Well, crafting can be a hobby, a creative outlet, or simply a way to spend time with friends.

For one Charlotte woman, it became something much more.

Michelle Fernandez discovered that making art helped her navigate some of life's toughest challenges.

Producer John Branscum shows us how today that journey has inspired a community and business that's helping others do the same.

(bright music) - All right, guys.

Hello, hello.

Welcome, welcome.

Thank you for being here.

Came out here with a friend to do some arts and crafts, which I probably haven't done since I was a kid.

- If it was your first time at Craft Club, welcome.

It's just a great way to meet new people here in Charlotte.

Craft Club's always on the first Sunday of each month.

We always want to make it free.

We always want to make it interesting.

I grew up being a crafty kid.

Craft was my therapy.

You know, that is how I processed my emotions.

I later went to school, became a therapist, and used art as my primary modality of therapy.

And so Craft Club came from that.

- I just really like the energy here.

I really like how she incorporates crafts and kind of incorporates that with mental health.

- I'm Michelle Fernandez.

I am the owner here at La Bodeguita.

I am a single mom to a wonderful 11-year-old boy.

I am also an artist, an art appreciator, and a therapist, a mental health therapist.

(gentle pensive music) It really wasn't until college when I got pregnant, and it was just a change of plan.

I was 23, still finishing college, and really just didn't know what was happening.

I was so happy and grateful for this little baby, but I didn't know why I felt the way I felt.

And postpartum hit hard.

You're told this should be the happiest time of your life.

You have this gift of raising this little child, and I did not feel that way.

I felt stuck.

I felt so anxious.

Throughout COVID, I found that these symptoms were escalating to, like, a full panic attack, so I felt extreme loneliness.

It was just one of the most isolating, lonely times of my life.

I was just really at my wit's end.

I knew that I needed to do something.

I knew that to be able to give my child a childhood that I really desired, something had to change.

(bright cheerful music) I started going to therapy, and she helped me just through so much.

She was like, "How did you pass your time as a kid?

And how did you process emotions?"

And I was like, "Well, I used to make things."

So I ended up finding different mediums that helped and started that process of giving form to the feelings I had inside, giving language to the emotion.

I started looking at art more as a practice.

It wasn't just something I was doing when I had spare time.

It was something I had to do so that I could be alive.

When I would start feeling anxiety, instead of sitting in it and trying to escape that feeling, I would go make something.

I knew that I wanted to work in the perinatal field.

I knew that I wanted to approach therapy differently, and I kept finding that a lot of the women I was serving were struggling in the same ways I was.

I started bringing it in small ways.

Okay, so if we talk and collage about identity and values, how much further can we go?

If we play with clay while we talk about trauma, how do we process it?

And I kept seeing that my clients would push themselves further.

They would open up more.

We had our first craft club.

It was amazing.

There were, like, 50 people there, and we collaged our values for the year, and from there, it really took on a life of its own.

- You can kind of lose your mind in doing the arts and crafts.

Like, you're just focused on what you're doing in that moment.

You're present, and I think that's what's really relaxing.

A lot of times, we're constantly thinking about the future, what's tomorrow, what's coming next, but now you just get to be in the now.

- It's brave for anyone who walks through these doors to come to a space that they're not familiar with and to be brave enough to come here and sit down and share what's in their brain.

Art is hope, and hope is life-changing.