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Frequently Asked Questions
About The Rittners Floral School Distance Education Floral Design Workshops
We are delighted to be able to offer you Distance Education Floral Art Lessons. These exciting new floral education resources are informative and a great value.
In this section we touch upon some of the questions that we are most frequently asked about our Distance Education Floral Design Workshops. Should you have any additional questions please feel free to phone us at 617-267-3824 for more information
about these distance education lessons, about our school and about our various hands-on courses.
Table of Contents
- What is the Purpose of Your Distance Education Floral Design Workshops?
- Do I Need Any Special Talent In Floral Design To Be Able to Profit From These Digital Floral Design Workshops?
- Can I Buy And Use These Distance Education Lessons At Any Time of The Day or Night?
- Do I Need Any Prior Floral Design Experience To Enjoy Rittners Distance Education Floral Design Workshops?
- So Is There A Minimum Number of Distance Education Lessons That I Have To Buy?
- Should I Buy These Lessons in Any Particular Order?
- How Are These Lessons Structured? That is To Say What Is The Format?
- I am Curious About How These Lessons Were Developed ?
- Are These Distance Education Workshops For Professional Use or For hobby?
- I am Looking For A Really Nice Floral Design Workshop, But Not Something As Detailed As Your Hands-on, In House Courses?
- How May Professional Floral Designers Benefit?
- Are The Distance Education Floral Design Workshops The Same As Your In School Diploma Courses?
- Don't You Already Have Digital Lessons Available On Your Website?
- Is There Any Specific Style of Floral Design Presented In These Lessons?
- So If I Take These Digital Workshops, Do I Have To Buy All of The Various Containers and Supplies Needed From You?
- I Bet These Lessons Are Incredibly Expensive, Aren't They?
- I Have Some Additional Questions?
What Is The Purpose of Your Distance Education Floral Design Workshops?
Rittners Floral School has been providing hands-on courses in floral designing for over sixty years at our facility in Boston. We continue to offer them and they are wonderful programs. If you want more information about courses that you can take at our school please go to Hands-on Courses At Rittners Floral School.
Our Distance Education Digital Floral Design Workshops discussed in this part of our web site have been developed due to popular demand for a different kind of need.
Many folks, friends, graduates, and florists, have been contacting us asking for some kind of learning experience that would give them detailed step-by-step floral design instruction of high quality, yet allow them to do it in the privacy of their own homes or shops. In other words, folks have been asking us for some kind of distance education experience in floral design.
Well, we have responded, and the results are truely awesome. We have developed a huge number of distance education lessons in floral design that are really easy to look at and understand. They are best described as tons of photographs showing step-by-step how to make all kinds of pretty floral designs. Best of all they are inexpensive. You pay a moderate price for them, download them and enjoy!
These distance workshop lessons are almost like having members of the Rittners Floral School team right there with you in your home or flower shop, patiently guiding you through the secrets of how to make a variety of floral designs. (But we won’t ask you to serve us dinner.)
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Do I Need Any Special 'Talent' In Floral Designing To Be Able To Benefit From These Distance Floral Design Workshops?
There is a myth, especially in many artistic fields
such as floral art, that you need some kind of magical, mystical talent
in order to be able to learn floral designing......Many designers would work hard to have you believe it.........("Either you have IT or you don't"....It' being some kind of special, magical, mystical combination of artistic talents that most mortals simply don't have........)
In our experience, that is simply not true.
It is great to have talent. It certainly can make life easier..But we have found that floral designing is a skill
that can be taught just as driving a car, learning a language
or learning to use a typewriter. Anyone can learn floral designing...
But there is an important aspect that can make the difference, and can make the process of learning floral art faster, easier and far more enjoyable.
What is it???
What makes the difference is the teaching!
At Rittners we have experience spanning decades of teaching floral art. We know what works and what does not when teaching an art form utiilzing natural media!
You benefit from our experience in teaching floral art, in these downloadable, distance education lessons.
