ABSTRACT
One way to think and speak of beauty in relation to handicraft practices is to assign it to the objects, the things that craft-makers produce. This approach to beauty is seen widely in analytical models of aesthetics that have tended to focus on sensory perceptions and judgments of the material world and the art object. This chapter suggests that beauty, from a Lulesami perspective, can be best understood in terms of three interrelated capacities. These are firstly the skills of transforming materials into handicraft; secondly, the craft-maker's ability to develop her hands and to grow accustomed to the work; and thirdly the fostering of specific social skills and personal virtues that are necessary for the making of handicraft, and which have important implications for Lulesami everyday existence. The beauty of handicraft is also a beauty of the hands, despite their twisted appearance, and of the productive skills of the craft-maker.
