I grew up hearing from my grandfather and my mother, about those individual variations that make any handmade or personally performed item slightly different from every other, "That is the print of the potter's thumb." Every handsewn garment (including my white velvet wedding dress) seemed to have a speck of blood in it from a pin or needle stick. I would never presume to think my work would be so nearly perfect that I would need to introduce any imperfection deliberately, but rather assume that artisans of all sorts over the years recognize that there will be these individual variations. To me, they do indicate the human nature of the maker, which in itself has value in this age (or probably in any age). For a practical maker (as the one Jim Dixon describes) to respond with the observation that this is a fact of life and not worth trying to change, and an esthete (such as the oriental ceramicists bee-dubya-ell describes) to see that as part of the interest of the piece, and for the devout ones to consider that perfection is a divine, not a human, trait, and for a philosopher to recognize and accept the inevitable reminder of fallibility or distinction, seem all one to me.