Polymer Clay backfill technique... and Kabbalah

So, a few hours of research and work, and voila!  Success!

It's not so cheesy anymore!  (Well, it's a little cheesy in this photo, but once I have the other elements attached...)

Obviously I have a long way to go, to get the technique perfected.  But this was real progress!  I used a much thicker pin to make the lines this time.  I filled in the holes with a purple and the lines with black, using the backfill technique that is described very well here -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh2RcVqrYNQ

Thank you VERY VERY MUCH PolymerClayStudio!  That set of videos is very helpful!

As I was working on it, I remembered something - I think I was confusing two of Jeff's techniques.  There was this one, where you use the ball stylus to backfill, and then another one where you cut out holes to see the color underneath.  In any case, I recommend his classes.  The thing I learned the most, and which I haven't perfected yet, is refinement.  So, if no other reason than to see how a master does it, get into a workshop of his if you can.

And then practice...

I'm going to put it aside for a day or so.  There are two more pieces left - the finial on top, and the stand.   I have beginnings of them in my mind, but I want to pause a bit, let them stew a little longer.  I also remembered another technique Jeff taught, and I want to think about incorporating that, and using it to link all the components together.  But I'll let that be a surprise...

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While I was in the library last time, I picked up a book by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner called "Kabbalah a love story".  I don't know why I picked it up, I just did.  I don't even remember what it was near, why I was in that aisle of the library.

It's very lovely!  Here's a quote:

For both to love and to find God, you must annihilate your self.  If you still hold on to your self, then it isn't love.

Interesting.  I am coincidentally also reading Robert Thurman's "Inner Revolution", which I thought was a history of Buddhism, but it's actually an explanation of Buddhism.  And Kabbalah and Buddhism seem similar.  So next, I'll have to see what Joseph Campbell had to say about it all...


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