class not only on weekdays but also on weekend. School is authorized by Flower Decorators Association Tokyo Japan. If you live in Greater San Francisco or Silicon Valley (South and East Bay), we recommend you to join our school to attend this particular training session. Apart from funeral decorations, if you are interested in learning entry level of floral designs or wedding floral decorations, we have a wide range of courses which will meet your requirement. Please email to info@california-academy.com to raise any sort of questions you may have.
Are you interested in learning flower arrangement ? You must have a skill of making flower arrangements. However you are tired of ordinary designs and want to learn a unique floral decorations. Well, some of the designs we teach at California Flower Art Academy are pretty unique and eye cathing. Above pictures show some of our unique designs such as Heart Shape Design featuring a bird, Flower Decorated Gift Wrapping Design and Bridal Hand-tied Corsage. California Flower Art Academy offers a wide range of classes, lessons, courses, seminars, training programs and workshops such as fresh flower arrangements, dried and silk flower designs, wedding floral decoration and funeral arrangements and table arrangement center piece programs etc etc. From entry level to professional level of students and European contemporary floral designs to Japanese traditional Ikebana arrangement, we can satisfy needs and requirements of each student. Our school is authorized by Flower Decorators Association which is one of the best established and most prestigious floral associations in Tokyo Japan. No matter what your goal and purpose in floral art is, for enhancing your cultures or for doing business, we can help you acquire practical skills of making floral decorations. You can start from Introductory Trial Budget Program for only $89. By joining this program, you will learn two kinds of floral designs spending about 2.5 hours. This session is good for you to evaluate our way of instructions and also the quality of our lesson. If you feel comfortable and satisfied with our lesson, you can roll over to Fresh Flower Arrangement Elementary Course. In this way of roll-over, all you have to pay is just the balance between Introductory Program and Elementary Course and all the units/credits you already earned from Introductory Program will be counted for completing Elementary Course. Many students follow this procedures. However if you like, you can of course join Elementary Course by skipping Introductory Program. We also offer Wedding Party Arrangement Basic Course as well as Wedding Ceremony Arrangement Course. According to your wish and needs, you can choose your most favorite program among a variety of courses. California Flower Art Academy has been serving the San Francisco Bay Area since its inception back in 1992 as a unique floral design school and flower arranging studio where you can get around with floral artist, flower learning students and also a well experienced flower arranging instructor. If you live in Greater San Francisco (including Daly City, Brisbane, South San Francisco, Burlingame, San Mateo, Millbrae, San Bruno, Foster City and Redwood City etc) or Silicon Valley (South and East Bay including Milpitas, Hayward, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Los Altos, San Jose, Santa Clara, Cupertino, Saratoga, Los Gatos, Campbell etc0, we recommend you to join California Flower Art Academy which is authorized by Flower Decorators Association Tokyo Japan. We help you make a difference in floral art by offering European contemporary floral design training as well as Japanese Ikebana Arrangement classes. If you are interested in joining our school, please email to info@california-academy.com
Among so many kinds of floral designs, table arrangement is considered one of the recommendable designs for entry level of students to start with. If you are interested in learning flower arranging, it may be a good idea to start from center piece decoration by joining a one day special program called “Table Arrangement Center Piece Decoration Program”. In order to support entry level of students, California Flower Art Academy prepares several kinds of this sort of designs so that beginner students can easily learn and earn practical skills of flower arrangements. This special session lasts about 4.5 hours and is offered at our San Jose main class room (nearby the intersection of Freeway 85 and De Anza Blvd) and also at our Burlingame extension class (close to San Francisco Airport). By joining this session, you will acquire skills of making basic skills of basic center piece decoration which can be used not only for wedding parties but also for various kinds of events such as birthday party, anniversary, Christmas, Thanksgiving or Valentines Day whatsoever. Some people may make the best use of skills earned from this session for making wedding decoration for their own wedding parties whereby they will minimize the cost of wedding floral decoration. It is not always necessary to master an entire range of wedding arrangement for you to implement DIY (Do It Yourself) plan on your own wedding party. You just make part of the entire wedding decoration by yourself and have a better experienced professional floral decorator take care of the rest of decorations whereby you can save money on your wedding decoration. This is one of ideas for you to save cost for your wedding. Some people who enroll in California Flower Art Academy actually implement above mentioned plan. Some people offer wedding floral decoration services to their family member(s), relatives, friends and also eventually to the third parties on their wedding decorations. If they seriously think about working as a wedding floral decorator, they will enroll in Wedding Floral Decoration Course offered by our school. Anyway learning table arrangements can be a good start for you to acquire skills of floral designs no matter whether you learn for business or hobby purpose. Lessons are offered not only on weekend but also on weekend to support busy people like you. Classes are offered at San Jose and Burlingame classroom. If you live in Greater San Francisco (Peninsula including Daly City, Burlingame, Millbrae, San Mateo, South San Francisco, San Bruno, Redwood City or Foster City) OR in Silicon Valley (East Bay and Santa Clara County in South Bay including San Jose, Mountain View, Milpitas, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Cupertino, Saratoga, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Morgan Hill etc) we recommend you to join California Flower Art Academy which educates you with hands on training of person to person instructions. We adopt small size class having maximum number of students only six (60 per class which greatly helps entry level of students easily acquire practical skills of flower arranging. If you are interested in our program, please email to info@california-academy.com and visit our website http://www.california-academy.com We help you make a difference in floral art.
