Thanks to all for the kind remarks....but, Taylor is correct in that motivation and perseverance do a lot of the "work" in accomplishing expertise in any craft.
But, certain individuals have inherent artistic talent that many of us don't have and that's just a fact of life.....motivation and perseverance only go so far and then inherent talent enables work that's not attainable by most people.
My background in toolmaking and tool designing enables me to make the forms w/o much effort,.....where I struggle is w/ the artistic embellishments, eg.....properly shaping a stock and carving and I don't engrave because early on just wanted to build some personal MLers for hunting and then later on my eyes wouldn't allow it.
But...I do think that many people w/ a lot of motivation and perseverance can produce MLers that are correctly built and pleasing to the eye and therefore appealing to many.....Fred