Striving for Perfection
Should Your Handcrafted Work be Perfect?
CRAFTSMEN IN INDIA believe that nothing but God is perfect. If they see that something they have created has no flaws, they will deliberately make it imperfect in some small way.
Being “perfect” and being exceptionally well made are two different things entirely. The real beauty of a handcrafted object is the fact that it is not perfect. And it is the small imperfections that convinces one that an object was actually created by human hands, not machinery.
The bubbles in glass are proof positive that a living, breathing human being created it; the chisel marks on a carving tell you this piece was not produced by machinery; the slight irregularity of one stoneware plate from another proclaims that hands–not machines–formed their shape.
Just something to think about the next time you find yourself trying too hard to achieve “perfection.”
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Reprinted from Artisan Crafts, a quarterly magazine published by Barbara and Harry Brabec in 1971-1976. For more information, see the note on Barbara’s ABOUT page.
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