...were successively being made... This indicates that Eyn Sof did not want to produce everything fully-formed from the very outset but rather, gradually, stage by stage, starting with the minimum perfection and advancing steadily towards ever-increasing perfection, until complete perfection reigns. Accordingly, what exists at the end is what existed at the outset, although it then lacked the perfection that was intended to come afterwards.
Part 2:...like the way in which a craftsman makes a vessel out of a piece of wood. This means that Eyn Sof did not want to act in accordance with His own intrinsic, limitless power, for He would then have produced complete perfection instantaneously. Rather, He acted like a craftsman who is only able to work gradually, in stages. He takes the lump of material in front of him and shapes it little by little. It undergoes many different changes of form, from one to another, until finally it ends up in its complete form.