We start right at the beginning in these lessons, and we take you step-by-step through the construction of all kinds of floral designs... You will be amazed at how easily you will be able to follow the instruction and create your own floral art masterpieces!!
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Can I Buy And Use These Distance Workshop Classes At Any Time of The Day or Night?
Learn What You Want... Whenever You Want!
One advantage of our distance education lessons is that you can pace yourself according to your own specific learning style.
Are you the kind of person who likes to learn early in the morning or late at night?
Do you have a challenging schedule?
You can purchase and use any of our distance education lessons at any hour of the day or night and study them any time that you feel like it, at your convenience.... How neat!!!!
That’s part of the beauty of this Distance Education Rittner offering. You can download and enjoy these step-by-step photos and commentary early in the morning or late at night. If you feel like being creative at 3:00 am, these lessons are sitting there waiting for you. Simply pay the very reasonable fee and download the lesson. Of course you may want to actually have some flowers around in order to try the various projects taught in the lessons!
(And please don't phone us at 3:30am to tell us how much fun you had! You may, of course do that during regular business hours!)
Earn bragging rights!---Impress your family and friends with the lovely floral designs that YOU will know how to make!
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Do I need any prior floral design experience or knowledge to enjoy one of Rittners Distance Education Floral Design Workshops?
We have deliberately structured these lessons so that most people will be able to jump into most of the lessons and be able to enjoy them and benefit from them without any prior background or skills.
That is quite an accomplishment. We are proud that our teaching skills and experience enables us to present lessons that allow that kind of flexibility.
In some cases, when we feel that prerequisite knowledge is useful we state it clearly on the lesson description that you may read prior to buying the lesson.
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So is there a minimum number of lessons that I have to buy?
No. There is no minimum amount of lessons that you have to buy.
We want you to really benefit from these lessons and enjoy them. You can buy one. You can buy all of them. (Please buy all of them. And buy additional copies for your friends and family. We would like to feed our dog, and upgrade our computer system. That requires serious money, especially feeding the dog!)
Seriously...There are no requirements that you have to buy any particular number of lessons. In fact we suggest that you try one or or a few at first to see how it works for you. We believe you will love these distance workshops so much that not only will you be back for more, but you may even end up coming to our school in Boston to earn a diploma in floral design.
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Should I buy these lessons in any particular order?
As you explore our online listing of lessons or download the listing of lessons available you will find that there are a large range of topics covered. Each lesson is assigned a number.
There is no particular sequence that you have to follow when buying these lessons. You can buy lesson 033 Romantic Red Centerpiece, (if you are feeling romantic) and then later buy 017 Fall Table Centerpiece (if you are seeking a pretty design with that particular look).
You can buy any lessons, in any order you want. The numbers are there only to help identify the lessons as we have so many available for you. They have nothing to do with level of complexity of the lesson. ( We needed to add the numbers simply to help keep ourselves and our store organized.)
We suggest that you buy these distance education lesssons according to what looks good to you or what subject you are most interested in learning.....
Most of these lessons can be mastered without any prior background in floral design. If a lesson does require prior knowledge, we clearly state that in the description.
So by all means, feel free to pick your lessons depending upon the topic, not the number assigned to it.
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How are these lessons structured? That is to say what is the format?
We spent a lot of time and energy considering the best way to present information to you in a way that is efficient, fast and easy.
In the past our school pioneered in producing instructional video tapes. We considered re-introducing video or DVDs here. We decided however, that one weakness of that kind of instruction is that once you’ve seen it, it’s gone! You have to constantly go back pdf02.jpg) and rewind, or view it over and over again in order to get the information. It requires more time and isn’t necessarily all that efficient.
These distance education workshops are best described as lots of photographs (with commentary) showing step-by-step how to make all kinds of wonderful floral art. They run from twelve to over thirty pages in length depending upon the lesson. Each lesson features tons of photographs and detailed comments on how to do the designing!
They are in pdf format. This means that they are easy to download and access regardless of your computer platform.
