Thanks for the kind words!
I think taking a break was a good idea. I’ve been working on material again and making progress (here). I also took a break from just looking at art (twitter, instgram etc) and focused on not pushing it. And yes, some reading and some practice of new techniques too.
Re: Tables/Chairs - ah, the idea of this was just a furniture design, not a serious art piece. I was thinking of it more like an advert/product photo you might see on a website, and the cracked ground was just a quick addition. I usually throw these together in a couple of hours as model practice/sketching ideas, so some of them a bit lazy regarding finishing touches. I never considered it might be an interesting work as an image…