We had students, mother and her daughter, from distant locations, Santa Cruz and Fresno respectively. After completing Fresh Flower Arrangement Elementary Course, A mother took lessons of Wedding Party Arrangement Course and a daughter joined Fresh Flower Arrangement Intermediate Course. Both of them were very diligent and had very good sense of floral decorations. We hope they can make the best use of the skills they earned at California Flower Art Academy. Flowers in above pictures were made by them at the classroom. Once in a while our school has students from a very far location such as Sacramento, Napa, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz and Modesto etc. For students who commute from a distant location, we always try to set up flexible lesson schedule in order for them to minimize frequencies of commutation to and from the school.
Ms. Paola Sanjuan Joined Wedding Decoration Course
Ms. Paola Sanjuan (left) and our chief instructor Mieko Hirano Flower Arrangements appearing in the photo are made by her.
Ms. Paola Sanjuan from Bogota, Colombia visited California to stay in San Francisco together with her husband. During her stay in San Francisco for about a month, she joined California Flower Art Academy. She enrolled in the following courses. According to her, there is no floral design school in Bogota Colombia. Therefore it was a very good opportunity for her to learn flower arrangement at our school.
Paola Sanjuan holding certificate with instructor(left) Paola Sanjuan with her classmates(right)
Since she is already engaged in floral business for event decoration in Bogota, Colombia, she could easily mastered various floral arrangements designed for wedding party by joining above mentioned courses.She easily passed the final examination to get a certificate for each course. It is obvious that she could brush up on her floral design skill and expanded the line of wedding floral decorations. We hope the skills she earned at our school will help her expand floral business.
Some people are very interested in making bouquets by themselves and they would like to take lessons. Unfortunately however they do not want to spend lots of money by enrolling in official courses of which curriculum include how to make bouquests. The point is they would like to concentrate on the training of making bouquets only fora while. If you share the same feeling or have interest in learning how to make bouquets, why not join the special program featuring the design of bouquets only.
There are many kinds of bouquets as show in this page. California Flower Art Academy has established a brand new course featuring bouquets designs by the title of Floral Design Bouquet Course ("Bouquet Course"). This course consists of designing three kinds of bouquets and the lesson fee is $178 including flower and bouquet making materials. It takes much more time to make bouquet compoared with other regular kind of floral designs. Usually we have to spend approximately 75 minutes (more or less) to make most of floral designs. However when it comes to bouquets, it usually takes about two (2) hours (more or less). Roughly speaking bouquet making needs almost doubled amount of time compared with ordinary floral designs. Students who join this course are supposed to make only one bouquet a day by spending about two hours. Since it nees much more time and energy, students usually do not make more than one bouquet a day.
The typical application of bouquets is wedding party when a bride holds a bouquet which enhances the beauty of brides. The type of bouquets used for the lessons of this course may be changing from time to time. This may make it possible for you to learn more designs by repeating to attend this course some time later. You can take lessons of this course at our San Jose main classroom or Burlingame extension class not only on weekdays but also on the weekend. If you are interested in learning how to make bouquets, please contact info@california-academy.com We are more than happy to help you acquire skills of making bouquets.
California Flower Art Academy is serving the San Francisco Bay Area and San Francisco Peninsula (South Bay and East Bay) and also Silicon Valley (San Jose in Santa Clara County). Since our school's inception, we have been educating uncountable number of students who would like to acquire practical skills of floral designs and flower arranging from European Floral Art to Japanese Ikebana Arrangement. If you are looking for a reliable floral design school, flower arranging instructor, floral design class or studio where you can learn floral art at affordable prices/tuition, we recommend you to join California Flower Art Academy whose inception goes back to 20 years ago and is authorized by Flower Decorators Association which is one of the best established and most prestigious floral associations in Japan.