Whether you are on a Windows machine or an Apple Mac, you can read pdf files.
They are relatively small files. They may be viewed and stored on your desktop, laptop or simply printed out and placed into a binder. In fact placing them into plastic sleeves and putting them into a binder is a great way of keeping them with you and consulting them as you are actually doing the designing.
FAR MORE EFFICIENT than videos or DVD format!
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Who came up with these floral design distance education workshop lessons?
The Rittners Floral School Team has been involved in the planning, and execution of each  and every one of these online workshops. But these lessons have been very much a cooperative endeavor.....
A variety of design techniques and approaches from our talented floral teaching staff are apparent and make these distance education lessons quite strong. Our staff includes folks with both strong floral art skills as well as a Doctorate in Education. This combination of skills is very evident in these terrific resources.
These lessons feature a huge number of photos. Our outstanding floral photography studio has been working overtime to produce the fabulous floral photography that illustrates each lesson.
Our computer and graphic art resources have made outstanding contributions to these exciting products.
The outstanding IT support staff of our school, has been invaluable in the formulation and availability of these materials.
We are fortunate in that our floral design school has been in existence for over sixty years, making us one of the longest running programs of our kind in the United States.
Our practical experience in teaching floral art pays dividends for you for we have had plenty of practical experience in learning what works (and what doesn’t) in teaching modern floral art. This depth of background, knowledge of teaching and level of commitment becomes quite obvious in these exciting new materials that we have developed for you!
All of our teaching and support departments at Rittners Floral School have come together to create some truly wonderful floral art teaching materials....Clearly thousands of hours in development time have been spent for your benefit!
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Are these distance floral art workshops for professional use or for hobby?
They are for both. They are for anyone with a love of flowers who would like to learn how to arrange them more professionally.
Hobbyists will find that they will learn the ‘tricks of the trade’ that will enable them to achieve professional floral design results with much more ease and confidence. Many hobbyists find that they have a wonderful vision, but it takes so long to achieve it or more materials than anticipated. These lessons will help you gain control over your designing rather than your designing controlling you!
Perhaps as a hobbyist, you’d like to turn that hobby into something that will bring in more income….Or perhaps turn your hobby into a full time business. Many great floral designers have started that way. These lessons will definitely help you!
If you are a professional floral designer these online workshops will definitely help you develop your craft and your professionalism. They may fill in gaps in your knowledge and give you far more self confidence. The designing is quite varied from classical to cutting edge which works to your benefit. The more you know, the more competitive you may be..... And using these lessons you may develop your skills privately, at your own convenience, and whenever your schedule will allow it.
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I am looking for a really nice floral design workshop, but not something as detailed as your longer hands-on, in house courses....
  
Our school is renowned for the terrific hands-on programs that actually occur at our school. But once in a while someone contacts us asking if we have a half day or one day workshop in a very specific area.
These distance workshop lessons are designed specifically with that in mind.
If you need a lesson or are seeking a workshop in a very specific area, these lessons are perfect for you. They are meant to bridge the gap for someone seeking quality floral design education, but not wanting to take a longer course.
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How may professional floral designers benefit from Rittners Distance Workshop Lessons?
Perhaps you are in a bit of a rut, doing the same thing day in day out. Perhaps you are working in a flower shop, and find that the style or approach to floral art done in that shop seems to be pretty much standard everyday things, and feel a need to jump start your own creativity.
Perhaps you would like to surprise or impress your boss or your fellow designers with some new ideas/styles/approaches.
Perhaps you are seeking some new ideas to be more competitive with other floral outlets across the street or across town.
Perhaps you have already taken a course in floral art and want to continue learning even more floral designing. These programs are wonderful for professional development, and continuing education.
Some designers will find them ideal as refresher workshops.
Regardless of your motivation, we believe you may find approaches of value in these distance education lessons.
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Are the Distance Education Floral Design Workshops the same content as your In School Diploma Courses?
