It’s a major challenge for nearly half of my Eastern Repousse students – how to translate the technique into beautiful flowers and leaves.

Invariably, every time I have ever taught Eastern Repousse over the past 3 decades, some students design lovely flowers to “puff out.” And every time they get to the stage of chasing from the front, they get super confused about how to make the petals overlap so that some come forward in space while others recede.

I always explain that the steps are not different from overlapping abstract shapes, but the students always end up a bit more frustrated than the students who choose non floral designs.

Why?

Well, it’s not the technique, and it’s not their skill level.

It’s our brains.

Unless you’re adept at drawing like a Renaissance master, when you begin sculpting something even a little bit representational, your brain does something completely unhelpful.

Your brain can make you panic. It recognizes the pattern of a flower, for pattern recognition is our brains’ super power. Just when your brain starts thinking, this petal undulates and overlaps, so I should puff out here and later countersink here, the (dreaded) Inner Critic can kick in. The Inner Critic doesn’t want you to screw up because it wants to keep you safe. It tricks you into believing that you’ll somehow get the design “wrong,” and you’ll end up with wasted time and an unsatisfying piece. This inner dialogue can become louder than the belief that you know how to translate what you’ve learned into what you want to make. This turns into doubt about where to hit, when, and how hard.