No matter for what purpose you want to learn floral arrangements, for hobby or for business, we can help you make a difference in floral art. If you are interested in joining our school, please send email to info @california-academy.com
We are pleased to introduce our Brand New Program featuring Ikebana Arrangement. This program is offered at $98 including flower materials, KENZAN (needlepoint flower holder) and SUIBAN (flat type container specifically designed for Ikebana Arrangement). You can take a lesson from a well experienced Japanese Instructor who got a license and certification in Japan. Ikebana is part of Japanese traditional cultures. This arts requires even more profound and delicate sense and skills in its arrangement compared with a regular kind of flower arrangement. Although the skill, technique and the way of arranging Ikebana is usually not utilized for typical business oriented floral decorations such as wedding or funeral flower arrangement or display and decoration at hotels etc in USA, many people still have keen interest in this particular Japanese floral art. Not only the skill and way of decorations but also tools, utensils, supplies and containers used for Ikebana are of a different kind compared with regular floral designs prevailing in Europe and USA. For Ikebana Arrangement, they use what is called "KENZAN" which is a needlepoint holder for holding flowers and flower stems. KENZAN is made of metal and it has tremendous number of needles. Due to its function and also the nature of material, it is heavy and not disposable. This is the biggest difference compared with "OASIS" which is used for a regular kind of floral arrangement. OASIS is made of chemical foam and it is very light and disposable. For holding flowers, flower stems are inserted into OASIS. KENZAN is said to be more difficult to use for floral arrangement compared with OASIS. Another difference in utensil is a container/vase. For Ikebana arrangement, they often use flat container called "SUIBAN" which is designed specifically for Ikebana Arrangement and totally different from a regular kind of vase. Additional difference can be found in the history and a life style behind Ikebana arrangement. Most of young ladies who grew up in a decent level of society in Japan were required to earn the skill of Ikebana arrangement before getting married. Namely Ikebana was considered one of mandatory subjects young women should learn before getting married until around 40-50 years ago. By making the best use of Ikebana skills they learned before marriage, they could make interior floral decoration at home after getting married. Nowadays in Japan, European style of contemporary floral design (In Japan they call it just "Flower Arrangement" which does not mean IKEBANA but contemporary floral designs) is more popular although Ikebana used to be mainstream until about 25 to 30 years ago. By knowing above situation, if you are interested in Ikebana and want to acquire skills for making Ikebana arrangement, we are more than happy to help you by educating you based on hands on training or person to person instructions. California Flower Art Academy is pleased to announce a Brand New Program called "Ikebana Short Program" which is offered at $98 including flower materials, KENZAN and also SUIBAN introduced above. By attending this program, you will learn entry level of two kinds of Ikebana Arrangements spending about 2.5 hours. This short program is part of Ikebana Arrangement Elementary Course (offered for $210). You can join this short program as a trial lesson for evaluating our way of instruction and the quality of our lesson. If you feel comfortable and satisfied with our way of instructions, you can transfer to Ikebana Arrangement Elementary Course. By rolling over to this elementary course, you can make the best use of above mentioned KENZAN and SUIBAN you already got at Ikebana Short Program. And all you need to pay for the lesson of this elementary course is additional $151 only. California Flower Art Academyhas been educating uncoutable number of students since 1990 in the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley. Our school is authorized by Flower Decorators Association which is one of the best established and prestigious floral associations in Japan. You will enjoy a training by our Ikebana Instructor who has over 30 year experience as Ikebana instructor. Lessons are offered at our San Jose main classroom and also Burlingame extension class (located in San Mateo County near San Francisco Airport). If you would like to join Ikebana Short Program, send email to info@california-academy.com We help you make a difference in floral art.
Brand New Program Wedding Decoration Advanced Course
Enhance your skills AND expand your line of decorations
The photo is Floral Pomander for a bride at Wedding
Attention: Students who would like to learn higher level of skills of wedding floral designs.
Due to the increasing demand for the training classes about wedding floral decorations, California Flower Art Academy has established a brand new course
(by the title of Wedding Floral Decoration Advanced Course) specializing in higher level of wedding floral decorations.
If you have already completed a regular course of wedding floral decorations (such as Table Arrangement Center Piece Program, Wedding Party Arrangement Basic Course or Wedding Ceremony Arrangement Course), it is highly recommended to join this brand new Advanced Course so that you can further brush up on your decoration skills and acquire even higher level of wedding floral arrangements. The fee for this brand new course is $298 for learning several different types of wedding floral designs. The fee for certificate is separate. You will learn the undermentioned 5 kinds of designs by joining this course.