If you are seriously planning to work as a professional floral designer or floral decorator, it is so important to take official flower arranging lessons from a reliable instructor rather than depending upon self-education. If you think about future possibilities for you to develop your skills and to become able to make your own creative designs reflecting your own idea or concept, you should not hesitate to make a certain amount of investment for taking floral design lessons. If you have mastered high level of floral designing skills and succeed in working as a floral artist such as a wedding floral decorator, funeral floral designer or floral shop owner etc., you can most probably pay off such investment. In this sense, California Flower Art Academy always recommend new students to start from Fresh Flower Arrangement Elementary Course (“elementary course”) before taking lessons of higher level of course such as Wedding Floral Decoration Course or Funeral Flower Arrangement Course.
Once in a while, our school is approached by “professional” floral designers who are already engaged in floral decoration industry as a floral designer or florist. In most of such cases, the reason behind their approach to our school is that they have never experienced to have official trainings of flower arranging and they depended upon self-education. While working in the floral indsutry, they became to know that they coulc not make break-through for making their own creative designs although they can do various decorations by imitating or duplicating other designers’ floral designs. Therefore they would like to start from scratch OR they want to acquire fundamental skills of flower arrangements so that they can develop their skills towards the next level of decorations.
California Flower Art Academy’s elementary course consists of 12 different designs (As of Oct 10, 2014. Curriculum
and conditions subject to change in the future) starting from all round shape center piece decoration and ending with birthday wreath making. To make one design, it usually takes 60 to 90 minutes. Therefore you need to attend approximately twnety hour (more or less) lessons in order to complete elementary course. If you make all the designs introduced in this course, you can experience various types of floral decorations and it is easy for you to proceed to the next level of course such as Wedding Floral Decoration or Funeral Flower Arranging Course etc.
Since this course is a pretty long one and it costs $390 (tuition and flower materials fee), some students hesitate to enroll in this program. For such kind of people we offer Introductory Trial Budget Program (for only $89) which is part of elementary course. This introductory program is provided for you to evaluate our way of instructions and the quality of our lessons. After you feel comfortable and satisfied with our instructions, you can roll over to elementary course.
Lessons are offered at our San Jose main classroom (near the City of Cupertino close to the intersection of freeway 85 and De Anza Blvd) and also at our Burlingame extension class (in San Mateo County near San Francisco Airport) on weekdays and also weekend. Daytime and evening lessons are available to support busy people.
If you need any more information or have interest in above programs, please email to info@california-academy.com
We help you make a difference in floral art.
If you are interested in learning Japanese traditional floral arrangement called “Ikebana”, we help you acquire practical skills by way of hands on training. The way Ikebana is arranged is somewhat different from that of regular kind of flower arrangements. Ikebana uses what is called “Kenzan” which is also known as needlepoint holder made of metal which is heavy enough to hold flowers and flower stems. This needlepoint holder has uncountable number of needles on the surface. When floral designers arranges flowers, they insert flower stems onto those needles. This is totally different from a regular kind of flower arrangement which uses OASIS made from chemical stuff and looks like sponge. The weight of OASIS is very light unlike Kenzan and this stuff is disposable again unlike Kenzan (needlepoint holder).
Since OASIS is much easier to use than KENZAN, it takes less time to do regular flower arrangement. PLUS Ikebana requires very precise way of decoration which involves more time and energy. In this sense Ikebana is not recommended for the situation where they need so many designs/decorations at the same time. Regular flower arrangement is much more recommended in this kind of situation. Further if the decoration is so big like the one displayed in the entrance hall of hotels etc., Ikebana is said not to fit such decoration.
In terms of above mentioned reasons, Ikebana is seldom used for wedding or funeral decoration not only in the USA but also even in Japan. On top of that, Ikebana related fees are so expensive such as tuitions, examination fee and certificate fee etc etc. Further Ikebana used to be one of typical Japanese manners which should be mastered by young ladies who are not yet married. Parents usually provided daughters with trainings of Ikebana arrangement in the hope that they can make interior floral decorations after getting married. When they take lesson of Ikebana, they were usually required to learn in a strict manner and to strictly follow directions from instructors who were usually almighty against their students. Some people say this used to be very fuedalistic in a sense (This used to be typical relationships between a teacher and a student not only regarding Ikebana but also any kind of educations. Nowadays it is very changed because everything has been affected by American culture.
