As a working potter, I'm very familiar with the idea of intentionally adding "imperfection" into one's work. Pots created on a potter's wheel are, by their very nature, round and symmetrical. For many potters, myself included, working within the framework of symmetry and striving toward an aesthetic of grace and elegance is what our work is all about.

But many other potters reach a point where they begin to feel that "round is boring" so they intentionally add asymmetry into their work. I have a friend who decided to take the entire year of 2006 "off from round". Every pot he made was struck with a wooden paddle, smacked with the heel of his hand, dropped onto a tabletop, or deformed in some other fashion.

Asymmetry is also part of the aesthetic of Japanese tea bowl making, a seemingly minor ceramic discipline, but one about which entire books have been written and to which acknowledged master ceramicists have devoted lifetimes. (Click here for a picture of a typical tea bowl.) The potter may intentionally work with a ball of clay that is slightly off-center on the wheel, "lopsided" rims aren't trimmed true, fingermarks aren't smoothed out, and random acts of deformation are common. Personally, when I see or handle a tea bowl like the one in the photo link, I feel more of a sense of the pot's earthly origins than I do with more refined pottery, my own included.