We are afraid that the article here does not really reflect the concept of "What is new ?". Anyway we would like to mention little bit about the nature of Ikebana Arts. The above picture shows one of designs made by CFAA's graduate (Ms. Moon Soon Lee) who now lives in Korea. As seen from the picture, the style and shape as well as the sense is somewhat different from contemporary flower arrangement which is very popular in the floral business industry. This design reflects linear and delicate touch of Japanese sense. Qluite frankly speaking Ikebana may be more difficult for entry level of students to learn and earn the skills of designs. Usually in Japan, most of students learn Ikebana by spending tremendous amount of time (2-3 years sometimes longer period) for mastering its difficult designs. Needless to say, it requires very long period of time to obtain a license or qualification of Ikebana Instructor. Another outstanding difference is the way of decorations. They use what is called "Kenzan"(Needlepoint Holder) of which picture is shown below:
Kenzan (left) and Oasis (right)
This Kenzan is made of steel. There are lots of needles inserted on the steel base and therefore it is heavy enough to hold flower materials (especially stems). By inserting flower stems to needles, Ikeban arrangement is done. This Kenzan is not disposable unlike "Oasis" used for regular flower arrangement. In the case of contemporary flower arrangement (European or American style arrangement), they use chemical stuff (the foam called "Oasis" which looks like sponge) into which flower stems are inserted. This Oasis is disposble unlike Kenzan. It is much easier to use Oasis than Kenzan in terms of required techniques.
When it comes to doing business such as wedding decoration or funeral arrangement etc., Ikebana is not recommendable because it usually takes more time to arrange/make and requires more skills than contemporary arrangement. Furthermore many of Japanese traditional style of Ikebana decorations often do not match with atmosphere of contemporary wedding ceremonies.
Notwithstanding the above, there are some people who prefer Ikebana to contemporary arrangement and they would like to learn Ikebana mainly because of their intention of learning (or becoming familiar with) part of traditional Japanes cultures. California Flower Art Academy offers the following Ikebana Course:
A. Ikebana Arrangement Elementary Course:
Seven lessons (one lesson is about 60-90 minutes): $210 to complete a course.
(The fee includes tuition and flower materials. But the fee for certificate,
testing fee for a certificate and flower materials for such a test are separate)
B. Ikebana Arrangement Intermediate Course:
Seven lessons (one lesson is about 60-90 minutes): $245 to complete a course.
(The fee includes tuition and flower materials, But the fee for certificate,
testing fee for a certificate and flower materials for such test are separate).
Certificate will be issued under the name of California Flower Art Academy. If you are interested in learning Ikebana Arts, please contact us by emailing to us
(use following email address).
Programs offered from $98 to $178 including flower materials
Some students would like to take a special program focusing on a limited theme such as gift wrapping flower design, bridal bouquets, wreaths or corsages etc etc. in order to save tuition cost and also learning time as well. If you are interested in any training session featuring the narrow themes as mentioned above, we recommend you to join our newly developed programs as stated below:
A. Floral Design Corsage Seminar Program for $98
B. Floral Design Wreath Making Program for $178
C. Floral Design Bouquets Course for $178
D. Gift Wrapping Flower Design Program for $95
These training sessions are a kind of short program and you do not have to spend a whole day to finish each of these courses. Lessons are offered at our San Jose main class room and also at our Burlingame extension class. Classes are available not only weekday but also weekend, daytime and evening as well to support busy people. If you are interested in joining above programs, just send us your e-mail to the undermentioned e-mail address so you can raise any kind of questions or set up your lesson schedule with us. We offer lessons you like with help you need. Make a difference in floral art.