At the moment, Ikebana is not very popular in Japan especially among young ladies who prefer regular kind of 
flower arrangement which is European or American style of floral decorations. The reason behind this situation is seemingly because they do not like “fuedalistic relationship between teachers and students, they prefer less expensive (affordable ) floral designing (tuition and certificate fee) , they like easy way of arrangement AND they would like to learn floral decorations which can be easily used for doing business such as wedding decorations as well as daily interior decorations.
Regarding the skills and techniques, people who were well trained in Ikebana arrangement can very quickly catch up with skills of regular flower arrangements even though there are several differences as stated in the above. The chief instructor of California Flower Art Academy got a long term training of Ikebana and she has an official certification of Ikebana Instructor authorized in Japan. Plus she has a license of the first class floral decorator also certified in Japan. Therefore we can offer lessons not only European style of floral designs but also Japanese Ikebana arrangements as well.
If you are interested in learning Ikebana, we help you earn practical skills by way of hands on training of person to person instructions at affordable prices. At the moment, we offer follwoing Ikebana courses:
A. Ikebana Arrangement Elementary Course (7 designs: one design: 60-90 minutes)………$210
B. Ikebana Arrangement Intermediate Course (7 designs: one design: 60-90 minutes)…….$245
For further information, please email to info@california-academy.com We help you make a difference in floral art.
Smart Start To Learn Floral Design
Posted on: April 2, 2009
You love flowers and may be interested in doing floral designs or flower arrangements by yourself. You may be looking for a floral arranging instructor or floral design school to get good trainings. However you have not yet decided from which instructor or school you should take lessons of flower arranging and you are still at a loss how to do and what to do. Here is a practical, good and easy solution for you. We recommend you to join Introductory Trial Budget Program (“introductory program“).
offered by California Flower Art Academy serving the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley. This program is provided for you to evaluate our way of instructions and the quality of our lesson. If you feel comfortable with our way and satisfied with the quality of lesson, you can roll over to Fresh Flower Arrangement Elementary Course (“elementary course“). In this case all you have to pay for elementary course is just the balance between elementary course and introductory program, which helps you minimize the risk in choosing a school and instructor for your lessons.
By joining this program, you will learn two kinds of floral designs spending about 2.5 hours. After completing this program, you have several options such as rolling over to elementary course, taking another kind of program such as Table Arrangement Center Piece Program (for $150) or Weekend One Day Seminar (for $150) etc etc.,
California Flower Art Academy offers classes not only during weekdays but also on weekend. Lessons are available 
during daytime and also in the evening as well to support busy people. If you live in Greater San Francisco (Bay Area or Peninsula including Daly City, Burlingame, Millbrae or San Mateo near San Francisco Airport) or Silicon Valley
(South and East Bay including Mountain View, Milpitas, San Jose, Santa Clara, Cupertino, Saratoga), we recommend you to join our school where you can learn practical flower arranging by way of hands on training of person to person instructions. The size of class is very small. Maximum number of students is only 6 per class to keep the quality of lesson and to implement ONE ON ONE education.
For further information, please email to info@california-academy.com and visit our website http://www.california-academy.com We help you make a difference in floral art.
Learning wedding floral decorations helps you save and make money on wedding flowers. If you are getting married shortly and want to save a budget of wedding floral decorations, one of the practical ways is for you to make flower arrangement by yourself on your own wedding. This is a planning of DO IT YOURSELF. Some people
who join California Flower Art Academy have this kind of planning. Sometimes, a student takes a lesson with his/her fiance or family members (who help make wedding floral decoration at their wedding). It is not always necessary to master entire range of wedding flower arrangement. If you have mastered even part of wedding decorations, you can do it yourself for a certain area of decorations and have a better experienced professional decorator take care of the rest of decorations whereby they can save money on their own wedding. After their wedding is over, they may offer wedding floral decoration services to their relatives or friends and eventually to the third party customers whereby they could make money on wedding flowers. This way sounds optimistic or realistic ? It fully depends on your will, intention, efforts and enthusiasm whether you can really achieve this way of “business” planning.
In addition to saving and making money on wedding flowers, even more important factor in learning wedding floral
decorations is you can enhance your skills of flower arranging because wedding decoration has a wide range of arrangements and it requires a variety of designs, skills and knowledge. You can also expand a line of your designs.
If you are engaged in floral business such as a florist, floral shop or floral designer, you can expand a line of your floral decorating services which will help your business pretty stab ilized.
California Flower Art Academy offers undermentioned three kinds of wedding floral decoration courses:
1. Wedding Party Arrangement Basic Course for $298.
2. Wedding Ceremony Arrangement Course for $169.
3. Wedding Floral Decoration Advanced Course for $298.
If you are interested in learning wedding flower arrangements, please email to info@california-academy.com
We help you make a difference in floral art.
California Flower Art Academy 