No. They are different. If you want to earn a diploma from our school you still have to come to our school! ( We are generous, yes! But not foolish!) These Distance Education Lessons are just that... lessons in a huge number of designs and techniques, but they are not a diploma program....
We do make it easy to actually attend Rittners Floral School with a variety of great hands-on courses.
We offer Day Courses and Evening Courses. These are hands-on programs where we provide you with flowers, materials and supplies as well as outstanding instruction.
Our Day Courses are offered in two formats: Our longer Day Course starts in the fall. It is one of the most comprehensive of its kind in the nation.
Our short Concentrated Day Course is offered in the spring and summer for folks seeking a concentrated learning experience of high quality. It is a good solution for scheduling issues.
Our Evening Course is for local folks seeking a great floral art program at night that allows them flexibility in their day schedule.
Our hands-on workshop courses are world class and attract folks from all over the country and overseas. If you attend in person you enjoy great presentations and also our staff personally guiding you as you learn the art of floral design. You would also enjoy friendships that you make that will last a lifetime!
No. Our distance education workshops are not a substitution for our longer hands-on courses. They are intended as a very special, and very different new resource for folks who are seeking distance floral art instruction.
(Enough of the informercial already! But after taking some of our distance education floral art workshops we believe you will want to attend one of our Diploma Courses At Rittners Floral School.
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Don't you already have Digital Lessons available on your website?
Yes we do. We have a section of our website called our "floral education center." There are a large number of lessons there. Best of all they are free! By all means, please look at them and enjoy them.
But the free lessons on our web site are nowhere as detailed or complete as these Distance Education Workshops. Typically the free lessons may have a few photos and some commentary.
These Distance Education Lessons on the other hand, are far more detailed, with page after page of step-by-step photographs and comments explaining how to do the designing...The difference is dramatic.
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Is there any specific style of Floral Designing presented in these lessons?
The comment that a designer has one particular "style" is, in our opinion, outdated.
The contemporary floral designer has to be able to design in many modes. If one customer wants something classical, the floral artist has to be able to make classical designs. If another customer wants something bizarre or a little kinky, the designer should be able to work in that mode as well.
These lessons reflect that modern reality. Some of them are very traditional. Others are more cutting edge.
We clearly indicate that both in the thumbnail photo of the first page of each lesson and in the description of each lesson.
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So If I Take These Distance Education Workshops, Do I Have To Buy All of The Various Containers and Supplies Needed From You?
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Absolutely Not.
We are here to provide you with the best floral designing instruction that we can, not to force you to buy containers or supplies from us.
If you are a professional you already are acquainted with various supply sources.
If you are a hobbyist there are a huge range of craft and hobby outlets, including your local retail florist from whom you can buy most of the things you need.
We try to make it clear throughout these lessons, how you may use a variety of bases, not necessarily the exact ones we use in a given lesson.
That actually works to your benefit. You become a far better and more independent floral designer if you don't have to rely upon container #53702 to do a specific lesson. And it allows alot more creativity. We want to give you the ability to make all kinds of beautiful floral designs, and not have to rely upon buying container A or container B from us. That gives you far more value in these lessons.
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I bet these Distance Education Floral Design Workshops are incredibly expensive aren't they?
NOT.
In fact these Distance Education Lessons are one of the best deals available in floral design education anywhere!
The cost of each lesson is attractively priced at $12.50
Yes. You read that right.... $12.50.... Let us repeat:
The cost of each lesson is attractively priced at $12.50
WOW!!!
And many of these lessons contain more than one design, or variations on a theme.....
At these prices, you simply can't go wrong!
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I have some additional questions?
We hope that this brief section has answered many of your questions. This is a "Frequently Asked Question" section. It is not meant to cover everything, just some of the more commonly asked things.....
Here are some links that will offer further information for you:
Should you have any additional questions, feel free to phone Dr. Steve Rittner at 617-267-3824. I am very accessible and I enjoy chatting with folks.
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