The Art of Imperfection

I am so guilty of having nothing to talk about recently! Being cooped up in the house for 3 weeks mixed with a little personal drama equals full on blog neglect, and the lack of critical thinking becomes way too apparent.
Anyways.... I have received a couple of feedback responses on my Etsy page from customers stating that , "tile had a few little chips in the borders of the petals, despite the very careful packaging", and another "you can see cracks in the design to the tip of the tile." Both added niceties at the end, "But they still look great, just not perfect condition" and "personally don't mind it at all, the tile is so delicate and beautiful, and "imperfections" are part of nature as well. But if you are picky about that sort of thing, you might want to order a different tile that is a bit less fragile."
I have taken this issue very seriously with both of these customers, I want them to be completely satisfied with their pieces, and if I received something in the mail that seemed damaged, I personally would contact the seller right away instead of leaving conflicting feedback. I contacted both of them to see if there were any stray bits of broken clay in the packaging to make sure that if, after 2 years and over 650 online sales, I have started to slack off in the Packaging department. Alas, there were clay bits, in one, not the other.... so who knows, my fault? maybe.
Sometimes when I am finishing a hydrangea tile, a little tiny piece of an edge may make its way into the center, or come off, I smooth over the texture of each individual tile with a soft paint brush before it goes into the kiln, but they are not going to be perfectly smooth, its just not possible unless I spent like 8 hours on each piece, and each texture produces its own issues. As you clay people know, if you are dealing with tiny bits of clay, they form tiny little cracks pretty much the second you touch them...

This brings up an important point, that hand made items are most likely not going to be absolutely perfect like they came out of a machine! I have seen some ceramic atrocities in design stores, stuff hand made by slave labor in china with blow outs on the bottom, its 10 bucks and still made it to the floor of a retail store!
If there is a missing piece, or a huge crack, it either goes in the garbage or on the seconds shelf. Occasionally, a piece thats not quite up to standards will make its way into the world, and I am always ready to exchange things to make my customers happy.