Written by Chad, the other half of the design team, my husband, and the youngest son of our newest collaborator, Artist Extraordinaire, Mama Jo Wheeler.

Welcome, Mama Jo, we are honored to feature your incredible work to support others in talking about mental health. Your work will surely get people talking!

My grandmother taught my mother to create a single-stitch crochet chain when she was just a child. "Everything else I know how to do, I taught myself by studying the few books available on the subject. We didn't have YouTube to show us how to do things back then," she said, though she encourages YouTube as an excellent resource for beginners.

Over the years, she has progressed from crafting simple potholders as a child to manifesting the most intricate of garments in countless colors from a selection of thousands of single strands of yarn created worldwide.

She is fluent in the Japanese crochet art of Amigurumi, crafting 3-dimensional forms from a single strand of yarn and then sewn together, often to create small animals, dolls, or other toys. "We're called 'crochet artists,' you know," she reminded me.

Likely, any other artist working with any other medium would agree with Judy when she says that she is not a good judge of her own work, making it hard to know if "you really ever get out of it what you put into it."

"The stuff that I do, I do because it makes my heart happy. So maybe somebody can feel a little part of that if I share what I make with others."

Keep an eye on Mama Jo's Corner, the only place you can find her one-of-a-kind handmade items!