Persian Flaw
The story goes that Persian carpet makers would make a small mistake somewhere in the making of their amazingly beautiful carpets. Their reasoning was that only God is perfect. This is known as The Persian Flaw. On the other side of the world the Navajo would leave a loose thread or add a different coloured bead to their carpets. Theirs wasn't a God thing. In Navajo culture, rug weavers intentionally created small imperfections in their work. Relieved of the unrealistic mandate to be flawless, the rug can relax into its beauty.
On yet another side of the world the Japan mingei movement celebrated wabi sabi or the art of imperfection.
These past weeks I have been visiting the hundreds of pots in my collection. The ones I love the most have the Persian Flaw, the Navajo relaxation and the Japanese wabi sabi.
When I first started making pottery over 5 decades ago I strived for perfection. I thought that was called good craftsmanship and it is such a good foundation. But to make soulful work I'm with the Navajo. I like relaxed pots. When I make a cup during a demo and the final step is a gash of the thumbnail people often look puzzled and then asked why I did that? I have been doing it so long I had forgotten why until today. I make it so in hundred years if that cup survives someone will pick it up and wonder "why"! I prefer my pots to be about why than how. They are never that clever that anyone really wonders how I made them. They often wonder why I did something.
We all have a Persian Flaw in the making of our beautiful selves. It is not something to cover up and hide, it is something to celebrate. It is our soul. Show yours proudly and as often as you can. 
Above is one of my cups, a jar of Ryogi Matsumimya and one of Mr. K's cups.
Comments
a legend involving ancient Persian rug makers, who wove an intentional flaw into each carpet they made. A Persian flaw was a flaw intentionally introduced by Persian artisans of Earth to signify that man was inherently flawed.
The idea of this was to remind us of our flawed humanness, because only God is capable of perfection, and to show this carpet makers would intentionally place flaws or mistakes in the carpet.
Celebrate your unique differences!
AK
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wabi sabi is based on the idea that nothing is perfect from the start, It is about imperfection; about appreciating things all the more because you know that they are transitory and will pass and that nothing on earth is forever. Wabi sabi embraces anything that reminds the viewer of the natural world. It spurns uniformity for what is asymmetrical and rough. Flaws and imperfections are good. Small scale and artless is good. Anything that is natural and unself-conscious is good.
March to a different drummer!
Lessons for Ourselves
We do not have to wait until we are perfect to start living our lives, or to appreciate who we are.
Our unique combination of strengths, abilities, failures, experiences all combine to create who we are. Just like the ceramic collection, we are not a set because each element is perfect. We are a complete person because of the sum of our combined experiences and characteristics.
Our strengths may not be what we want them to be. Our strengths may not be what we admire in others. But our strengths and experiences make us who we are. There is no one else exactly the same. Our authenticity gives us heart and strength.
We can celebrate beauty in others. It is time to celebrate it within ourselves too.
Liz R.
https://itgetsbettercanada.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1gxziZwmkc
kintsugi can be seen to have similarities to the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, an embracing of the flawed or imperfect. Japanese aesthetics values marks of wear by the use of an object. This can be seen as a rationale for keeping an object around even after it has broken and as a justification of kintsugi itself, highlighting the cracks and repairs as simply an event in the life of an object rather than allowing its service to end at the time of its damage or breakage.
Christy B
A break is something to remember, something of value, a way to make the piece more beautiful, rather than something to disguise. They use gold, not invisible superglue because mistakes shouldn’t be considered ugly. – Penny R
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=599906788804082&set=a.462808225847273
- Naomi
I hope you can get rid of that other anonymous poster.