Earning Wedding Floral Decoration Skills Help you Save Or Make Money on Wedding Flowers
Due to the high demand for Wedding Floral Decoration Course, we have recently established a new program called "Wedding Floral Decoration Advanced Course". People who have completed Wedding Floral Design and Decoration Course can join this program so that they will further brush up on their decoration skills on wedding flowers. Some people feel motivated to learn wedding floral decoration for two reasons stated below:
(1) They want to minimize floral decoration fee at their own wedding.
Suppose he/she is scheduled to get married in the near future, they will attend classes and acquire skills of wedding flower arrangements. No matter whether he/she has completely master such skills or not, it may help them to minimize the floral decoration fee by DIY (DOING IT YOURSELF) on part or whole of the decorations. If he/she attended Table Arrangement Center Piece Program (for only $150) and earned skills of making table arrangement, he/she may be able to make table decorations by himself/herself. And they can have a professional decorator do the rest of decorations whereby he/she can save some cost of floral decoration, If he/she has mastered a broader range of wedding decorations by attending Wedding Floral Decoration Course (and also possibly
Wedding Floral Decoration Advanced Course), it will greatly contribute to saving tremendous amount of floral decoration fee on their own weddings.
(2) After their own wedding is over, if they want to make the best use of the skills of floral decorations which they earned from the lesson at our school PLUS experiences of actual decoration on their own wedding, it may be possible for them to do a part time or full time business as a wedding floral decorator.
This job may be part of florist or part of floral designer. It depends on his/her intention and the situation surrounding them. During ramp up stage of wedding floral decorator, it may be necessary to offer affordable prices to his/her customers for wedding decorations.
No matter what kind of purpose he/she wants to learn wedding floral decorations, it will definitely help enhance designing skills and techniques because wedding floral decoration requires a wide range of skills and once he/she has mastered the way of wedding decorations, it may level up the skills of flower arrangement without any doubt. Consequently it will contribute to growing the business of florist or floral designer.
By making various experiences such as wedding floral decorations, it may help him/her offer flower arranging instructions to his/her own students. Above mentioned scenario may be quite realistic or may be too optimistic. It fully depends on his/her will, intention, enthusiasm and efforts done by each person. California Flower Art Academy hopes our students achieve their goal of becoming a professional floral artist or enhancing their floral design skills to their satisfactory level. If you are interested in learning wedding floral decoration or just want to try even entry level of floral design lessons, please end us your enquiry to the undermentioned e-mail address. We are more than happy to help you earn practical skills of flower arrangements.
Introducing New Program for Table Arrangement Center Piece Decoration for Only $150-
Can be used for decoration of any kind of party and event
Dear Future Students,
You can join this program by skipping Fresh Flower Arrangement Elementary Course.
Due to a very high demand and increasing enquiries about table arrangement center piece decorations, California Flower Art Academy has decided to provide a brand new program featuring table arrangement center piece decoration. In this program, students learn four types of table arrangements which can be used for various kinds of event, party, decoration and reception such as wedding party, birthday party, halloween party or even Christmas party whatsoever. Our school picks up 3 different types of center piece designs which can be easily made even by entry level of students. Center piece arrangement is most probably one of the easiest decorations and by acquiring the skill for this sort of design, students can level up their techniques leading to the next level of decorations. In this sense this program is very useful and informative. If you want to make floral decoration by yourself at any kind of party which is coming soon, this program could be one of very ideal ones in terms of quick way for reaching practical designs. You can make the best use of this program if you are scheduled to get married in the near future and you want to minimize the cost of floral decorations, you can do this decoration by yourself and yet a professional designer does the rest of decoration. It is fully up to you how to make the best use of your skill acquired from this special program.
Here is a summary and gist of this program as follows:
1. Fee: $150 including tuition and flower materials
2. Number of designs you learn at this program: 3 types of decoration
4. How many hours: approximately 3 to 4 hours
5. Where: At our San Jose Class Room and Burlingame Class Room.
6. What day of the week:1st, 3rd & 4th Saturday (at Burlingame) and 2nd & 4th
Sunday (at San Jose)
7. What time: From 10:00am to about 3:00pm (30-60 minutes lunch break from 12:30)
8. How many students per class: 2-6 students
9. Language: English
10.How to enroll: Contact our school by sending e-mail to us (click the mail
address below) to ask the availability of space and after deciding the
day of lesson, send your check to us. Make check payable to CFAA and send
it to CFAA at 1270 Albion Lane, Sunnyvale, CA 94087 together with your memo
showing the day of lesson and your e-mail address.
