A handmade object asks whether identicalness is really the same thing as quality.

Machine-made means every one is identical, which we have learned to call quality. A handmade object has variation, and the variation is evidence of a person deciding, adjusting, and occasionally erring, which is a different kind of good. Consistency is a genuine achievement, and it is not the only measure available.

Use one made thing regularly and notice how differently you treat it. The point is not to reject the manufactured, which is mostly excellent. It is to remember that uniformity was chosen as the standard by the people who could produce it.