Adornment

I grew up crafting. In elementary school in Oslo, Norway, we had classes in “håndarbeid” (i.e. hand-craft) from an early age. Of course this was a few years ago and back then the girls were taught certain skills and the boys different ones. But both took home ec! (That’s another story.) Back then – this was in the early middle ages of course – crafting was not really for pleasure, but for practical reasons: Norway is cold so being able to knit wool socks becomes important, we had little money so being able to change out a broken zipper in kids’ jeans was a necessity, canning jams and salting fish kept us through the winter, and so on. But of course every culture adds adornment to the practical: a drinking cup functions to contain water (or beer) without the chiseled pattern around the rim and you can hold a cape together just as well with a simple pin as with an ornate one. What do YOU see as the value (or lack of) of adornment?