If you are interested in joining this program, just send us your e-mail by clicking our e-mail address stated below. We look forward to working with you.
Sincerely yours,
California Flower Art Academy
Mieko Martha Hirano, Managing Director
We made 300 pieces of Corsage for the Big Party in Tokyo
Party Held by City Lights Entertainment Japan
On February 28, there was a big party held by City Lights Entertainment in Tokyo. This party is regularly held every 3 months in Tokyo under the auspices of City Lights Entertainment. This is a party for enthusiastic fans of pip-hop dance and Japanese leading dancers are invited as guest dancers at the party. The party is called "Guest House". Our school was requested to make 300 corsages which are give away items for the guests who attended the party. By clicking the site address below, you can see the various scenespictures at this party including the corsages /floral decoration we offered.
Are you looking for floral design schools or flower arranging studios ? Are
you at a loss which school you should join OR are you still searching the most ideal school
(or instructor) for you to learn flower arrangement ? Here is an answer to help you make a decision.
California Flower Art Academy has established a special program called
"Introductory Budget Program" (or "Introductory Budget Seminar") in order
for you to evaluate the quality of our lesson as well as our way of instruction
before you officially enroll at our school.
You do not have to pay the total amount necessary to complete the course.
Before you officially enroll at our school, we will give you the opportunity
for you to evaluate the lessons at our school. All you pay is just $89-. As
to further details, please go through the following introduction:
(1) Purpose:
We help you evaluate our instruction and way of teaching of floral design
before you make official enrollment at our school.
(2) Budget:
All you have to pay is only $89- covering two lessons (for learning two kinds
of floral designs. One lesson lasts 75 to 90 minutes making total lesson time 2.5 to 3 hours). The total amount $89 covers tuition and flower materials fee.
(3) Location:
You can join this Introductory Floral Design Program at the following class rooms:
a. San Jose (Silicon Valley): 7280 Blue Hill Drive #7, San Jose, CA 95129
b. Burlingame (near San Francisco Airport): 831 Mitten Rd., Suite 203, Burlingame, CA 94010
(4) Credit/Unit:
You can earn two credits (two units) by attending this trial program. And
if you decide to continue taking further lessons, the units (two credits)
you earned from this trial program will be counted as a part of total credit
required for completing Fresh Flower Arrangement Elementary Course. As to the
fee when taking this Elementary Course, all you have to pay is just additional $321 covering the lesson of remaining 10 designs.
(5) Introductory to Elementary Course:
This program can be used for you to evaluate our way of instruction which
is based on hands on training. Our instructor will train you well considering
the level of each student's understanding and progress.
(6) Small Class:
Unlike local community colleges' floral design classes, we adop very small
scale class. The typical number of students is 2-6 students per class in
order to keep the high quality of instruction.
(7) Want to talk with us ?:
If you have any questions and would like to talk with us, call call the
managing director (Mieko Hirano) on 408-859-7812 or send e-mail to the
undermentioned email address.
REMARKS:
(a) Above fee/prices are subject to change without notice.
(b) We accept enrollment on FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED basis.
If you are interested in this program, contact us at undermentioned e-mail
(flower@california-academy.com) so that we will set up your lesson schedule.
We look forward to working with you soon.
Thank you,
Mieko Martha Hirano
Managing Director
California Flower Art Academy
Moon Soon Lee has graduated from Instructor Course
She is the first Korean student who got the certificate of CFAA Instructor
Moon Soon Lee (left) with a Certificate.
CFAA is pleased to announce that Ms. Moon Soon Lee has successfully graduated from the Instructor Course of Fresh Flowe Arrangement. She is the first Korean Student who has become the Instructor certified by CFAA. After going back to Korea, she is planning to open a branch school of California Flower Art Academy.
Not Only Educations but also Decorating Services Available
Attention: Couples who are scheduling to get married.
