When I was a kid and finished my first paint-by-numbers picture, I concluded that art didn’t require much skill or talent. Now I sometimes wander the aisles of a hobby shop and gaze longingly at the kits and supplies on the store shelves. Since my stint as a 10-year-old painter, I’ve learned that I’m just not an artsy-craftsy person!

March is National Craft Month, initiated by the hobby industry supposedly to introduce people to (take a deep breath!): Paper-Maché * Decoupage * Scrapbooking * Macrame * Stenciling * Wearable Art * Crocheting * Woodworking * Sewing * Ceramics * Rubber-Stamping * Recycling Crafts * Floral Arranging * Home Decorating * Jewelry Making * Beading * Basketry * Tole Painting * Candle Making * Cross-Stitching * Soap Making * Mosaics * Collage * Embroidery * Dough Art * Sculpting * Metal Punch * Appliqué * Masks * Knitting * Batik * Stained Glass * Weaving.

Being a cynic, I think it’s just a marketing ploy to help retailers boost their revenue!

Nevertheless, I’m in awe of those creative people who have the vision and dexterity to see a big coke bottle and make a bird feeder from it. Some of those people manage to make a living with their crafts—either by selling them, or by teaching others. For example, Carol Duvall, TV personality and professional crafter, is known as the “Queen of Crafts”. Another is Terry Ouellette, a national spokesperson for the Hobby Industry Association, and an Emmy-award winner for her Arizona-based home arts-and-crafts show.

There must be something to all this hoopla as even a prestigious institution as the Smithsonian gets in on the act. The 27th Annual Smithsonian Craft Show takes place April 23–April 26, 2009 at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. This year’s exhibit features 120 artists–selected from 1300 applicants–to show contemporary American craft.

I wonder if those chosen were born with crafty genes. Or did their parents reinforce their creativity by oohing and aahing over their misshapen paper-maché volcanoes? Were they praised even when they colored the sky red instead of blue?

In my younger days, I tried my hand at candle making. After spending my retirement money on molds, scents, colorings, wax, and wicks, I ended up with 212 candles and no idea what to do with them since I’d long ago gifted friends and relatives with my experiments.

The care, time, and resourceful materials put into the handmade cards by a friend are treasured more than any expensive factory-made greeting. And the originality of my daughter’s artistry has been worthy of framing on my living room wall. I’m a bit envious of their seemingly easy accomplishments and wish I could reciprocate.

When I lived in the country, I kept bee hives. If not a craft, surely beekeeping could be considered an art. Hmm… I wonder how I could work that into celebrating arts and crafts month!