A potter’s thumb leaves evidence that a machine would have removed.

A mark left by a hand is information as well as texture. It tells you a person held this, that it happened once, at a particular speed, and could not be repeated exactly. Machines are good at removing that sort of evidence, which is much of why their work looks so even. Perfection and presence pull in different directions.

When you make something, consider leaving one honest trace of your hand rather than sanding every sign of it away. And when you buy something a person made, look for those marks instead of reading them as defects. They are the part a factory cannot supply.