Rob Kalin learned the secret to success while he was still in his baby bed. At age one, the Boston-bom teacher's son dragged around a stuffed rabbit that had been lovingly sewn by one of his mother's students. True, one of the ears was sewn on backward, but that just added to its magic. "It was always special to me," Kalin remembers of his first handmade craft .

Kalin's appreciation for the simple and the simply eccentric inspired him to create etsy. com, an online craft fair, probably the largest market for handmade goods in the world. Last year, 350,000 woodworkers and other craftsmen sold their one-of-a-kind crafts on the four-year-old site.

They sell everything from hand-knit sleeves for Macbooks ($32) to myrtle-wood electric guitars ($3,200). And in an age of chain stores, it seems there's still a big market. More than three million consumers in 150 countries purchased about $87.5 million worth of crafts on Etsy last year.

Emily Worden, founder of Elemental Threads, a custom handbag and jewelry company, signed up with Etsy when she started her company two years ago. She pays Etsy a 20-cent standard fee for each item she lists on the site, plus a 3.5 percent commission on everything sold. Etsy allows her to track the number of times customers click on a particular item to view it. "We can see that our necklaces are a popularly viewed item and which color1s and sizes get the most views," she says. "That is a guide to evolving our product lines."

Today, Etsy's staff has ballooned to 70 employees, and the company reportedly earns more than $12 million a year.

Kalin's father was a carpenter and taught him early on how to use his hands. Indeed, in high school, he put his skills to work -- developing the photos of his classmates and handcrafting a graduate ID to attend design classes. Eventually, he was admitted to New York University, studying classics and working as a carpenter.

Kalin has also started sewing some of his own clothes. "I have to make something physical at least once a month," says Kalin, "or I go crazy."

Answer this series of questions:

1. where was Rob born?
2. when did he learn how to succeed?
3. how old was he?
4. what business did he start?
5. what was his inspiration?
6. what was his special handmade item he had as a child?
7. what made it "magical" to him?
8. who made it?
9. was his mom a techer?
10. what is sold on his website?
11. how many employees does he have?
12. how much does the company make?
13. did Kalin go to college?
14. where?
15. what did he study?
16. what else?

Numbered answers:
1. Boston
2. while he was still in his baby bed.
3. One
4. etsy. com
5. Kalin's appreciation for the simple and the simply eccentric
6. a stuffed rabbit
7. one of the ears was sewn on backward
8. one of his mother's students.
9. yes
10. one-of-a-kind crafts
11. 70
12. more than $12 million a year
13. yes
14. New York University
15. classics
16. working as a carpenter