Crafts were the first art form I experienced growing up: my mom is a flea market and craft fair addict and I more often than not tagged along with her, then and now.  Mom also makes jewelry (beautiful earrings, mostly) and gave me a knack for piecing together little projects at the dining room table after work.  My craftiness has migrated to a job at my uncle's cabinetry shop in middle school, zines in high school, home-built stretchers and frames for my paintings in college, and a love for wintertime knitting and crochet passed down from my grandmother and great-grandmother.

Baltimore has a fun, active, and diverse indie craft scene.  One of my coworkers, Christy Zuccarini, recently landed a gig with the Baltimore Sun writing the Baltimore By Hand blog.  So far it has been extremely aesthetically pleasing in addition to being a great read.  Plus, knowing another Baltimorean who blogs about art makes me feel part of a scene -- you should check out Christy's blog at http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/crafts/.