New handmade work does not have a condition scale, because the useful distinction is not good-to-bad. It is intentional against unintentional.
Two lists, kept apart
What is intentional — asymmetry, tool marks, glaze pooling and crawling, dye variation, slub in handwoven cloth, the join where the work was held. These are evidence of the hand. Describe them as features, in your own words, and show them close.
What is not — chips, cracks, hairlines, firing faults that weaken the piece, a finish that has lifted, a repair. These are faults and they belong in their own sentence, with a photograph.
A listing that mixes the two leaves a buyer unable to tell which they are being sold.
Seconds
A piece with a real fault, sold as a second, at a second's price, with the fault shown. It is an honest and popular way to sell, and it is a reason buyers come back.
Never let a second travel without the word. The fault is not the problem; the surprise is.
Say how it should be used
Food-safe or not. Watertight or not. Dishwasher, microwave, outdoors: yes or no. For functional work these are condition facts, because a buyer who treats a piece wrongly will think it failed.
Add care in one line — and if a finish will change with use, say that it will and that it is meant to.
For older or used handmade pieces
Then it is an ordinary condition description: wear, repairs, losses, and what has been done to it. The antiques vocabulary applies — original, repaired, restored.
Questions people ask
How do I describe a glaze that varies across the piece?
As intended variation, with a photograph of the extremes. Show the range rather than the best angle.
Is a hairline crack a second or a fault?
A fault, always declared, and usually not worth selling at all in functional ware.
Should I say how long a piece will last?
Say how to care for it. Promising a lifespan is a claim you cannot keep.
More: condition words across every category, buying handicrafts.