California Flower Art Academy (CFAA) is pleased to announce that we have started
to offer Event Decorating Services such as Wedding Ceremony/Party, Birthday and
Graduation Party whatsoever. According to your budget and requirement, we can offer floral decorations at affordable prices. Among so many events, wedding is
one of the most important one which involves tremendous amount of budget. We try to minimize such cost by your making a choice from one of the undermentioned
options:
1. You can depend on us for making wedding floral decoration at affordable
prices.
2. You just purchase floral materials from us at affordable prices and ask
some other person (such as your friend or floral artist) to make decorations.
3. You learn the way of making flower arranging for your wedding by joining
our school. You can start with Elementary Course and soon proceed to
Wedding Decorating Course. We will help you become a professional floral
designer. After your wedding is over, you can offer decorating services
to some other couples as a side work.
No matter which choice you make, we help you minimize the cost for your wedding.
Ms. Kim Armenta, her husband and mother in law are planning to open a flower shop shortly, for which purpose they are now learning flower arrangement. Remarkable progress has been made so far and CFAA is proud of these students.
We help your dream become true for becoming a florist.
Goal for opening flortist is just around the corner
Ms. Kim Armenta, her husband and mother in law are now learning floral design at our school in order to open the floral shop in Silicon Valley. They are making remarkable progress and the goal of becoming a florist is just around the corner. CFAA (California Flower Art Academy) will help you become a florist,
floral designer or wedding floral decorator.
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We are pleased to introduce our Brand New Program featuring Ikebana Arrangement. This program is offered at $98 including flower materials, KENZAN (needlepoint flower holder) and SUIBAN (flat type container specifically designed for Ikebana Arrangement). You can take a lesson from a well experienced Japanese Instructor who got a license and certification in Japan. Ikebana is part of Japanese traditional cultures. This arts requires even more profound and delicate sense and skills in its arrangement compared with a regular kind of flower arrangement. Although the skill, technique and the way of arranging Ikebana is usually not utilized for typical business oriented floral decorations such as wedding or funeral flower arrangement or display and decoration at hotels etc in USA, many people still have keen interest in this particular Japanese floral art. Not only the skill and way of decorations but also tools, utensils, supplies and containers used for Ikebana are of a different kind compared with regular floral designs prevailing in Europe and USA. For Ikebana Arrangement, they use what is called "KENZAN" which is a needlepoint holder for holding flowers and flower stems. KENZAN is made of metal and it has tremendous number of needles. Due to its function and also the nature of material, it is heavy and not disposable. This is the biggest difference compared with "OASIS" which is used for a regular kind of floral arrangement. OASIS is made of chemical foam and it is 
very light and disposable. For holding flowers, flower stems are inserted into OASIS. KENZAN is said to be more difficult to use for floral arrangement compared with OASIS. Another difference in utensil is a container/vase. For Ikebana arrangement, they often use flat container called "SUIBAN" which is designed specifically for Ikebana Arrangement and totally different from a regular kind of vase. Additional difference can be found in the history and a life style behind Ikebana arrangement. Most of young ladies who grew up in a decent level of society in Japan were required to earn the skill of Ikebana arrangement before getting married. Namely Ikebana was considered one of mandatory subjects young women should learn before getting married until around 40-50 years ago. By making the best use of Ikebana skills they learned before marriage, they could make interior floral decoration at home after getting married. Nowadays in Japan, European style of contemporary floral design (In Japan they call it just "Flower Arrangement" which does not mean IKEBANA but contemporary floral designs) is more popular although Ikebana used to be mainstream until about 25 to 30 years ago. By knowing above situation, if you are interested in Ikebana and want to acquire skills for making Ikebana arrangement, we are more than happy to help you by educating you based on hands on training or person to person instructions. California Flower Art Academy is pleased to announce a Brand New Program called "Ikebana Short Program" which is offered at $98 including flower materials, KENZAN and also SUIBAN introduced above. By attending this program, you will learn entry level of two kinds of Ikebana Arrangements spending about 2.5 hours. This short program is part of 
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